The Murder of Dr. Harrigan

When a hospital administrator who has taken the credit for inventing a new miracle anesthetic goes missing while awaiting surgery, it starts a manhunt throughout the facility, one which uncovers the corpse of the doctor who was slated to perform the operation. The police are called in, and the mystery deepens as the number of suspects grow.

This minor mystery was based on the stories of Mignon G. Eberhart, who wrote a series of tales with Nurse Sarah Keate as the protagonist. However, besides changing the character name to Keating (played by Kay Linaker), she's also made secondary to love interest Ricardo Cortez as Dr. Lambert, who does all of the case solving. Interestingly, the Nurse Keating role was originally assigned to Mary Astor, who refused it. To punish her, the studio forced Mary to take a lesser supporting role as another nurse. This was one of a dozen or so mysteries released by Warner Brothers in the 30's that were stamped with the "Clue Club" banner.

"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.

This picture was on TCM the other morning and the best that can be said is that it is over quickly. That, and the fact that if you are a 'movie sleuth' you have to figure out who the murderer is. But you can do that about halfway through the picture.

Two things strike you while watching this potboiler; first, the script is loaded with dialogue that is clichéd, trite and hackneyed - a great many lines that are cornball or just plain lame, no matter the time period. Second, the number of hospital practices that wouldn't pass muster today, for instance, a doctor wheeling his patient alone to the OR late at night for an operation he rescheduled, while wearing a suit and tie. Or people smoking all over the hospital, mostly in patients rooms.

The plot itself isn't too bad but the picture has a lot of nondescript, unattractive actors, the exception being the chipper, good-natured presence of Ricardo Cortez. But he, like everybody else, seems unaffected and unfazed by the murders occurring throughout the hospital. Check out the stiff and go about your business, nothing to see here.

But after all, it is a B picture. Maybe I was expecting too much but I can't get excited about this one. I would recommend it only to hardcore mystery fans who aren't too particular.

"The Murder of Dr. Harrigan" is a glorious example of the sort of low-cost quickies Hollywood churned out in the 30s to satisfy the double feature pipeline. It is almost entirely set in what has to be the sloppiest hospital in America. Here, a doctor reschedules an operation for midnight without bothering to assemble a surgical team. Nurses haphazardly wander in and out of patients' rooms. And when the only elevator in the place stops running, nobody's much concerned until it starts up again -- and a dead body turns up inside. For comedy relief, the orderlies stomach pump the wrong patient. Oh, those wacky hospital staffers! The plot centers on an eccentric millionaire who arranges for a doctor who hates his guts to perform a delicate operation on him, using a new anesthetic that's better than ether; it puts patients out for three days so they can heal painlessly. Somewhere in this melange of mayhem and malpractice, there's Ricardo Cortez trying to save the nurse he loves from being charged with murder by the usual myopic cop. But the mystery zips along and as a throwback to a bygone era, it's at least entertaining. And for trivia buffs, there's Mary Astor in a relatively small, thankless role, purportedly her punishment for bucking the studio system.

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.