The Crosby Case has a lot of nice assets beginning with the great Frankenstein music over the opening credits. The actors are even billed as "Suspect No. 1" and "2", "The Detective" and so forth. It's a true ensemble piece. In fact, this film goes so far as to have no true main characters. The closest are the long lost lovers. Onslow Stevens is excellent and shows a side of him I hadn't seen before - this guy could have actually carried this picture as a male lead if given the chance. He was always an excellent character actor. Equally as good is the chameleon, John Wray. I had just watched Wray in "Doctor X" the day before and didn't even recognize him until halfway through. He was and is a truly underrated actor from the period. We forget that he was actually seriously considered to play Dracula in the 1931 classic.
Universal fans will also recognize the inimitable Edward Van Sloan as an old German man with poor eyesight. It was a nice surprise to see him evoke sympathy and for once he played a red herring. If Van Sloan wasn't playing a Van Helsing-type he was nearly always the "surprise" killer in these mystery films. He does a good job with the accent too.
The plot concerns a doctor who is shot and comes out a building and falls on the street as he is hit by a passing cab. The film moves along by studying little bits from many of these characters. The movie is almost less concerned with the mystery at times and spends a lot of time following a lot of small sub-stories involving these people. This is a refreshing turn. The only time this doesn't satisfy is in the the abrupt, and poor ending. Perhaps I viewed a print that was short - it was about 55 minutes - but, even so, there is not a good setup to reveal the killer. The motives in these films are usually pretty silly, but this one is just uninspired. There's no good rhyme or reason why the writers couldn't tie this one up better and the film is a bit confused at the the end as all of these characters whom we have just met, are equally being dealt abrupt conclusions. I won't get into more, but it simply does not work, nor does it serve the other 50 good minutes before it. The Crosby Case was right on track to get a 7 out of 10, until it veered completely off track and crashed into a gnarled wreck. Still, it's a good Universal B movie.
Universal fans will also recognize the inimitable Edward Van Sloan as an old German man with poor eyesight. It was a nice surprise to see him evoke sympathy and for once he played a red herring. If Van Sloan wasn't playing a Van Helsing-type he was nearly always the "surprise" killer in these mystery films. He does a good job with the accent too.
The plot concerns a doctor who is shot and comes out a building and falls on the street as he is hit by a passing cab. The film moves along by studying little bits from many of these characters. The movie is almost less concerned with the mystery at times and spends a lot of time following a lot of small sub-stories involving these people. This is a refreshing turn. The only time this doesn't satisfy is in the the abrupt, and poor ending. Perhaps I viewed a print that was short - it was about 55 minutes - but, even so, there is not a good setup to reveal the killer. The motives in these films are usually pretty silly, but this one is just uninspired. There's no good rhyme or reason why the writers couldn't tie this one up better and the film is a bit confused at the the end as all of these characters whom we have just met, are equally being dealt abrupt conclusions. I won't get into more, but it simply does not work, nor does it serve the other 50 good minutes before it. The Crosby Case was right on track to get a 7 out of 10, until it veered completely off track and crashed into a gnarled wreck. Still, it's a good Universal B movie.