In the middle of a stormy night in rural Georgia, an elderly doctor is summoned out of bed by his maid. "It's Dr. Sebastien's valet, sir. He's at the door now; you're needed at the house, it's urgent!" "Oh no," says old "Dr. Downer" (Ralph Morgan), "I hope it's not Anna again." He dresses and leaves with the valet. Unfortunately, it is Anna Sebastien. "I'm sorry to have troubled you," says her husband George (Basil Rathbone), a noted psychiatrist. "She died a few minutes ago." Shaken, Dr. Downer offers his condolences and is driven back home by the valet (Martin Kosleck). But days later, prior to the funeral service, he questions Dr. Sebastien about Anna's death. "You know, George, she was recovering, especially after I gave her that dose of penicillin. She shouldn't have had a sudden relapse." Dr. Sebastien is rational: "Well, you know how it is with pneumonia, Donald. Very hard to be certain that it's cured." "Yes, I suppose so. Still, I wish I hadn't signed that coroner's report. I should've ordered an autopsy." Dr. Sebastien resents the insinuation, and we'll soon find out why.
So begins "The Mad Doctor"(1940), viewed last night, in which Dr. Sebastien married Anna for her money. Now that her funeral is over, we see his true colors at home. "Take down those insipid paintings!" he orders Maurice, his valet. "And that wallpaper, too! How did I stand it for all those years! Better yet, we're getting out of here. I don't trust that old Dr. Downer, with his talk of autopsies! We'll sell the house and move to New York. Would you like that, Maurice, you materialist, you?" Of course Maurice would like it, and the next thing we see is that they've set up shop in Manhattan, where Dr. Sebastien is now charming high society. "Louise Watkins" (Barbara Jo Allen), the wife of the publisher of The Evening Star, is worried about her suicidal sister "Linda" (Ellen Drew). It seems their father was murdered when they were little girls. Linda has never gotten over it, and is always threatening to "join him". She's especially vulnerable around the ledges of tall buildings. At a party, Louise asks Sebastien if he'd talk to Linda. "Why, surely," he agrees. But "Gil Sawyer" (John Howard), the Star's star reporter, is also at the party. He thinks shrinks are a bunch of quacks. "Not all of 'em, perhaps, but there's a reason folks think psychiatry's a sham. Most are just egomaniacs."
Sawyer didn't just fall off the turnip truck. At the party, he sees Dr. Sebastien locking eyes with all the ladies, particularly Mrs. Watkins, and pegs him for a cad. He introduces himself. "Hello, doctor. I'm with The Evening Star. I'm doing a piece on your profession. Would you mind if I tagged along for your interview with Linda Boothe?" Sebastien knows that Sawyer is on to him. Still, he is a talented shrink, and he stuns Sawyer by hyp! no-TIZE!-ing Linda, and curing her of her urge to kill herself. Sawyer goes away miffed, but still thinks something is up with Sebastien. Meanwhile, later that night, back at their highrise apartment, Sebastien reveals his master plan to Maurice. "This time, we'll be millionaires! I'll woo Linda and marry her, she'll die, and we'll have enough money to retire to the French Riviera! You'd like that, wouldn't you."
Yes, Maurice would. And Dr. Sebastien does woo and become engaged to Linda Boothe. But reporter Gil Sawyer has continued to investigate, and - overhearing that the doctor had previously practiced in Georgia - he flies down there and interviews old Dr. Downer, who lets slip that Sebastien's wife died under mysterious circumstances. "That was six months ago, but come to think of it, I could still order an autopsy."
By now, of course, that would involve an exhumation, but he goes ahead with the request, which is granted, and because Anna Sebastien was a well-known doctor's wife, it makes the newspaper. Dr. Sebastien sees the article in New York and becomes frantic. "Maurice! I know I said we were done with this kind of thing, but I need you to go back to Georgia immediately! Dr. Downer is going to do an autopsy on Anna. I need you to prevent it. You know what to do. When you return, I'll give you whatever you want, money, anything. Just go there and stop them from carrying it out."
This is why the movie qualifies as horror instead of just a thriller, because Maurice has to go to the cemetery and dig Anna up. And he does so, but gets caught by the night watchman, whom he murdalizes and buries in her grave, in her place. Then, he takes Anna's body to a swamp and sinks it, inside the car he drove there. He takes a train back to New York, but by now, Dr. Downer and the Georgia coroner have discovered his ghoulish work. And reporter Gil Sawyer is also closing in. At the NYC main library, he finds a medical reference book from Vienna circa 1925, showing Dr. Sebastien as a graduate student under a different name. Sawyer correlates the name with that of an escaped murderer from Austria.
But now, Sebastien is alone with Linda, his trusting new wife. He's trying to wipe his slate clean and "become the man I was born as". Yes, he is indeed a crazy shrink. He wants to become sane again, and to do that, he has yet another grand plan: "We'll move to Ecuador, and live under a parabola of stars." Meanwhile, Maurice - that creep - has been cornered in the subway by an Austrian undercover cop (a great scene!). It is the final sequence, however, when Dr. Sebastien is alone with Linda, in the highrise, with its parapet and ledge, that will make your blood run cold. It is one of the scariest scenes in any psycho killer movie. Man, Basil Rathbone, what an actor. He could do Sherlock, or Shakespeare, or play a college professor or a best friend......but here, he's the craziest hoot owl on the planet. It's not easy to out-crazy Martin Kosleck, but Rathbone does it. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "The Mad Doctor", the script of which is filled with poetic imagery and existential references. The picture is razor sharp. ////
The previous night we found a French crime flick, something we haven't had in a while. "Gunman in the Streets"(1950), stars American tough guy Dane Clark as "Eddie Robak", an awol G.I turned gangster. As the movie opens, he's about to be tried, along with Trump, after a ten month investigation. But as he's being taken to the courthouse, his gang buddies force the armored car to a halt and a shootout begins, in which Robak escapes. The plot then follows him as he tries to remain free over the course of the next 24 hours.
He first runs inside a department store, where he dons an overcoat to hide his prison-issued suit. When the cops shut the store and start asking for every patron's ID, we see what kind of guy Eddie is when he uses a small child as a prop to avoid capture. With the coast now temporarily clear, he goes to his girlfriend's house (Simone Signoret). We never quite know what their relationship is based on. Is she part of Eddie's gang? It's unknown. But even though she's been seeing another American man, she turns back to Eddie, who immediately demands money: "Hello, Denise. I need 300,000 Francs." He needs it to get to Belgium. The 300K is a payoff to his gang for springing him.
After stranding her new American boyfriend at a bar, Denise runs back to Eddie (who keeps demanding his money), and takes him in a taxi to see a mutual photographer friend named "Maxie" (Michel Andre). We get the impression that Denise poses for him on the side, but Eddie also knows him. Maxie and Eddie have some past business in common, but again it isn't made clear.They spend hours at Maxie's, so that Eddie can perform self-surgery to dig the bullet slug out of his arm from the shootout. Maxie is acting squirrely. Eddie starts to think it was Maxie who ratted him out in the first place, causing him to end up in the slam. Eddie knocks Maxie out and puts his face on the gas stove to asphyxiate him, while Denise waits in the other room. They leave again in a taxi, but Maxie isn't dead. He's gonna wake up and go to the cops. Meanwhile, Denise says "I know where to get you the money," from her American boyfriend "Frank Clinton" (Robert Duke). They stop at his apartment, and he agrees to front Denise the dough. "But only because I care about you and want you to get away from him." In other words, he knows the cash is for Eddie, and he's willing to give it, to get rid of him. It turns out that Frank is a New York reporter who once did a big story on Eddie Roback, the gangster and ex-pat GI. "You made a lot of money off me," Eddie tells him. "Yeah. And now I'm giving it back." He offers Eddie his car, too, with a full tank of gas, if Eddie will just take the dough and drive to Belgium, where he'll be free once he crosses the border. But Eddie won't go without Denise, and Frank won't let them go without him.
"I guess that means we're all going", says Eddie, and he's right. Now, we've got a chase on our hands, with the ruthless French cops in pursuit, and roadblocks at every turn. Also, Eddie has to make one last stop at the gang's warehouse headquarters to pay off the 300K he owes for his escape.
The gang doesn't like that he brought reporter Frank Clinton along. "Ahh, don't worry about him," says Eddie, "he's taking the next train back to Paris." A henchman escorts Frank to the station, and now Denise has to choose between Frank and safety, or Eddie and either a run to Belgium or.....but lookout, because here come the cops, tipped off by Maxie the photographer, and it looks like they've brought every officer in Paris. Busloads of police arrive, and a shootout to rival Bonnie and Clyde begins. Denise runs to the train station to get away, but earlier, Eddie had declared that their destinies were written in the stars, "long before we were born, Denise. I can't change my life, and neither can you". She apparently believes him, because she runs back to him, and into the deadly shootout, while Frank Clinton rides the train into the sunset.
"Gunman in the Streets" is a classic, hard-boiled French crime flick, complete with rueful Parisian Cafe accordion music. Dane Clark always had an edge to his tough guys, but this time he's in full-on Pacino or Joe Pesci mode, an aggressive psycho. Actually, those two guys could take acting lessons from him. Two Huge Thumbs Up. The picture is very good. ////
And that's all for tonight. Man, can you believe football season is here already? Go Rams! I know everyone is writing them off this year, but I think (hope) they'll surprise people. If not, we've still got Joe Burrow and the Bengals. My blogging music was "Anyway" by Family. My late night is "Die Walkure" by Wagner. I hope you had a nice Saturday and I send you Tons of Love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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