Who Killed 'Doc' Robbin?

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.

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.

'Fix-it' Dan Cameron (Whitford Kane) invents an atomic device and is accused of dispatching his financer Doc Hugo Robbin (George Zucco.)

Three-fourths of the movie is a bunch of kids running around in a spooky house with secret passages and being chased by a big gorilla.

One-fourth of the movie is ridiculous and slapstick scenes that add no value to the plot or characters.

The original was filmed in 35mm Cinecolor that was developed by William T. Crispinel and Alan M. Gundelfinger, and in use from 1932 to 1955.

A good movie with George Zucco, the same type of spooky house Topper Returns (1941) They even play the exact theme song. However, a better story.

This movie has camp galore. As a child, I had no idea of the stereotypes that were used. I had no connection to the gorilla taking the black kid's clothes. None of it dawned on me that it was something racist. I loved this movie, because even as a child, the movie was awful and I loved it that it was awesomely bad. The terrible film grade, the horrible acting, the atrocious haircuts, the poor grammatical decisions, the ridiculous story line, the inane alibis, the stupor-inducing firing-chamber hunt...It made me laugh. It was 1948 when it was made, for crying out loud. Get over it that it was racist; so was America at that time, like it or not. Move forward. Enjoy it for what it is: a campy, corny kids' movie that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Okay, aside from the "I'm shocked...shocked to find a 1940's film featuring stereotypical characters!", here are a couple of notes for Roach fans who might not have stumbled across this picture.

First, it seems that all the money went into the Cinecolor process. The film has one of the dreariest casts of any 40's B programmer. George Zucco, Grant Mitchell and Virginia Grey are the only name actors in the picture. Whitford Kane, who plays Fix-it Dan, had a wonderful role the prior year in Fox's THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (as the publisher of Mrs. Muir's sea novel). The prosecutor is Wilton Graff, never a particularly humorous actor. The rest of the cast is non-entities and the kids act more like they came out of the MGM-George Sidney unit than a Hal Roach comedy.

Also curious is the musical score. The immensely talented Heinz Roemheld is credited as musical director. However, rather than creating one of his own wonderful works (including those fabulous chase cues with pizzicato violins as in FULLER BRUSH MAN or JACK AND THE BEANSTALK), he basically adapted music from TOPPER TAKES A TRIP and TOPPER RETURNS. These were terrific scores, and the TOPPER RETURNS material is particularly appropriate for this film. Of course, there is some original Roemheld music but it's basically a patchwork score.

The script is fair, the gags are contrived and not particularly funny, but the scenes with the Gorilla are genuinely scary.

As for Dis and Dat, I always winced at the moment in Africa SCREAMS where native Bill Walker turned white at the sight of the big Ape. Now I discover it was done the previous year in WHO KILLED DOC ROBIN! Fun for 48 minutes but don't mortgage the house buying a copy or print.

I don't know if there are any original 35mm Cinecolor prints out there. Most of the prints extant (including mine) are 16mm Thunderbird reduction prints. Cinecolor was a dubious process to begin with and anything other than first generation prints are usually pretty dingy.