Universal had a decent mystery murder idea here
but drives it off the road. Someone who calls himself Dr Rx is killing murderers
who get acquitted. Five of them when the film begins. Gangsters. Some might
call it a public service. A slick lawyer (the always urbane Samuel Hinds)
is able to persuade juries to vote not guilty. But with his clients then
being murdered, he hires Jerry Church (Patric Knowles) to catch Dr Rx. Church
is just back from a year in South America, but he agrees to take the case.
His manservant is Mantan Moreland doing Mantan's usual thing. I am a fan.
So far so good.
Then the dame enters the story. Kit (Anne
Gwynne) had a thing going with Church and starts it over. The film flounders
around as she convinces him to get off the case. They bicker, they make up,
they bicker again. The audience doesn't care. Get back to the murders. Then
a gangster convinces him to get back on. In the background is a suspicious
looking Lionel Atwill in thick glasses. Dr. Fish or a Red Herring. More comedy
relief from policeman Shemp Howard. He and Mantan have an ok bit. Then the
gorilla shows up for a brain transplant and I was happy to see this only
ran an hour and five minutes and that I was at the 55-minute mark.
