Crime Doctor's Strangest Case

Dapper yet avuncular Warner Baxter, one of cinema's earliest Oscar winners (Best Actor in 1928's IN OLD ARIZONA), is put through his paces in this second entry in Columbia Pictures' CRIME DOCTOR series, based on the hit radio series. Baxter plays the title character, a.k.a. Dr. Ordway, an amnesiac who learned (in the first CRIME DOCTOR movie) he used to be a gang leader. Since then, Dr. Ordway's been using his knowledge of the criminal mind to become an in-demand psychiatrist. (My husband wondered if he was able to psych out his rival gangsters in his hoodlum life.) Baxter's testimony had helped acquit Jimmy Trotter (a young Lloyd Bridges), who'd been accused of poisoning his previous employer. Jimmy finds that even when you're proved innocent, it's tough to find a job when you've got "Accused Poisoner" on your resume. But does Jimmy follow Dr. Ordway's advice and get a fresh start with his new wife in a new town? No-o-o-o! Jimmy grabs the first job he can get, as assistant to a Realtor, only to find himself jobless and the prime suspect when the Realtor dies of poisoning. Dr. Ordway gets involved, and before you can say "It's old Mr. Withers! He wanted to get the land cheap!", he's up to his fedora in wily blondes disguised as brunette cooks, family skullduggery, a would-be George Gershwin who's careless with matches (played for comic relief by Jerome Cowan, best known in our household as Miles Archer in the classic 1941 version of THE MALTESE FALCON. Fellow ... FALCON alumnus Barton MacLane plays the police detective on the case), and an anxious middle-aged lady whose freaky dreams may be the key to the mystery. That dream sequence is surprisingly intense, with imagery of silhouetted girls plummeting off cliffs and hanging from nooses; it's almost like a welcome bit of comic relief when a sinister male silhouette holding a suitcase labeled "POISON" shows up! THE CRIME DOCTOR'S STRANGEST CASE may not be THE MALTESE FALCON, but Baxter is an ingratiating lead and the flick is an entertaining way to spend 68 minutes. Give it a look next time it turns up on Turner Classic Movies!

Enjoyed this black and white picture from 1943 and Warren Baxter,(Dr. Robert Ordway) who is a psychologist and at the same time gets himself involved solving crimes and out smarts all the professional police enforcers. In this picture Dr. Robert Ordway comes to the aid of Loyld Bridges, (Jimmy Totter) who is an ex-con and seeks the doctors advice about starting a new position and the fact that he had intentions of marrying Lynn Merrick, (Ellen Totter). Dr. Ordway suggests that he not get married for awhile until he gets settled in his new job. There is plenty of trouble that starts and the mystery gets quite complicated and many scenes are filmed in an old night club that is closed and everything is mostly done in the complete dark with very poor flashlights and even kerosene lamps are used and a telephone rings right after a fire in the night club.

This second entry in the "Crime Doctor" series is a steadfast crime drama with enough red herrings to keep it interesting. It even has a bit of comedic relief involving a musician and his matches.

One caution, however -- a fair amount of the critical action occurs at night, and there aren't enough shades of gray in the print (as shown on TCM) to distinguish all the details, especially in the scenes which take place in an abandoned night club.

One delightful revelation, and what may make this worth watching for aficionados of Hollywood history, is the appearance here of Lloyd Bridges, who plays a prime suspect. Those of us who grew up on the TV series, Sea Hunt, and unfamiliar with his earlier work (this was made about seven years into his career, and about fifteen before the TV series) may wonder why this tall and lean, blond and handsome, deep-voiced, quick-talking actor didn't become one of Hollywood's premiere leading men.

Crime Doctor's Strangest Case finds Warner Baxter checking on Lloyd Bridges whom he considers a success story as a reclamation project while he was on the parole board. Bridges just got a job with George Lynn, a multimillionaire real estate tycoon whom we learn as Baxter arrives to visit Bridges on the job we learn that Lynn was poisoned by a cup of coffee Bridges brought to him.

This case is not only strange, but quite baffling as the roots go back thirty years to the disappearance of Lynn's partner in an old musical theater and vaudeville house. The theater has been boarded up and shut down ever since.

Other than Dr. Ordway and the police everybody is a suspect in this one, not excluding Bridges who has a couple of scenes that make you wonder whether Dr. Ordway missed a bet with him. This Crime Doctor is a worthwhile bit of time spent viewing.

This B mystery has one particularly striking scene. After the first murder, Jimmy, played by the young Lloyd Bridges, flees to his new wife's apartment. In order to convince her that he will not be believed by the police, he briefly takes on the character of a psychopathic killer, horrifying his wife. The scene made me immediately think of "Jagged Edge" (1985), in which Jeff Bridges, a virtual clone of his father, also played a young man with an edgy personality suspected of being a psychopathic killer.

Despite its cheesy sets, the Crime Doctor series is one of the best written and most entertaining of the 1940s mystery series.