Fri 2 Jan 2009
Archived Movie Review: THE PATIENT IN ROOM 18 (1938).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[6] Comments
THE PATIENT IN ROOM 18. First National Pictures, 1938. Patric Knowles, Ann Sheridan, Eric Stanley, John Ridgely, Rosella Towne. Based on the novel by Mignon G. Eberhart. Directors: Bobby Connolly & Crane Wilbur.
It’s always been a puzzle to me why early Hollywood, with all its marvelous powers of decision making, seemed to consider the term “detective mystery” to be totally synonymous with the word “comedy.”
Not that I’ve ever read the book this half-witted movie was based upon, but even if the story that Miss Eberhart wrote was meant to be light-hearted if not funny, I’m sure that it made some sense, and there’s not a lick of it in this film.
Think of the Charlie Chan films and then the Hildegarde Withers movies and when you have, combine them all together in your mind and throw out the plot. Then you’d have something that would resemble this movie. (If watching B-westerns will turn your mind to mush, watching movies like this will turn it to soup.)
Here’s the story. (If anybody’s read the book, let me know how much resemblance it bears.) As the movie opens, auxiliary police investigator Lance O’Leary (I don’t know what other job title it might be that he has) is having a nervous breakdown, caused by his first known failure on a case, and causing him to go sleepwalking through the streets in a pair of impressively loud pajamas.
Committed to the very same hospital where his girl friend works (head nurse Sara Keate), O’Leary soon finds himself confronted with the mysterious murder of the wealthy patient in room 18, being treated with an external dose of $100,000 worth of pure radium. Which naturally is now missing.
All of the doctors, interns, nurses, wives and other close relatives seem to be having affairs with each other, so even though Lance and the dead man seem to be the only patients in the entire hospital, there are plenty of suspects.
The clues and other evidence are played free and easy with, and oh, did I forget to mention that the murder takes place on a dark and stormy night?
And yet, maybe the Hollywood guys knew what they were doing. I enjoyed this sappy movie anyway. If my brain is now soup, I guess it might be clam chowder. As it happens, I like clam chowder.
[UPDATE] 01-02-09. I don’t remember this movie all that well, but what I do recall seems to agree pretty well with my comments above. I must have taped this off cable TV, as there’s no commercial version of it available right now.
Nor have I been able to come up with any suitable scenes from the movie. The photos of the two main stars are close to the right time period, but that’s about all. (In Ann Sheridan’s case, the photo’s from 1939. As for Patrick Knowles, he looks the right age, but I may be completely off.)
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Steve,
Happy New Year!
There is an article on this movie on my web site:
http://mikegrost.com/connolly.htm#Room
Bobby Connolly only directed a few movies. He was best known as a choreographer. He did all the dance scenes in THE WIZARD OF OZ. Plus the famous giant typewriter in READY, WILLING AND ABLE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YqRvgndVuQ
And the “Dusty Shoes” number from MOONLIGHT AND PRETZELS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYWQ4bJRPt4
Like you, I found THE PATIENT IN ROOM 18 fun and cheerful.
Mike
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Mike
After reading your article about the movie, it makes me wish all the more that I knew where my tape of this film is.
As I’ve said in a comment to an earlier post, watching a movie a second time is what I need to get a better perspective on what the actors are doing, and then a third time to see what the director is doing.
I’m ready now to see this movie a second time. Your insights are always worth reading.
And the best of 2009 to you as well.
— Steve
January 7th, 2009 at 3:10 am
[…] starters, you could refer back to my review of The Patient in Room 18 – you know, my comments about Hollywood and detective mysteries. Gracie […]
January 12th, 2009 at 9:44 am
[…] is that Ann Sheridan is in this one, too. (See my review of The Patient in Room 18 which I posted here not so long ago.) TNT recently ran these movies back-to-back, and I didn’t get the connection […]
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:33 pm
[…] one I remember watching is The Patient in Room 18. And you can, in fact, read my review of this it here, posted earlier on this blog. I enjoyed it, but it was in spite of all of the movie’s flaws, […]
March 3rd, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Whatever became of Actress Rosella Towne. Is she still alive? Contact address? Any information please email me at jaypay111@aol.com Thanks…Jay