At 67 minutes, "The Murder of Dr. Harrigan" is clearly a B-mystery film...albeit a pretty decent one. Bs were films that usually ran from 55-70 minutes and were meant as a second film at a double feature. They usually had simple plots with rather quick resolutions...and they were made by all sorts of companies ranging from the tiny to big studios like MGM and Warner. The Bs made with the bigger companies tended to look a bit nicer and were more likely to have a bigger name actor or two in the flick. And, since this was by Warner Brothers, they put stars Ricardo Cortez and Mary Astor in this one...making it a bit nicer than the average B.Shortly after the film begins, you learn of several people who have plenty of reasons to kill Dr. Harrigan as well as his patient, the rich crank, Peter Melady. However, unlike most B mysteries, this one features TWO murders! As for the police, they're a bit dim (though not as overtly stupid as they are in most B mysteries) and they need the help of some smart folks--in this case Dr. Lambert (Cortez). Overall, a clever and pretty typical B mystery--one that is worth seeing and harmless (unless, of course, you are Harrigan and Melady).

"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.

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.

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.