In the town of Midbury Dr. Charles Downer (Ralph Morgan) is summoned out of bed by Maurice Getz (Martin Kosleck) to attend to Ida Sebastien. Unfortunately he is too late. Dr. George Sebastien (Basil Rathbone) tells the doctor that his wife died soon after he had Getz run to fetch the doctor. Since Mrs. Sebastien had a weak heart and was trying to recover from pneumonia the cause of death is natural causes. Afterwards Dr. Downer starts having second thoughts. He begins to think that perhaps Ida’s death was not natural, however, without any clear evidence there isn’t anything he can do.
Sebastien is a murderer. He marries rich women and then murders them for their money. Getz is his cohort and minion. His latest victim was Ida. After a reasonable length of time they move to New York where Sebastien sets up practice as a psychiatrist while he scouts around for his next Mrs. ex-Sebastien. His psychiatric degree works well when it comes to finding vulnerable women he can woo, marry and kill.
Gil Sawyer (John Howard) is a reporter for the Chronicle. His boss is Lawrence Watkins (Hugh O’Connell). Watkins is married to Louise (Barbara Jo Allen). Gill is in love with Louise’s sister Linda Boothe (Ellen Drew) and they are sort of engaged. Linda is rich but is suffering from a kind of depression. Louise has been seeing Dr. Sebastien and asks him to help her sister. Sebastien finds out that Linda is single, rich and has suicidal thoughts. He quickly agrees to see Linda and takes her on as a patient. Gil is not happy about Linda seeing Sebastien. He thinks he is a quack and will hurt Linda more than help her. As a reporter he goes on a campaign of investigating Sebastien. He quits the Chronicle and takes a job with a rival paper, The Star.
While treating Linda Sebastien also woos her. But this time he falls in love with the beautiful Linda. When Getz finds out that Sebastien is going to marry Linda and move to Ecuador to live happily ever after and sever their partnership he’s not pleased. Then in the paper is an article about Sebastien’s former wife Ida being exhumed and autopsied. Promising to do whatever Getz wants he sends his henchman to Midbury to deal with Ida’s remains. But things start to go wrong.
“The Mad Doctor” was released in 1941 and was directed by Tim Whelan. It is a low budget and difficult to find crime thriller.
For a “B” unknown thriller, it was pretty decent. This isn’t the only time Rathbone has played a murderous husband. The last time I saw him as such was in “Love From a Stranger” 1937. Which is also a little known Rathbone film. Much the debonair and slick silver tongued intellectual, Rathbone has a way of portraying a character that has a nice polished outside but black and evil core. And he does it with style and flourish.
Something that escaped me as I was watching the film was the homoerotic undertones between Rathbone’s character Sebastien and his side kick Maurice Getz, played nicely by Martin Kosleck. Of course it’s 1941 so, if it is true, those undertones stay firmly underground and are never really explored in any way. Part of the bond between the two men may be in part due to Getz’s adoration of Sebastien for saving his life or the homosexual vibes that are setting of people’s “spidy” sense may just be on Getz’s part. As for Sebastien, his hatred of women stemming from his first wife’s infidelity keeps him dependent on Getz’s help. Plus the fact that whenever anything goes awry with his plans he falls to pieces and can count on Getz to do whatever is necessary to bail him out. What is obvious is that they both have some serious psychological problems that make them rely on each other to keep both of them grounded to some extent. When Sebastien decides that Linda will be a good substitute to keep him sane he doesn’t need Getz anymore. Getz on the other hand knows that Sebastien will never be sane and relies on that knowledge to keep Sebastien by his side.
The performances of all the actors was great and the film was fun to watch but it was a standard format so there were really no surprises other than how long it takes everyone to figure out what Dr. Sebastien really is. For comparison “Love From a Stranger” didn’t have the typical hero that comes to the rescue of the damsel in distress. Here you know what you’re getting which is fine for the most part. There is still a lot of tension and action toward the end when you discover who gets killed and how. It is still a film worth finding and seeing even if it’s just to explore the dynamic between Sebastien and Getz.