''The Mysterious Doctor'' is a 1943 American

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

directed by

Benjamin Stoloff Benjamin Stoloff (October 6, 1895 – September 8, 1960) was an American film director and producer. He began his career as a short film comedy director and gradually moved into feature film directing and production later in his career. Directo ...

and written by Richard Weil. The film stars John Loder,

Eleanor Parker Eleanor Jean Parker (June 26, 1922 – December 9, 2013) was an American actress. She was nominated for three Academy Awards for her roles in the films '' Caged'' (1950), ''Detective Story'' (1951), and ''Interrupted Melody'' (1955), the first ...

Bruce Lester Bruce Lester (6 June 1912 – 13 June 2008) was a South African-born English film actor with over 60 screen appearances to his credit between 1934 and his retirement from acting in 1958. Lester's career divided into two distinct periods. Betwee ...

Lester Matthews Arthur Lester Matthews (6 June 1900 – 5 June 1975) was an English actor. In his career, the handsome Englishman made more than 180 appearances in film and on television. He was erroneously credited in later years as Les Matthews. Matthews pla ...

and

Forrester Harvey Forrester Harvey (27 June 1884 – 14 December 1945) was an Irish film actor. From 1922 until his death year Harvey appeared in more than 115 films. He was credited for about two-thirds of his film appearances, but some of his roles were un ...

. The film was released by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

on March 3, 1943.

Plot

In a Cornish village during World War II, a German Nazi uses the disguise of a headless ghost to strike fear into the local tin mine workers. Posing as a man the British Army has rejected for active duty, a mining engineer, Dr. Frederick Holmes (

), takes a week-long walking trip through Cornwall. The first time that we see Dr. Holmes, he is tramping about the foggy moors after dark and catches a ride with a peddler (Harold De Becker) to Morgan's Head. He wants to know why local miners refuse to work a tin mine that could yield a valuable asset to the English war effort. Holmes learns that the villagers are not working the mine because they fear the ghost of a headless man who haunts the moors and the mine. Eventually, the engineer exposes the ghost as a hoax. As it turns out, the village benefactor, Sir Harry Leland ( John Loder), has been masquerading as the headless ghost. Sir Harry explains that he is the offspring of German nobility who settled in England in the days of King George to supervise other Germans in the tin mines of Cornwall. He has turned the superstitious fears of the villagers against them to keep the mine out of operation. Sir Harry shoots a simple-minded villager who rushes him. He attacks Holmes, they struggle, and Sir Harry falls onto his knife and dies.

Cast

* John Loder as Sir Henry Leland *

as Letty Carstairs *

as Lt. Christopher 'Kit' Hilton *

as Dr. Frederick Holmes *

as Hugh Penhryn * Matt Willis as Bart Redmond

Reception

Author and film critic

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...

awarded the film two and a half out of four stars, commending the film's location shooting, but called the film's cast "adequate". On his website ''Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings'', Dave Sindelar criticized the film's unconvincing special effects, obvious story twists, and the fact that the title character vanishes from the film after the first 20 minutes. Dennis Schwartz of ''Ozus' World Movie Reviews'' awarded the film a grade B−, commending the film's acting, and atmosphere, writing, "It's capably executed and gets off to a chilling beginning, but the tale is too far-fetched to be totally believed and soon falls back into being a routine small town crime drama." Richard Gilliam from

Allmovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...

gave the film a negative review, writing, "Neither as atmospheric as the latter nor as clever as the former, the story marches through its 57 minutes with little deviation from formula." ''The Terror Trap'' awarded it 2.5 out of 4 stars, calling it "a sleepy, unpretentious 1940s ghost horror"

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mysterious Doctor 1943 films 1943 horror films 1940s mystery thriller films American horror thriller films American mystery thriller films 1940s English-language films Films directed by Benjamin Stoloff Films set in Cornwall 1940s mystery horror films Warner Bros. films American black-and-white films American mystery horror films 1940s American films