Michael_Elliott The Murder of Dr. Harrigan (1936) ** (out of 4) Fast paced Warner mystery has Dr. Harrigan being murdered in a hospital right before he's about to do surgery on a man who has also disappeared. Dr. Lambert (Ricardo Cortez) and Nurse Keating (Kay Linaker) decide to do some investigating on their own and realize that just about everyone in the hospital is a suspect and that Harrigan was working on a new form of anesthetic. THE MURDER OF DR. HARRIGAN isn't the best murder-mystery out there from Warner but even with all its flaws it's still worth watching thanks in large part to the nice cast of characters. Cortez is always hit and miss among film buffs but I thought he was rather charming here. The actor certainly didn't have to over extend himself but he did enough to at least keep you entertained in his character. Linaker, just signed off of Broadway, is actually very good in her part but sadly the screenplay gives her very little to work with. Character actor Joseph Crehan does a fine job at the main detective investigating the case and we also get fine support from Robert Strange, Phillip Reed and Anita Kerry. Then there's Mary Astor who according to the trivia section of IMDb turned down the lead part and to punish her the studio gave her a supporting bit. The role is certainly below her talents but she's good in the part and certainly helps make the film better. With that said, the plot here just isn't interesting enough to really pull you in and I'd argue that the direction isn't up to par either. Still, fans of the cast members will still want to check it out.

GManfred 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.

dgz78 One of the things a movie has to do is convince the audience that the actors are not reading lines but are talking as real people would. You don't have to have overlapping dialog like Hawks or Altman - just realistic dialog.Unfortunately Frank McDonald was no Howard Hawks or Robert Altman. Too many times actors cut off their lines before the other actor cuts in and any decent director would have re-shot the scene. But directors like McDonald were expected to make pictures quickly and cheaply. They were not supposed to be making art Sometimes a B picture would would defy expectations and become a classic. But for every Thin Man or It Happened One Night there were hundreds of Murder of Dr Harrigan. None of the actors stand out except a young Mary Treen who would go on to become an exceptional character actress in movies and especially TV.As a murder mystery fan, I didn't expect this to be on the level of Murder on the Orient Express or The Hound of the Baskervilles but I was at least hoping for something that would be acceptable for a Murder She Wrote episode. But the way Dr Cortez figures everything out didn't wash. Martin was the most obvious suspect to the police so you know he didn't do it. And you aren't given enough information to pin it on the real killer before he is revealed.Unless you are a big Mary Astor fan and want to see every movie she was in, you probably are better off avoiding this movie.

georgigems I never heard of this movie before I saw it on TCM although I am a big fan of Mary Astor and know the body of her work. It is a "B" murder plot with an surprise killer. The premise is about a totally horrible millionaire Peter Melady, self-proclaimed developer of a new wonder anesthetic, around whose discovery there is a lot of controversy. It appears that he was not the sole developer of this drug but that becomes a viable motive for murder. As an experiment to prove the drug's value, he wants to undergo surgery , using this drug but not to be operated on by his own doctor, Doctor Coate, but by the glib Dr. Leo Harrigan, Melady's longtime mutual adversary. Again, they hate each other and are connected by this new drug.Police are called when the murdered body of Harrigan is found in an elevator, and Melady, last seen being wheeled on a gurney to surgery by Harrigan, has disappeared. There are sub plots about Dr. Harrigan's society wife (who is in the hospital for a broken arm). Hello! this was obviously the days before same day surgery and medical insurance companies calling the shots. Oh , and Melady's daughter is also "convienently" another patient in there for "sunburn". Dr Harrigan's wife has a gigolo boyfriend who is visiting her even though her husband is chief of surgery there. This guy, who looks like a poor imitation of Jack la Rue ,is played by Bill Elliott (billed as Gordon Elliott ) who went on to become one of my favorite cowboys "Wild Bill Elliott" . Mary Astor has a supporting role in this movie which is a surprise considering when it was made. The rest of the cast includes Philip Reed as a young intern (I always thought of him as the poor man's Tyrone Power- he had that look) and Ricardo Cortez as the doctor who figures out the crime. Somebody has to explain to l me what anybody ever saw in Ricardo Cortez. He was born in Austria, so the studio, jumping on the bandwagon of the Latin lover craze begun by Valentino, changed his name, place of birth to Spain and put him in films. They really should have given him acting lessons. He was wooden and had no range as an actor. There are scenes in this movie where he looks taken with himself! Anyway , there is a surprise killerand some revelation about Mary Astor's character. I recommend it for film buffs.