THE CRIME OF DR. CRESPI

 

THE CRIME OF DR. CRESPI is a low-budget thriller, released in 1935, that attempts to ride the wave of early 1930s Hollywood horror. The movie's credits state that its story was "suggested by Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Premature Burial'", but it isn't much of a suggestion. 

Dr. Andre Crespi (Erich von Stroheim) is an esteemed surgeon, and the head of an exclusive medical clinic. A former flame of Crespi's, Mrs. Estelle Ross (Harriet Russell), asks Crespi to use his vast skills to save her husband (John Bohn), who has been injured in a car crash. The thing is, Stephen Ross once worked alongside Crespi, before he took Estelle away from him. Crespi agrees to help Ross, but it's all a ruse. The mad doctor injects Ross with a serum which shuts down all his bodily functions and gives him the appearance of being dead. Crespi gleefully looks forward to Ross being buried alive, and getting another chance to romance his wife, but a couple of doctors at the clinic interrupt the wicked scheme. 

THE CRIME OF DR. CRESPI is a decent terror tale, but it takes awhile to get going, and it feels stilted at times. The fact that it's set in contemporary times doesn't help--it might have been more atmospheric if the events were placed in the early 20th or late 19th Century. 

The movie's plot brings to mind such films as 1935's THE RAVEN and MAD LOVE, which also featured loony surgeons driven mad by unrequited love. Erich von Stroheim is by far the main reason to watch this production. He gives Dr. Crespi plenty of eccentric ticks, along with a nasty temper. The creepiest scene in the film is when Crespi sneaks into the morgue late at night and gloats over the assumed dead body of Ross, knowing full well his victim can hear and understand what he is saying. This is followed by Ross' funeral, where director John H. Auer uses plenty of expressionistic techniques. 

One of the doctors who digs up Ross and saves him is, ironically enough, played by Dwight Frye, who by this time had plenty of experience in dealing with the uncanny on the big screen. One would expect Frye to have played Crespi's bizarre assistant, but instead he's a doctor at the clinic who suffers Crespi's wrath. Despite this Frye is so nervous and anxious throughout that one assumes he's up to something himself. After Ross is "resurrected", he shambles off in zombie-like fashion to confront Crespi, but the climax is a dud. (The cute nurse that Ross scares after his revival was played by Jeanne Kelly, who would later be known as Jean Brooks and gain cult fame for appearing in a couple of the Val Lewton RKO thrillers.) 

THE CRIME OF DR. CRESPI has its moments, but there's too many distractions in the way of the good stuff, such as a subplot dealing with an Italian woman having quintuplets at the clinic, and a obligatory romantic couple, a doctor and nurse who work under Crespi and who could have been written out of the story altogether without any major effect. 

Strangely enough, Erich von Stroheim made only very few horror films in his career. That might have been his choice, but if he had pursued or accepted more roles in that genre, he might have gotten as much of a reputation as Karloff or Lugosi.