Reviews & Ratings for
The Crime of Doctor Crespi More at IMDbPro »

6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Carnations Were His Favourite Flowers, 27 May 2001
Author: BaronBl00d (baronbl00d@aol.com) from NC

Wow! What a great performance by Erich Von Stroheim as a doctor who tries to get revenge on the man that took his girl away. Von Stroheim once again plays an overly obsessed man in a range of quiet meekness in one moment and tyrannical rage in another. His character of a lonely, frustrated man filled with nothing but hate at the loss of losing the girl he loved to another man is frightening and sympathetic at the same time. This film is very creaky, has little action, and almost no musical background, yet Von Stroheim's performance carries the film on his shoulders and delivers the goods. Some great scenes in the film show Von Stroheim's range as an actor from his thumping of a pencil for an half hour and finally snapping it to his corpse beside manner where he tells his captured prey his wicked, diabolical intentions. Dr. Crespi somehow makes his hated enemy appear dead but in reality leaves him alive only to be buried alive. The glee in Dr. Crespi's face glows and really turns what could have been a horrible film into a quite enjoyable one. Add to the fun the presence of Dwight Frye(who has a scene digging up a grave) and you have a wonderful horror picture from the heyday of horror. Above all, this film shows us just how good this man was at acting, and it shows us the loss we have that he was not utilized more.

6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
It ain't no crime!, 21 August 2000

Author: Anne_Sharp from USA

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.

4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Competent, 13 September 1999
Author: Athanatos from San Diego, CA

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.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Worth a look..., 20 November 2009

Author: kitchent from United States

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.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Poe in the Bronx, 20 February 2007

Author: Mike-764 (michaelnella@yahoo.com) from Flushing, NY

Famed surgeon Andre Crespi is called on the perform a life saving operation on Dr. Stephen Ross, a man who won the heart of the woman (Estelle) that Crespi had fallen for. Crespi manages to perform a successful operation, but during the recuperation, he gives a drug to Ross that gives him the appearance of death. When Ross is pronounced "dead", Dr. Thomas (a staff member at Crespi's hospital) suspects Crespi of killing Ross, but Crespi overwhelms Thomas, and locks him in a closet while Crespi attends the funeral and burial, with Ross still alive. Not sure of what Crespi did, Thomas and colleague Dr. Arnold dig up Ross' body for an autopsy, but when Ross "comes back from the dead", what will happen next? Intriguing film based on Poe's "Premature Burial" with a very sly, mad performance by Von Stroheim and very well done subdued performances by the rest of the cast. The film was shot in the Bronx, so production values are not the peak of excellence, but even the direction could have been better with many close-ups and shots of the actors that are a few seconds too long. A score to the film would have helped, and the romantic subplots w/ the doctors & nurses (2 of them) detract from the main story, but the story is enough to help this B movie. Rating, 6.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Fair, 29 February 2008
Author: Michael_Elliott from Louisville, KY

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.

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