A Morte do Dr. Harrigan

Hospital administrator Robert Strange, who is claiming all the credit for a new anesthesia developed by several doctors, has an operation performed by John Eldredge. Strange disappears and Eldredge is murdered. Police detective Joseph Crehan shows up to solve the mystery, but it's Doctor Ricardo Cortez and nurse Kay Linaker who do the work.

It's one of a dozen 'Clue Club' mysteries from Warner Brothers in the mid-1930s, and given it's from a novel by Mignon Eberhart, it's a decent enough mystery, if a trifle rushed at 67 minutes. The cast includes Mary Astor -- supposedly she turned down Miss Linaker's role and was made to play a lesser one as punishment, which makes no sense to me -- Mary Treen, Bill Elliott, and Don Barclay and Johnny Arthur as comic-relief patients. It's a trifle generic, but good.

"The Murder of Dr. Harrigan" is a short film in the Crime Club series, based on a story by Mignon G. Eberhart. Eberhart was a prolific mystery novelist, but I think this story made better reading than it did a film. This film stars Ricardo Cortez, Kay Linkater, John Eldredge, and Mary Astor.

The plot concerns a formula for a new anesthetic - I never did get the name - it sounded like Slaypen - and a Dr. Melady lays claim as the primary owner, though others, like Dr. Harrigan, had helped to develop it. Melady wants Harrigan to operate on him and use the Slaypen, However, Harrigan is murdered, and Dr. Melady disappears.

Most of the film revolves around the hospital elevator. For awhile, I couldn't figure out why the doctors and nurses kept manually closing the doors, and then I realized that although the elevator was automatic, apparently closing the doors was not yet automatic in 1936. Rather than use the elevator operator with that big wheel often seen in department stores years ago, they were just pulling the doors shut.

Even coming in at just over an hour, this movie seems long because it's so talky, and most of the action is described rather than seen, The star, Ricardo Cortez, lays out the whole solution to the murder to the detective in charge at the end - but we didn't see much of it.

The most entertaining things about this film are the old things: the elevator doors, the nurses' uniforms and caps, the rotary phones. As far as the acting, Cortez is an amiable presence, and Astor is very good. Mary Treen, a very familiar television face, has a small but showy role.

A Warner's "Clue Club" presentation, this short (just over one hour) murder mystery will satisfy the hidden sleuths in the audience. As with so many murder thrillers then and now, "The Murder of Dr. Harrigan" is set in a hospital where nurses compete for recognition, advancement, and romance with the handsome physicians, especially Dr. Harrigan (John Eldredge) and Dr. Lambert (Ricardo Cortez, being groomed by the studio as a Latin lover). The popularity of this type film led to the highly successful Dr. Kildare series later in the decade and much later to TV's popular "Marcus Welby, M.D." Countless other imitations have appeared and are still popping up from time to time.

The mystery is extremely complex for its day and time. Suffice it to say that a medicinal sleeping formula is being touted by several members of the hospital staff including the administrator, Peter Melady. That he has the completed formula works to his disadvantage since his rivals are determined to claim it for their own. Melady is preparing himself for an operation while his wife, Agnes (Anita Kerry), is in the same hospital with a broken arm. She is surreptitiously being entertained by her paramour, Kenneth Martin (Gordon "William" Elliott--maybe this is how he got his epithet "Wild Bill"). Peter Melady asks his arch rival, Dr. Harrigan, to perform the operation. This is like asking Jack the Ripper to perform an appendectomy on a lady of the evening. To make a long synopsis short, Dr. Harrigan ends up stabbed to death, Dr. Melady ends up missing in action, and an African-American winds up being taken to the morgue, leaving a covey of suspects lurking in the corridors.

The romantic angle is almost as confusing. Dr. Lambert is lusting after vivacious nurse, Sally Keating (Kay Linaker), who in turn is lusting after him. Nurse Lillian Cooper (Mary Astor) is lusting after one of the suspects in the case, plus is burdened with a secret revealed at the end of the flick. Nurse Brody (Mary Treen) lusts after a funny line. And Agnes Melady, needless to say, is still lusting after Wild Bill.

Besides Nurse Brody, humor is provided by the patients, particularly Wentworth (Johnny Arthur) as a whiner with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who is staying in the hospital for a much-needed rest but keeps being bothered by nurses, doctors, plumbers, the police, and other patients; and by Jackson (Don Barclay), a harmless dipsomaniac who drinks rubbing alcohol and runs amok.

"The Murder of Dr. Harrigan" is worthwhile for those of us who love a good mystery. This is a short entertaining programmer in the Warner's "Clue Club" series, which included the popular "While the Patient Slept."

A leading hospital surgeon and his prominent patient are discovered dead, leading to a police investigation involving suspicious hospital personnel and a formula for a revolutionary anesthetic.

Okay whodunit, without being anything special. Sleuthing programmers were popular in the 30's, probably because they were cheaper to produce. Warner's mounted this entry, and note the competency of studio craftsmanship, especially with acting and pacing. The 67-minutes is filmed in straightforward fashion that could have used more suspenseful atmosphere, but I guess that had to await the 40's. The mystery part is pretty complex so guessing the murderer is like a shot in the dark. Fortunately, the murders are reconstructed in detail at the end, tying together the many loose ends. Comedy relief comes mainly from a patient who drinks his rubbing alcohol rather than applying it, while Mary Treen makes an amusing nurse. There's not much action, mostly talk. At the same time, events remain limited to hospital rooms and elevator. Nonetheless, the characters are interesting enough to maintain involvement, much like TV's popular Perry Mason.

This is one of those typical fast-moving, harried murder mysteries involving the death of a doctor under unusual circumstances at a hospital full of suspects. Something about a formula he had developed in an uneasy partnership with another doctor--and his murder at the hands of someone who wanted that formula.

Only of interest because of RICARDO CORTEZ in the leading role as one of the helpful doctors who leads the detective to solve the case, and, in a brief supporting role, MARY ASTOR, who manages to make an interesting impression as a nurse who knows more than she's willing to tell. She makes more of an impression than KAY LINAKER who plays Cortez's romantic interest.

This is the sort of mystery fluff that played the lower half of double bills back in the '30s, watchable only for the fast pace and because of its "round up the usual suspects" kind of telling. Extremely dated, but amusing with enough plot complications to keep everyone guessing.