Who Killed
Doc Robin?
(aka HAUNTED MANSION, CURLEY AND HIS GANG IN THE HAUNTED MANSION,
With: Larry Olsen (William 'Curley' Benson), Eilene Janssen (Betty), Peter Miles (Dudley) (as "Gerald Perreau"), Ardda Lynwood (Ardda), Dale Belding (Speck), Virginia Grey (Ann Loring), Don Castle (Defense Attorney), George Zucco (Doc Robbin)
Plot Outline: A group of people find themselves trapped in a creepy mansion, complete with secret passageways, a mad doctor and a murderous gorilla.
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This is one strange curio -- an Our Gang comedy/mystery feature in crude color!
The gang used here seems to be a below-par attempt to redo the classic Hal Roach "Our Gang" of yore (which was at the time doing those awful shorts at MGM.)
Their pal Dan is really mad doctor George Zucco, who tinkers with atomic bombs!
The kids in this film are strange, ineffectual, not charming, or are we just too familiar with the earlier troupes? They seem to miss every good cue; it makes you realize just how good the timing was on most of the original Roach "Our Gang" shorts.
This film has the most peculiar look to it, though, due to the two-color (red and blue) process called Cinecolor, the skid-row answer to Technicolor, which makes the film look like a depression-era comic strip.
The lead gang member, a bad Alfalfa clone named Speck, turns out to be the biggest coward of all. The film is marred by a couple of racist touches: the gang is scared by their two black pals (names: Dis & Dat!), who appear as just glowing eyes in the dark; later, they throw one of them into a washing machine to "clean" him... !
All in all, this is a weird one.
In 1974, WHO KILLED DOC ROBIN? was retitled HAUNTED MANSION, and paired with the 1937 Laurel & Hardy comedy classic WAY OUT WEST. The double bill was shown at movie theaters in the NYC/NJ/CT area during the mid-1970's.
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Kevin S. Butler adds: "According to "The Little Rascals: The Life & Times Of Our Gang" by Leonard Maltin & Dick Bann, Rene Beard (brother of former Little Rascal Mathew "Stymie" Beard) played "Dis", one of the black kids in the film."
Video/DVD availability: VHS (Burbank Video, oop; Madacy; Front Row)
LAFF-TIME PART 2, SINISTER HOUSE)
(1948, U.S.) color 65/55 minutes
Hal Roach Studios Inc. / United Artists
Screenplay: Dorothy Davenport (as "Dorothy Reid"), Maurice Geraghty
Music: Marvin Hatley, Phil Ohman
Non-Original Music: Hugo Friedhofer, Werner R. Heymann, Edward B. Powell
Cinematography: John W. Boyle
Produced by Robert F. McGowan, Hal Roach Jr., Hal Roach
Directed by Bernard Carr
