Who Killed 'Doc' Robbin?

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.

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.

A gang of cute kids tries to right a wrong by sneaking into a gloomy mansion to find evidence that will exonerate an adult friend.

Looks almost like the 60-minutes was thrown together. It's like the producers thought they could just have the kids react to every spooky old house cliché and that would be enough. Unfortunately it's not. Basically the kids run hither, thither, and yon without plot or characterization. And when not just running around, there's freckle-face Speck (Belding) scrunching out a barely audible scream, again, again and again. All this may save on script, but it also gets tiresome. Meanwhile, movie vets like Grey, Mitchell, and the perennially sinister Zucco, get little more than a few lines and cameo appearances.,

Frankly, I liked Hal Roach's previous Our Gang attempt, Curley (1947), better. Too bad these attempts failed, but judging from Doc Robbin, the studio was pretty much at sea in knowing what a new formula might look like. After all, it's hard, if not impossible, to replace the likes of Spanky, Alfalfa, and Stymie.

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.

'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 Bionda in paradiso (1941) They even play the exact theme song. However, a better story.