The Mysterious Doctor (1943)

So much average

Absolutely Fantastic

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Lester Matthews (Dr Holmes) wanders into a foggy Cornish village and heads to the local inn. He is greeted by a weirdo bartender who runs the inn and does everything with a sack on his head. Matthews learns the story of a headless ghost that wanders around and kills anyone who enters the local tin mine. As a result, no-one goes near the tin mine. Well, the next day, that's exactly where Matthews heads off to. There is definitely someone walking around with no head because we see him. But is he really a ghost? What is going on in this village? It's a whodunit mystery type of film with a helping of horror atmosphere. There is lots of fog and it zips along at a good pace. The story is pretty unconvincing if you think about it. So don't. Just go with it and it carries you along to its conclusion. The film ends up being something different to what it starts out as. Given the year that the film was made, it is no surprise that there is a war element to things.

"The Mysterious Doctor" is a really short but entertaining ghost story.**SPOILERS**Riding along the English Moors, Hugh Penhyrn, (Forrester Harvey) manages to pick up the hitchhiking Dr. Frederick Holmes, (Lester Matthews) and stop off at a local bar. Meeting up with Kit Carson, (Bruce Lester) and hear the story about the town's past as a prosperous mining town cursed forever by the ghost of a member of a struggle that tore the town apart. Laughing it off as local superstition, he still agrees to visit the mine to see for himself. Going to the mine and discovering the truth of the ghost of the mine only to never be seen again, a group of town-members go off in search of the ghost. As it continues a deadly killing spree, they race to stop it before it is able to take control of the town.The Good News: This wasn't all that bad. This is a pretty creepy film when it really wants to be. The fact that the film starts off with a trip through a fog-entrenched English countryside, which is quite creepy by itself but becomes all the more when a heavy fog rolls in. The scenes in the mine at the conclusion are incredibly suspenseful, due mainly to it's spectacular setting and eerie feel to it. The darkness of the location and it's design are inherently creepy, and altogether with the camera angles and action, this becomes a really creepy location. The twisting staircases hidden from view and secret passageways are cleverly incorporated and really manage to work in some great moments. The revelation of the killer is a prime example, being completely driven by the location used which is put to great effect. The sight of the ghost the first time is a pretty great effect, looking like a more normal headless entity than an out-and-out ghost, but there is a slightly odd chill to it that really makes it seem like an imposing creature. This even has an entertaining and interesting back-story for the ghost, as the story told is done in a great manner that keeps the attention there. It's all combined into a really good film.The Bad News: There isn't a whole lot wrong with this one. The biggest is that the film's short length. This doesn't even run an hour long, and there's some really long padding in here that makes it seem like that time is going on more often than not. The constant battling over the superfluous characters that do nothing but eat up time in a film short enough as it is. It's needless as the characters aren't at all involved in the outcome of the film, which is it's other problem. This is simply way too convoluted and complicating, taking what was a simple ghost story and taking it way over the top with it's completely over-blown angle. There's no way this is plausible and is a way to make it feel longer than it really is. This here is a main reason keeping the film down.The Final Verdict: While not the greatest example of this genre, it's still a nice ride for what it is, even if it could've used a little more time. It's creepy enough to give it a look, and fans of this style and genre will want to give it a look, while those not accustomed to this style will want to look at others first before charging into this one.Today's Rating-PG: Mild Violence

This was a truly bizarre little British propaganda film made during the Second World War. It's so odd because it looks initially like a B-movie horror film (with talk about ghosts and headless ghouls walking about), but then unexpectedly becomes an anti-Nazi film about German attempts to destroy tin production in Britain!! Talk about strange plot-twists! However, despite the creativity of the plot, the film has quite a few problems that prevent it from being anything more than a silly time-passer. One problem, and it is relatively minor, is that the whole gimmick of the guy with a hood over his head is just silly. He didn't look all that bad without it and it's frightfully easy to guess what they would do with that character. A much bigger problem is that there really isn't much mystery about the film because it is just way too rushed. The suspense is never given a chance to build and the film makers were obviously too constrained by the unwritten rule that B-movies should be 50-70 minutes long,...period! And in this case, this meant ill-developed plot elements and a way too quickly solved mystery. As a result, the film never really jells into a coherent or memorable film. Nice try, though, but a film that is very skip-able.

(There are Spoilers) Srange combination horror/war movie that has to do with the ghost of Black Morgan a miner who lost his head years ago and has been hunting the deserted Morgan's Head tin mine ever since looking for it. Taking a three week walking tour of Scotland Dr. Fredrick Holmes, Lester Matthews, hitches a ride and is dropped off at the Running Horse Inn owned by a faceless, he 's always wearing a black execution hood, Simon Tewksbury, Frank Mayo, who's head was badly scared in a mining explosionHaving a drink on him for all the patrons in the inn Holmes is later accused by a number of locals of being a spy from the Germans who was secretly parachuted into the area. With the towns top official Sir. Henry Leland, John Loder, dropping in to check on the rumor's of a German fifth columnist in their mist Holmes shows evidence that he's really who he says he is Dr. Fredrick Holmes British citizen and patriot. Later war hero Lt. Kit Hilton, Bruce Lester, just back from the North African campaign drops into town to first see his girlfriend Letty, Eleanor Parker, but also to whip up support for the war effort among the local miners who haven't worked the local tin mine since the war began.The miners are more terrified at working in the Black Morgan Mine then facing Hitler's Whermacht and Luftwaffe in that the headless Back Morgan is haunting the mine and has already killed, by decapitation, some dozen persons who dared to enter it. Kit Hilton wants the miners to overcome their baseless superstitions about Black Morgan and go into the mine to dig up the tin in it thats desperately needed for the war in defeating Hitler. That's saying a lot since Black Morgan is to strike again, this time against both Simon and Holmes, who are foolish enough to enter his hunted mine.With the townspeople now up in arms over the latest killing they single out village idiot Bart Redmond, Matt Willis, as somehow being in league with the headless miner Black Morgan since he's been seen in and around the mine just before Holmes, or was it Simon, was murdered. Captured and then escaping with his life Redmond hides out in the Morgan Mine where Letty, who knows that the big and lovable slub is innocent, secretly brings him food and water. It's on a visit to Bart that Hetty is confronted by the headless Morgan and is rescued by Bart who risking his life bring Hetty back to town where he's almost shot by Kit Hilton but again gets away and escapes back into the mine.Hetty later that night is contacted by the fugitive Bart who urges her to come with him back to Morgan's Mine in that he found out what's really behind all these headless killings. As Bart takes Hetty back to the Morgan Mine he leads her to this secret room thats hidden deep in the mine-shaft that reveals what's really behind all these "Headless Miner" stories and it doesn't at all have to do with the headless miner!Typical WWII propaganda flick that has to do with the enemy within, not without, and for once didn't depict the Nazis as the helpless and comical buffoons as were used to seeing them in movies like this but as very dangerous and conning adversaries as they were in real life. At the end of the movie with the secret of the headless Black Morgan reviled as a Nazi plot to disrupt the war British effort, by preventing the tin from being mined, we see dozens of Morgan's Head citizens proudly marching to work to mine the tin that will in the end bring Hitler's war machine to a halt and singing patriotic and feel-good songs, like "Whistle while we Work", as their doing it.