User Reviews

The Sarah Keate films can perhaps only with a fair amount of leniency be classified as parts of the same series (the main character has a variety of different names, ages, professional positions, etc., and is played by a variety of actresses), but "The Great Hospital Mystery" is one of the better ones. Here, Keate is named Keats and she is plump, middle-aged, sharp-minded, and sharp-tongued; she's a lot like Hildegarde Withers, and Jane Darwell is perfectly cast in the part (her best lines: "The doctor wants to operate on 707" - "Too bad for 707" - "But he's not sick" - "He will be!"). Sally Blane, looking a lot like her sister Loretta Young, is sweet, Joan Davis is a funny and talented comedienne, the male parts (the good guy doctor, the officious chief of staff, the loudmouthed police inspector) are also well cast, but the best performance of all is given by the prolific William Demarest as a hypochondriac patient. He is simply masterful. The mystery is clever, while the production is clearly "B", but serviceable. **1/2 out of 4.

Uneven comedy mystery involving bank robbery and murder around a big hospital.

It starts with a parolee getting carjacked outside of a bank robbery. In order to hide out he goes to a friend in a hospital and they decide to fake his death. From there we end up of misdirection and murder.

A good mystery is under cut by a boneheaded nurse who has been inserted for comic relief. She's so loud that you tire of her nonsense instantly.

I liked it but I wish it was better and less silly.

6 out of 10

Tough head nurse Miss Keats (Jane Darwell) is a no-nonsense supervisor of nurses in the city hospital where a series of crimes leads to a murder. At under an hour, this film crams in more plot twist and convoluted turns than two hours of "The Thin Man", and adding in a bit of farce as well. The main plot concerns nurse Sally Blane's attempt to protect her brother from the police, and eventually, a body is found with a mistaken identity attached to it and various attempts by the writers to throw the audience off only makes it more perplexing. Thick accented Sig Ruman is imperious and sadistic as the chief of staff, and Joan Davis seems out of place as a clumsy nurse who makes too many mistakes in the hour that passes to make me comfortable even her just taking my temperature. Poor William Demarest finds that out when Davus pulled a thermometer off of the wall to take his temperature even though all he has is a serious stomach ache.

If Fox had plans to make this into a series, I'm glad they quickly changed their mind. Darwell is really the only thing to recommend about this film, reminding me of Alma Kruger's character in the "Dr. Kildare" series at MGM. I'm sure doctors and nurses who were forced to endure this on its bottom of the barrel release found either amusement as to how incorrect the script got the running of a hospital or even offended by its portrayal of members of the medical profession. At any rate, there are so many things wrong with the script alone that this does not become great under any circumstance except as a disappointment.