The Crime of Doctor Crespi

Moviecut—The Crime of Doctor Crespi

A famed surgeon Dr. Andre Crespi tries to murder an injured fellow surgeon Dr. Stephen Ross to re-gain the latter's wife. Vaguely based on Edgar Allan Poe, but using only the premature burial trope. Taking place mainly in a hospital with minimal sets the film moves at a very slow pace with no background music to add tension. Playing Crespi is Erich von Stroheim who doesn't do much but sit at a desk, answer the telephone, smoke and drink. The best part is when Dr, Crespi talks venomously to the paralysed body of Dr. Ross, a scene well lit and photographed. Otherwise it's dull and unoriginal. The great Dwight Frye is in it but plays it disappointingly straight, Still it's always good to see him in a film,

I've seen this picture rather severely bashed, but it's actually a competent presentation of a classic tale by Poe. The only print that I've seen was in pretty bad shape, and perhaps this contributed to the bashing that it received.

Nifty little horror-thriller in which Erich 'The Man You Love to Hate' von Stroheim stars as a mad doctor who paralyses his love rival in order to feign his death. It's inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's The Premature Burial, but bears little resemblance to that work. Von Stroheim is great, especially when gleefully visiting his paralysed victim in the morgue to maintain the dosage and inform him of how it should wear off just as they're tamping down the last sod of earth on his grave.

Crime of Dr. Crespi, The (1935) ** (out of 4) Ultra low-budget film based on Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Premature Burial' has Dr. Crespi (Erich von Stroheim) giving an enemy a serum that paralyzes the body so that he can torture him by burying him alive. I've heard a lot about this film over the years but just now caught up with it. The films 63-minute running time goes very fast, which is a big plus but the director doesn't do anything from the opening credits to the closing ones. The big "secret" that the enemy isn't really dead doesn't go anywhere and the ending is all too predictable. Von Stroheim must have really been down on his luck to do a film like this. I'm not sure what's up with his incredibly over the top performance but the director gives him a close up whenever he goes into one of his fits. Dwight Frye, of Dracula and Frankenstein fame, plays the hero, which is pretty hard to believe as he too goes over the top.

Although certainly not up to the standards of the competition over at Universal, this little horror film provides enough good moments to warrant at least a look. Stroheim is wonderful, and it's always a treat to see Dwight Frye in anything. There are some great moments, all involving Stroheim, but some of the best scenes are ruined by sloppiness either in direction or editing. Stroheim's best scene is where he gloats above his paralyzed victim, but the scene is choppy and the edits are so jarring that it's simply a tribute to the actor that the scene works at all. The funeral scene, however, is very well done. The intercutting between the funeral and the restrained Frye attempting to kick his way to freedom is very good, and continually reminds the viewer of the fate of the poor man in the coffin. The subjective camera angle as the dirt hits it was probably pretty strong stuff in 1935. If your a fan of horror movies, especially 1930's films, this one should be on your list to view.

Even though Erich von Stroheim privately referred to this film as "The Crime of Republic," he delivers one of his most gracefully modulated early sound performances in this beguiling low-budget shocker. One of the better examples of the mad-doctor-gets-revenge-against-normal-man-who-stole-his-girl genre of the mid-thirties ("The Raven," "Murders in the Zoo," "Mad Love"), "Crespi" is made especially memorable by its low-key, dapper star, who wears designer lab coats, keeps a baby skeleton in his office as a sort of mascot/alter ego, and shows a refreshing lack of patience with the earnest, romantic idiots he's surrounded with.