The Mysterious Doctor (1943)

 The fog is alive in Cornwall as the headless corpse of Morgan seems to be walking the woods near a village where a tin mine appears to be haunted. 

Despite being 60 minutes, this Warner Brothers release has a lot going on within such a tiny time frame. War is raging and a young soldier, Lt. Kit Hilton (Bruce Lester), seems to have taken it upon himself to serve as chief law enforcer, believing the town savant, Bart Redmond (Matt Willis; the werewolf under Lugosi's control in Columbia Pictures' "Return of the Vampire") has murdered a visiting Dr. Frederick Holmes (Lester Matthews), who might have parachuted into the area with an operation to carry out, pretending to be on a walkabout.

 Holmes enters the tin mine and appears to be murdered by the walking headless corpse, who yields a dagger, stabbing the doctor in the back after subduing him with brief chokehold. The innocent Redmond has one ally: Kit's potential girlfriend, Letty (Eleanor Parker; not too long ago I watched her in "The Woman in White" from 1948), who defends him when the village children make fun of him. Redmond was asked by Letty to look after Dr. Holmes, which is why he was found in the mine near the mutilated corpse of who Kit believes to be Holmes.

Unfortunately for Redmond, he can't get away from the gun of village doctor and local, Sir Henry Leland (John Loder), who is a Nazi secretly, a German who has been living in Cornwall for quite some time. Even after he's shot and is able to get back to his feet, Redmond is unable to stop Leland who shoots him again! Leland explains to Kit and Letty that Dr. Holmes was actually a "tin inspector", not realizing how much more he was actually. The bartender of the Running Horse once worked in the Wygham Mine, when dynamite blew up in his face, leaving it seriously scarred, named Uncle Simon (Frank Mayo), uncle to Letty, who entered the mine, following Dr. Holmes, not anticipating the encounter with Leland, dressed as the headless Morgan.

What I love about Turner Classics is that I never know when I might come across one of these small-scale 40s B-movies. I knew Lester Matthews from two Universal Studios horror films from the 30s: "The Raven", featuring one of Lugosi's best roles, and "Werewolf of London", the Henry Hull version of The Wolf Man". But despite the film being named about his specific character, Matthews leaves the film not long after conversation in the pub with village drunk, Hugh (Forrester Harvey), with plenty of talk about the mine, two families' patriarchs in a messy fight that resulted in Morgan losing his head.

The film's opening was "comfy" for me as Matthews leaves a foggy Cornwall forest, hitching a ride with a carriage horseman passing through, arriving at the Running Horse of the village called Morgan's Head (obviously), greeted by the bartender (who has rooms to let) in a hood over his head due to the dynamite exploding in his face. The bartender, Uncle Simon, isn't exactly a pleasant, sunny fellow, a man of few words who pours the beer, isn't fond of outsiders arriving in his village and laughing at their claims of the headless Morgan in the woods near the mine, a tin mine no one will work any longer. With WWII ongoing, Kit Hilton gathers the village men together, trying to stir them into working the mine for the tin to help with the war effort. 

The mine actually connecting with an opening wall to a secret room housing the headless corpse costume provides Redmond and Letty with information that there is more than meets the eye. Eventually Kit arrives as well, with Leland arriving, gun in hand, dumping exposition about being a Nazi prepared to serve The Fatherland.

The film really is a sermon from the mount on the Brits war effort against the Nazis. It is very much propaganda, for sure. When all the men of the village march in lockstep as they head for the mine, the film ends with Dr. Holmes, Kit Hilton, Letty, and the maid standing with pride, as the camera captures them in a heroic stance. 

The middle part of the film has Redmond accused of murdering Dr. Holmes, though, when the visitor proves to be disguised as the murdered Uncle Simon, Leland's plot to blow up Kit and Letty (with Redmond still not dead from two bullets in his torso!) eventually ruined by both of them. The village converge on the prison holding Redmond with plans to kill him, but Letty convinces the jailer to help her free him. Again, this 57 minute film has a lot of plot in it!

I thought it was very atmospheric, and it says something that I have so much to write about it. I thought this would be a three-sentence paragraph, at best. Cornwall, the tin mine, and moors, with all the night fog,  proves Warner Brothers, much like Columbia Pictures, really wanted to glean some of the spooky chills of Universal. I think both companies had some successes, even if minor and, for the most part, forgotten now. That opening of the film with the headless figure in the woods as the fog really is thick and everywhere grabbed me immediately. I was all in. But it is an odd experience. Because it really isn't the horror film it seems destined to be. 3.5/5