I sat down tonight to watch one of the Crime Doctor movies from the 1940s tonight. I only have five of the series of ten and I've enjoyed each one I've watched. The one I caught tonight was CRIME DOCTOR'S MAN HUNT which is a pretty good example of these mystery programmers, but as the opening credits rolled by I got a huge shock. The screenplay was written by Leigh Brackett! The same Leigh Brackett responsible for the scripts for THE BIG SLEEP (one of my favorite noirs), RIO BRAVO (my favorite western), THE BIG SLEEP (one of my favorite neo-noirs) and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (the best Star Wars movie)! All of this as well as writing some of the best science fiction of her time are the things for which Miss Brackett is famous. Wow! A Crime Doctor movie, huh?
And to make matters even stranger the film was directed by William Castle! Who would have thought that these two disparate filmmakers would have ever worked together? Castle directed four of this series so his appearance isn't shocking at all but I always pictured Miss Brackett working on higher profile pictures.
I love watching old movies!
Oh- I couldn't find the poster art for CRIME DOCTOR'S MAN HUNT so I used this one. Gorgeous, isn't it?
1 comment:
There are a bunch of these playing on TCM right now. Oddly enough, Brackett was helped on The Big Sleep (or vice versa) by none other than Bill Mayhew...er... I mean, William Faulkner, yes that one.
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