''Who Killed Doc Robbin'' is a 1948 film directed by Bernard Carr and starring Larry Olsen, Billy Gray, and Renee Beard. It was produced by

Hal Roach Harry Eugene "Hal" Roach Sr.Randy Skretvedt, Skretvedt, Randy (2016), ''Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies'', Bonaventure Press. p.608. (January 14, 1892 – November 2, 1992) was an American film and television producer, director, a ...

and

Robert F. McGowan Robert Francis McGowan (July 11, 1882 – January 27, 1955) was an American film director and producer, best known as the senior director of the ''Our Gang'' short subjects film series from 1922 until 1933. Career Before moving to Los Angeles, ...

as a reimagining of their ''

Our Gang ''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, also the ...

'' series. The film was one of "

Hal Roach's Streamliners Hal Roach's Streamliners are a series of featurette comedy films created by Hal Roach that are longer than a short subject and shorter than a feature film, not exceeding 50 minutes in length. Twenty of the 29 features that Roach produced for United ...

" features of the 1940s, running only 55 minutes, and was designed as a

B-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

. Like most of Roach's latter-day output, ''Who Killed Doc Robbin'', the

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

to 1947's ''

Curley Curley is a surname, given name, nickname or stage name. It may refer to: Surname * August Curley (born 1960), American football player * Arthur Curley (1938 – 1998), American librarian * Barney Curley (1939 – 2021), Irish racehorse traine ...

'', was shot in

Cinecolor Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two-color motion picture process that was based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and the 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and ...

. The film was released to theatres on April 9, 1948 by United Artists. ''Who Killed Doc Robbin's'' plot involves a murder mystery involving the death of local scientist Dr. Hugo Robbin. Curley (Olsen) and his "gang" happen to have been key witnesses to several of the events, and the children's testimonies are told in flashback during the court case. When Hal Roach sold ''Our Gang'' to

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

in 1938, he was contractually bound not to produce anymore kids comedies. When Roach decided that he wanted to produce ''Curley'', he got MGM's permission by giving up his right to buy back the name ''Our Gang''. Both ''Curley'' and ''Who Killed Doc Robbin'', performed poorly at the

box office A box office or ticket office is a place where ticket (admission), tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a Wicket gate, wicke ...

(as a result, Roach discontinued theatrical film production, turning his studio's efforts towards television), and when Roach bought back the rights to the 1927-1938 ''Our Gang'' shorts in 1949, he had to re-christen the series as ''The Little Rascals''.

External links

* * 1948 films 1940s crime comedy films Cinecolor films Hal Roach Studios American crime comedy films Films scored by Heinz Roemheld 1948 comedy films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films {{1940s-comedy-film-stub