The Millerson Case (1947)

This is a bit of a shambles of a film, mixing just about every genre imaginable, but it's still quite a watchable outing for the psychiatric doctor "Ordway" (Warner Baxter). Determined to get away from it all and spend some time fishing, he arrives at a town where the local doctor "Sam" (Griff Barnett) is still prescribing unctions from "ye olde book of primitive root medicines". No sooner has "Ordway" arrived than the town is locked down amidst an outbreak of typhoid and murder! Can he find out who's be doing the poisoning and why, before there are more victims in this place riddled with grudges and axes to grind. There's a bit too much dialogue and as usual with this series, there is also a simplistic underpinning message of scientific advancement being the answer to many problems these people face - not least with their own reluctance to believe in and accept new things in the first place. The acting is all adequate and it passes seventy minutes easily enough before a denouement that offers us a slightly fiery twist - and that's not just the cider!