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Who Killed Doc Robbin
Curley and His Gang in the Haunted Mansion
USA 1948
produced by
Robert F.McGowan, Hal Roach jr (executive) for Hal Roach Studios/United Artists
directed by Bernard Carr
starring Larry Olsen, Eilene Janssen, Gerald Perreau (= Peter Miles), Ardda Lynwood, Dale Belding, Rene Beard, Donald King, Virginia Grey, Don Castle, Whitford Kane, George Zucco, Paul Hurst, Wilton Graff, Claire Du Brey, Grant Mitchell, James Conaty, Brick Sullivan, William Ruhl, Marshall Ruth, and as gorilla Charles Gemora
story by Robert F.McGowan, screenplay by Maurice Geraghty, Dorothy Davenport, musical director: Heinz Roemheld
Curley and His Gang
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Creepy Doctor Robbin (George Zucco) was killed when his creepy house
went up in an explosion, and his assistant Ann Loring (Virginia Grey) is
about to be convicted for it - when a bunch of kids (Larry Olsen, Eilene
Janssen, Peter Miles, Ardda Lynwood, Dale Belding, Rene Beard, Donald
King) storm the courtroom, make a whole mess out of everything, and before
they know it, they have seen to it that their best friend Fix-it Dan
(Whitford Kane) is arrested for the murder, simply because he was
developing an atom bomb with Doc Robbin, but while Robbins wanted to use
it for evil, Fix-it wanted to use it for good, only. Of course, noone in
court believes anything of the espionage story Fix-it tells them - noone
but the kids who figure to relieve Fix-it of all suspicions, they have to
break into Doc Robbin's house - which is in amazingly good shape
considering it has been blown up at the beginning of the film - and
retrieve Fix-it's firing chamber, which for some reason is the key to the
whole case. Thing is, Doc Robbin's house is really spooky, the firing
chamber is highly explosive (or at least the kids think so), and a chimp
and a gorilla (Charles Gemora) are on the loose in the house. After the
usual to and fro though that also involves Ann Loring for some reason and
her lawyer (Don Castle), Fix-it, who has escaped police custody, arrives
at the scene with the police close behind, reveals the gorilla to actually
be Doc Robbin in disguise, has him arrested for espionage, has Ann's name
cleared (she was actually gathering evidence against Doc Robbin),
and everything ends happily. Curley from 1947 and this
film were attempts by Hal Roach Studios to bring a team of kids, Curley
and his Gang, along the lines of Our Gang to
the big screen, an attempt that ultimately failed, and this film gives
able proof why: The jokes and slapstick scenes this film is built on are
tired at best, and so sloppily executed one wonders if anyone even cared,
the film's story is bad even considering it's little more than a hanger
for the kids' jokes and setpieces, and worst of all, the kids are not all
that special, not particularly cute, not particularly talented, just your
average kids you can probably only be really be into if your love for kids
exceeds your common sense. Unsurprisingly, Curley and his Gang
were not called back for a third feature.
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