Who Killed 'Doc' Robbin?

Who Killed Doc Robbin? (1948)

1/2 (out of 4)

Hal Roach gave us some great comedians and great films but this certainly isn't one of them. Roach was trying to bring the Our Gang back with a new group of kids but I guess this film is one of the reasons this group only made two movies. In the film a young woman is on trial for the murder of Doc Robbin (George Zucco) but the kids seem to know the truth about the real killer. This film runs a short 55-minutes but I could have sworn it ran a few hours longer. I knew I was in trouble right before the opening credits when we first met the "kids" because they each deliver one line (the title) and they were already annoying the hell out of me. The comedy in the film is so forced that I was ready to scratch my eyes out and the kids give some of the worst performances I've ever seen. Even Zucco comes off very badly here. The only benefit is the Technicolor.

I first saw this Hal Roach classic in '76, on local TV, one-half of an after-school double-feature. I don't recall the other movie but it was another "Curly." Enough to say I've been hooked ever since. And when I discovered a DVD copy in the dollar bin at Wal-Mart, I scooped it right up, giddy with serendipity.

Someone has murdered the reclusive Doc Robbin, a late night explosion destroying his laboratory. Dan, the local Mister Fix-it, is arrested and Curly and his gang set out to prove the elderly pensioner's innocence.

The cast is very excellent for the level of talent demanded: The little "gang-sters" are superb (little Ardda will steal your heart); the very lovely Virginia Grey plays the damsel in miss-tress, and George Zucco plays the heavy.

Think of "Our Gang" with candles in a haunted house, add color, and you pretty much have it.

My regrets to those who find overt racism in everything they see. i myself saw nary an example, overt or otherwise.

A really scary movie involving people and a gorilla popping in and out of secret passages, booby-trapped chairs, in an old haunted house. As a young child this was terrifying to me. Now, adults might consider this camp.

I had to see this film after reading a review here by some goof ball who went on and on about Hal Roach being racist! Firstly, Hal Roach stuck black kids in his films as friends and equals to white kids, beginning with the silent days! Were some of the scenes stereotypes? Yes, but back then everyone got a good does of stereotyping -- Italians, Jews, immigrants, blacks -- everyone got their fair share and no one seemed to mind, so which era was better? Aren't we tired of people just seeing everything by race and inserting there agenda into the mix? This is a curio piece from long ago. It's actually a cute little puff piece. The other reviewer said something about two black characters being named Did & Dat, but neglected to say that there was also a white character named Fixit. Jeeze. Get off the high horse. It's a movie.

Anyway the film is funny and keeps moving and tries to some extent to be a throw back to the Our Gang series that Roach was so successful at only by 1948, it wasn't gonna happen. Plus Roach Studios were already waning and soon would get into TV production, virtually abandoning theatrical films.

But watch it for what it is -- fun for the who family and a curio.

I was utterly fascinated by this flick when I was a kid, probably in 1949 when I was 6 years old. I waited all my life to see it again and just happen to find a CD of it for one dollar at Wal-Mart. Well, let's be honest here, it's not all that great. If I were a film maker I would do a remake. A gorilla chasing kids in dark hall ways is pretty scary stuff. The one scene that stayed in my little mind, all these long years, was where all the kids were standing on the stairway holding candles. Of course that was what was used in the trailer. And as I remember the quality of the film was far, far greater than the CD that one can buy.