The Mad Doctor

This Unusual Film "Forecasts" an Anticipation of a Sub-Genre of Film-Noir. The Mental-Health Field...

It was Perhaps, the Dark Genre Most Go-To Subject-Matter with Psychiatry and the Many Unknowns and Rife with Controversy.

To Diagnosis Apart from the Usual Scientific Method that Resulted in "Evidence" from the Material-World.

The Methods Used in the Dual Practices of "Health-Care" were Mostly Diametrically Opposed in the Historical-Record. But with Sigmund Freud and His Peers Bringing the Field into Close Proximity "Hard-Science".

Treating Suffering Patients Needs, by Qualified Practitioners, Should be Taken Seriously. Not Dismissed and Ridiculed.

In 1940, the "Mad" in the Title Makes the Movie Sound Like a "Horror Movie". But, This Film Never Stray from its Roots of "Thriller",

It Explores Very-Dark, Complex Behavior.

Basil Rathbone Creating Charm, a Suave Demeanor, with a Confident Delivery of His "Svengali-Like" Power,

Dreamy-Eyed Ellen Drew is Overwhelmed by a Childhood Death or Her Father, by Suicide with Ensuing Nightmares.

She is Fine as a Victim of Trauma, and Handles the Complexity with an Essential Performance.

Another Reason this Forgotten Film is Required Viewing...

A Quirky Element that was Extremely Rare and Almost Non-Existent in "The Code" Years. An In-Your-Face Gay Couple. The Movie Doesn't Try and Hide it, although it Never Verbally Reveals it, but it's On-Screen with a Multitude of Stereo-Typical Behavior by Rathbone and His Companion.

It's On-Screen for Every-One from the Trailer-Park to the Penthouse to Understand. It's there, No Subtlety.

"The Mad Doctor" is a Hidden-Gem...

Wildly Unknown, and a Treat for Film-Fans that Love Discovering and Appreciating Movies that have a Certain Anti-Routine Approach and Takes Chances...

Willing to Create Outside Conventional Attitudes and Expectations in the World of "The Most Popular Art-Form of the 20th Century".

Doctor Ralph Morgan calls at Basil Rathbone's home. His patient, Rathbone's wife, has died. Morgan is suspicious; she was recovering. He does nothing about it.

His suspicions are justified. Rathbone speaks with his manservant, Martin Kosleck, of how much he despised his rich wife and her stupid town, just like his other victims. They will return to New York, and he to his practice as a psychiatrist. There he is hired to deal with Ellen Drew, a depressed and suicidal socialite whose newspaper boyfriend, John Howard, has his suspicions. His investigations lead him to Morgan, even as Miss Drew marries Rathbone.

Rathbone offers his usual graceful performance as a man struggling with redemption. Most noteworthy of all, however, is Ellen Drew's performance as someone suicidal when we first meet her, to someone lighthearted after the ordinary pleasures of Coney Island. Alas, there is no sign of revival of her psychoses at the end, but in that era, endings had to be happy, even in a movie that focuses on Rathbone's attempts to deal with his own dark desires.

Hecht and MacArthur did uncredited work on the script, and they undoubtedly gave the producers what they asked for; neither was director Tim Whelan the man to stand up for a darker vision; he had returned to the US doing work on Korda's THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, and this was his first movie after that. It was no time to antagonize the brass at Paramount.

Quite a few reviews here have mentioned the ' relationship ' between Basil Rathbone's character and Martin Kosleck's character as being coded homosexuals. I thoroughly endorse this as I watched this film quite by accident on YouTube and I was surprised to see just how intimate in speech and gesture this couple were. The fact that they were both killers and that women had been murdered for their rich lifestyle reminded me of other homosexual killers in both ' Rope ' and ' Compulsion. ' and how somehow they got certificates in the UK admitting children with adults to see them. In the UK the film was called ' A Date with Destiny ' and not the horror signifier of ' The Mad Doctor ' which would have called out for an H certificate for adults only. Rathbone believes he has been saved from evil by falling in love with his last prospective victim, and his male partner, quite rightly becomes as righteously cross as an abandoned ' wife ' or ' husband. ' A Queer film indeed which has not as far as I can tell by historians of Queer and Gay cinema been noticed. America has been fiercely aggressive towards positive gay endings, even to today so any representation on screen of a possible gay character or two in a partner relationship has had to follow the tropes of abandonment, death or imprisonment. For a gay audience these negatives had to be also positives simply because homosexuality was overtly or implicitly seen on the screen. I could take a swipe at a few recent examples but I will concentrate on this 1941 film. Tim Whelan directs it well in Film Noir mode, and there are outstanding shots of New York during this period. The editing excellent and the acting exceptionally good, Ellen Drew as the last potential victim is perfect, shading her role from black mood to light laughter with professional expertise. I must mention Barbara Jo Allen as a friend who has a lot of great lines, delivered to perfection. A definite Paramount Eve Arden, lightening the film whenever she is in a scene. To sum up a taut thriller with touches of horror this deserves in my opinion a ten. A vastly underrated film on all levels. One final observation: the BBFC was very reluctant to give out H certificates during WW2, so that may explain the change of the film's title.

1940's "The Mad Doctor" is a sadly generic but wholly appropriate title for this Paramount feature, one of their rare genre efforts (working titles "The Monster" and "A Date with Destiny"). In the title role of Dr. George Sebastian, Basil Rathbone is not a 'mad doctor' as in 'mad scientist,' but a psychotic faux psychiatrist living with partner Maurice Gretz (Martin Kosleck), both wanted for murder in Vienna, having relocated to America. With the sudden demise of Sebastian's third wife, he takes up residence in New York City, where he begins another practice, meeting up with potential wife number four, hypochondriac Linda Boothe (Ellen Drew), whom Maurice believes would be the perfect candidate due to her suicidal tendencies (that would save them the trouble of bumping her off). Lurking in the background is Dr. Charles Downer (Ralph Morgan), a longtime friend of Sebastian's late wife, whose suspicions about her untimely death are soon confirmed, at his peril. This Ben Hecht story is loaded with promise, yet fudges its attempts at suspense with sketchy characterizations, virtually none of whom engender any sympathy, particularly the heroine, apparently as dim as the scatterbrained sister (Barbara Allen) that introduced her to Dr. Sebastian. The binding relationship between the doctor and Maurice is by far the most intriguing aspect to the film, but little footage is devoted to their villainy, the pace slowed to a crawl by endless romantic twaddle. The final third almost makes up for all these faults, but the excellent cast is left pretty much on their own. Ellen Drew was much better, and far more sympathetic, in another Paramount, "The Monster and the Girl," while Martin Kosleck easily steals his scenes from the rather surprisingly uninspired Rathbone (much better in "Kind Lady"), soon to enjoy one of his finest villains opposite Tyrone Power in "The Mark of Zorro."

"Oh, there's no such thing as sanity. At it's best a heroic and precarious little hiding place in which we try to conceal ourselves from the devils...The devils of time, space, things unknown, and the past."

Although its title suggests conventional horror, "The Mad Doctor" is a pitch black thriller with some with some truly harrowing subject matter. Basil Rathbone plays Dr. Sebastien, a Bluebeard-like psychiatrist who recently killed off his wealthy wife Ida. After arousing the suspicion of local doctor Ralph Morgan, Rathbone leaves town. He soon finds his next mark, a deeply troubled young socialite named Linda that's been suffering with suicidal ideations.

Rathbone is accompanied in his efforts by Martin Kosleck as Maurice, a sort of male secretary. After seeing these two interact, it becomes very clear that they are more than criminal accomplices. When we see Kosleck in Rathbone's home or office, he's variously arranging flowers, spritzing himself with cologne, fussing with Rathbone over a choice of tie, and languorously sketching a black cat while wearing a bathrobe. When Rathbone starts to become genuinely interested in Linda, Kosleck responds with wounded jealousy.

This is very obviously a coded gay relationship, years ahead of the one in Hitchcock's "Rope." The scenes between Rathbone and Kosleck, both superb actors, positively crackle. In one scene, Rathbone gives a bone chilling monologue describing his contempt for dead wife Ida: "These atrocious paintings. This absurd wallpaper. These pathetic antiques. They all breathe her spirit. I can almost see her now coming down those stairs with that foolish smile and the love light in her eyes. I can never forgive her the eight months spent in this cave of romance."

The danger and intensity only ratchet up from there, climaxing in a truly haunting and beautifully executed ending. This is one of Basil Rathbone's most underrated films.