The Mysterious Doctor

Lester Matthews (Dr Holmes) wanders into a foggy Cornish village and heads to the local inn. He is greeted by a weirdo bartender who runs the inn and does everything with a sack on his head. Matthews learns the story of a headless ghost that wanders around and kills anyone who enters the local tin mine. As a result, no-one goes near the tin mine. Well, the next day, that's exactly where Matthews heads off to. There is definitely someone walking around with no head because we see him. But is he really a ghost? What is going on in this village?

It's a whodunit mystery type of film with a helping of horror atmosphere. There is lots of fog and it zips along at a good pace. The story is pretty unconvincing if you think about it. So don't. Just go with it and it carries you along to its conclusion. The film ends up being something different to what it starts out as. Given the year that the film was made, it is no surprise that there is a war element to things.

It would sure look that way. Fog-shrouded forests are more akin to the Universal landscape of the Wolfman films or those of Sherlock Holmes than of the urban crime thrillers at Warners. While it starts out as a pure horror film, it soon settles nicely into a wartime thriller which may "cheat" a bit on the Grand Guignol, but it's still enjoyable and it's briskly paced at around an hour.

Lester Matthews, who was seen likely to inherit Valerie Hobson in "The Werewolf of London" is the doctor of the title. Some in the village think that he may be a spy who descended on the moors with a parachute and may be up to no good - he keeps asking about the tin mine. It's WWII time, and tin is a most needed commodity. But the locals are afraid to work the mine as there happens to be a headless ghost prowling around.

Matthews as Doctor Holmes (interesting choice of character names) goes to check out the mine, but meanwhile he's being checked out by the innkeeper - a man whose face is covered by a mask since he was involved in a mine explosion that horribly scarred his face. Meanwhile, checking them both out is the village idiot and a headless ghost - suddenly there's more mine traffic than anyone's seen in years.

This is one of those films in which one has to drop all questions - at 57 minutes, there isn't time to ask any, and just enjoy the atmosphere. Not only the moors and the mine, but the performances of a Britain as only Hollywood could conceive it and transplanted British actors could play it. The characters in the inn could well have come from Whale's "The Invisible Man" - or perhaps more aptly Beebe's "The Invisible Man's Revenge." No matter, they're colorful and led by local squire John Loder who had the pleasure of going home to Hedy Lamarr at the time. He lent a solid presence to several "B" horrors of the 40s - such as "The Brighton Strangler" and "A Game of Death." Also in the cast is a most youthful Eleanor Parker looking radiant. Matt Willis is the mentally challenged villager, and damned if he doesn't resemble Lon Chaney Jr's Lennie - just as he resembled Chaney's Wolfman in "Return of the Vampire."

The sharp cinematography is by Henry Sharp (a deliberate pun) who photographed Vidor's "The Crowd" as well as Lang's "Ministry of Fear" and the Technicolor opus "Dr. Cyclops." This was quite a talent to snare for a "B" film, one would want to credit the producer for such a coup, but for some reason there isn't one credited. Bryan Foy was over at Warners and in charge of their "B" unit, but his name isn't on screen. If someone thought the project unworthy, they were wrong - it may have had only slightly better than a PRC or Monogram budget, but the results were light years apart. It's closer to Val Lewton, or 20th-Fox' "The Undying Monster" and from this writer's perspective, that's praise indeed.

Having seen this film at the tender age of nine, the images of a "headless ghost" walking around, conjured up nightmares for many nights to come. For a "b" film running a bit under one hour, The Mysterious Doctor manages to convey the proper amount of chills. While not in the Val Lewton class, the cast of Lester Matthews John Loder, Elenor Powell and a standout performance by Matt Willis,atmospheric photography of fog shrouded moors and an eerie score all combine to perhaps take the film up a bit from an average " b" thriller. The ending might seem sugary to todays viewers, but one must take into account that these were the war years.Having just recently seen it again on line, I still enjoyed the movie after all these years!

Mysterious Doctor, The (1943)

*** (out of 4)

Strange horror/mystery from Warner has a small town living in fear that a headless ghost stalks their fog filled town. Legend has it that the ghost haunts a local tin mine and will kill anyone who goes close. This is a rather unique little film because of what was going on in the real world at the time. We all know that WW2 was going strong and a lot of war talk often made its way into movies but very few horror films had this. That's not the case here as this film features plenty of talk about the war and Hitler, which is used to show that other fears can cause people to hide when they should be out fighting. The actual story isn't all that original but with these added fears it makes for an interesting film. The mystery aspect of the movie also works quite well as the truth behind the legend is never really known. The atmosphere is another bonus as it really comes off and feels like a Universal film from the period. John Loder, Eleanor Parker, Bruce Lester and Lester Matthews turns in good performances in this forgotten gem, which desperately needs to be released to DVD.

I cannot say I was aware of this one before our own Michael Elliott gave it a thumbs up not that long ago; actually emerging as only borderline horror, it effectively mingles a traditional plot – an English village, complete with hulking idiot and disfigured bartender hiding his features behind a hood(!), lives in fear of an ancient curse involving a headless ghost – with topical (i.e. WWII) concerns. The village mine was being utilized to produce tin for the Allied cause so the Axis powers apparently felt the need to send out one of their own to intermingle in the community and recreate by night the legend of The Headless Ghost, thus curtailing the mining operations which are subsequently abandoned. The prerequisite foggy atmosphere is thickly laid on, the plot is fairly engaging and the modest but pleasing cast – squire John Loder, the lovely Eleanor Parker, title character Lester Matthews, dim-witted Matt Willis, etc. – is sympathetic to the material at hand. Besides, being a compact 57-minute 'B' flick, it is essentially comparable in quality and effect to the likes of Fox's DR. RENAULT'S SECRET and THE UNDYING MONSTER (both 1942).