The Patient in Room 18

It must be difficult to cast support players in a movie where even the stars are B List. Warner's does it's best with stock players like Cliff Clark, Charles Trowbridge, Frank Orth, and John Ridgely. All reliable - all competent. Ann Sheridan as the love interest does well enough. There is something appealing about her. The problem lies with Patric Knowles. For those of us that remember him fondly as Will Scarlett in The Adventures of Robin Hood this movie, as well as so many other efforts, are a disappointment. Warner Bros continued to try to find a niche for him - and failed. They tried him as a pathetic coward and weakling in Five Came Back. They tried him in a half dozen light romantic comedies - no luck. He eventually fizzled into obscure supporting roles. Too bad. He was a genuinely likable guy.

Oh, the movie. Well, it's a medical mystery. At 60 minutes running time, it had no choice but to move at a rapid pace. That doesn't make it good, it just makes it short. I happen to be a fan of these potboilers, but there ain't many of us. You have to wonder where they dig these things up from. Buried deep in some film library until some 3rd assistant researcher digs it out. It sits in a cardboard box in some programmers office until he totally runs out of ideas for the 2am slot. He tosses into the que as a filler and nobody notices. Bingo! It makes air and I'm thrilled.

This movie was made in 1938 and it really is dated. The men walk around the house in tuxedos and dressing gowns. All the cops have a New York Irish accent and smoke cigars. All rich people had white telephones. Bodies fall out of the closet. The medical procedures make one shudder. For example: A patient has a mystery medical condition and they tape 100K worth of Radium to his chest. As I recall, radium was a miracle cure for everything back then.

If I sound like I'm down on this movie, I didn't mean to. Movies like this one couldn't be made anymore. There is more acting and writing talent in this 3 week wonder than you will find in most movies made today. You don't have to take it seriously, but take the time to watch it.

During the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood made at least 1,000,000,000 B-mystery movies involving some sort of private detective...often school teachers, newspaper reporters or radio personalities. So, "The Patient in Room 18" certainly seems familiar. In fact, the only big difference is that unlike so many of the cheapo Bs, this one is from Warner Brothers and stars some relatively big stars compared to most other Bs.

When the story begins, you learn that Lance O'Leary (Patric Knowles), the great amateur detective, is close to having a nervous breakdown. This is due both to exhaustion and because his last case was his first failure. And, despite his desire to keep working on this old case, his doctor insists on him being hospitalized and being placed on bed rest. Naturally, since this is a B-mysery, soon someone at the hospital is murdered...and some very valuable radium is stolen. And, naturally, Lance soon begins investigating.

Aside from a neat ending, there isn't a lot to set this apart from most Bs....this is neither bad nor good. In other words, it's a pretty typical mystery. The only part I hated was the beginning--the sleepwalking bit was utterly ridiculous. But, I also didn't hate it either. The perfect time-passer.



By the way, seeing the hospital using radium so cavalierly and just strapping it to a patient's chest is most disturbing. While they knew to some extent that radium was toxic (since it killed Marie Curie), they had no idea just how dangerous it was...and doctors inadvertently killed patients by exposing them to so much radiation.

Lesser known Patric Knowles is Lance O'Leary, who has been acting goofy. walking around town in his jammies. so they lock him up in the Thatcher Hospital for rest and relaxation. and of course, there's drama going on at that institution. there's a large amount of radium being kept here for "treatment". and someone steals it. and kills a patient. in spite of that, it's all light and fluffy. the cops and now O'Leary are all trying to solve the case. amusing, but there are a couple plot holes. Ann Sheridan's career was still rising when she made this in 1938... her big roles would come in They Drive by Night and Man Who Came to Dinner, a couple years later. Based on the novel by Mignon Eberhart. had nine novels turned into film. directed by Bobby Connolly, who died young at 46, but was nominated for four oscars, for dance. this one is okay.

"The Patient in Room 18" is a murder mystery and comedy that was about the best Warner Brothers could do to try to copy MGM's successful Thin Man series. Patric Knowles is funny as Lance O'Leary. And, while Ann Sheridan is good as nurse Sara Keate, neither of them were a match for William Powell and Myrna Loy in the Thin Man series.

Still, Knowles and Sheridan carry this film and keep it from collapsing altogether. Their comedy, interspersed with some sleuthing is the best part. Otherwise, this very muddled screenplay might turn off most viewers early on. The various doctors, women, and affairs and would-be affairs, are enough to turn one off. They may not be developed or portrayed enough to be red herrings, but there sure are a batch of red minnows in this film.

If not for the O'Leary and Keate comic squabbles, I don't think I would have been able to sit through this whole film. They are 4 of the 5 stars I give this almost turkey flick.

Patric Knowles is noted author and crime specialist Lance O'Leary. He has been acting strangely after failing to solve a case and winds up in the hospital with a nervous breakdown. The doctor prescribes him rest and an absolute ban on anything to do with crime solving. Ann Sheridan is nurse Sara Keate, who tends to Lance and runs the hospital ward. Nurse Keate is Lance's girlfriend, is currently mad at him, and turns out to have an investigative streak of her own.

The setup is definitely comedy, and while the plot involves murder and missing radium, the emphasis is mostly on laughs in this modestly entertaining B mystery.

A rich patient has just bought the hospital $100,000 worth of radium and then checked right in. They put him in room 18 and he goes off to sleep with the radium taped to his chest. (Yes, taped to his chest--partly to safeguard the radium but mainly for the excellent health benefits.) Almost immediately the patient is murdered by a shadowy figure; the radium disappears. Who did it?

Among the suspects are a lawyer, a doctor, and various other characters who sneak around the hospital acting suspiciously. The police are called in, of course, but they seem perfectly happy to let Lance work on the case, while Nurse Keate gathers clues as well.

The plot really isn't much but Knowles and Sheridan are fun to watch. Knowles's best trick is hiding a lit cigarette in his mouth--until Sheridan catches him at it. Like that old trick, this movie is nothing particularly original but plenty enjoyable nevertheless.