Who Killed Doc Robbin? (1948)

Genres - Comedy, Mystery, Crime  |   Sub-Genres - Crime Comedy, Detective Film, Haunted House Film, Slapstick, Whodunit  |   Release Date - Apr 9, 1948 (USA - Unknown)  |   Run Time - 55 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
  • AllMovie Rating
    4
  • User Ratings (0)
  • Your Rating

Share on

Synopsis by Hal Erickson

Producer Hal Roach's postwar attempt to create a new bunch of "Our Gang" kids resulted in two misfire Cinecolor comedies, the second of which was Who Killed Doc Robbin. Heading this unappealing new crop of youngsters is Jackie Cooper lookalike Larry Olsen as Curley, who enters the story when sinister scientist Doc Robbin (George Zucco) disappears after a lab explosion as is presumed murdered. The most likely suspect is kindly old Dan (Whitford Kane), and Curley and his pals intend to prove Dan's innocence. To do this, they must snoop around Robbin's spooky old house, leading to a series of "fright" gags that were old when Harold Lloyd did them back in 1921. In the tradition of the earlier Our Gang comedies, Who Killed Doc Robbin features a pair of black kids, one of whom is Renee Beard, the brother of 1930s Our Gang favorite Matthew "Stymie" Beard. Originally released in tandem with the Hal Roach streamliner Here Comes Trouble, Who Killed 'Doc' Robbin was later combined with its predecessor Curley (1948) into a single feature titled Curley and His Gang in the Haunted Mansion.

Characteristics

Keywords

house, child, eccentric, explosion, false-accusation, handyman, haunted, haunted-house, killing, mansion, missing-person, murder, rescue, scientist