El candelabro fatal

There are reminders here both of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie, in the mystic gloom of the environment with secret corridors and caves and even hypnotic gas, which would have interested Agatha Christie, who was the expert on chemistry in crime; but here the intrigue is just as intricate and complicated as any intrigues of hers, and like in her stories, it is impossible to figure out who the murderer is, although he has time to commit a number of murders in the course of the film, which is just for about 70 minutes. Warner Baxter's cases are always interesting, since he is both a psychiatrist with a criminal past who knows how to use his knuckles while at the same time he is an expert psychologist and doctor, so you can always rely on him, even when he gets into trouble himself and starts sleepwalking finding strange dead bodies in strange places. This is criminal entertainment and almost as good as any Sherlock Holmes adventure, while you will not be the only one to be surprised at the end.

"Shadows in the Night" is one of the weirdest of the Crime Doctor series of movies...probably the weirdest. The plot, though enjoyable, is just very strange and incredibly farfetched...but still watchable.

A woman comes to visit Dr. Ordway (Warner Baxter). She has been having weird dreams and has been having some suicidal thoughts. The doctor decides to drop by the lady's home for an extended visit..in order to investigate the strange happenings. Soon, the doc is having some strange visions himself. One involves finding a dead body. The body disappears and later is found dead in the surf nearby. Now this part makes zero sense....Dr. Ordway is the crime doctor and has a history of solving crimes. He quickly identifies the body in the surf as the one he saw in the house...yet everyone quickly dismisses him. Huh?? He is a trained psychiatrist and yet he's assumed to be delusional and the fact a body soon IS found means nothing! These sorts of logical errors and the actual cause of the sleepwalking and delusions is pretty silly....though the rest of the film is enjoyable and Baxter and the rest are good actors. Worth seeing for lovers of the series.

This film is the tenth and last of the Crime Doctor films that I've tracked down. It's the hardest to see for reasons I don't know. The other films have screened on TCM over the past few years since TCM picked up the old Columbia catalog, but this one stubbornly refuses to show up.

Well, I'm glad to say Dr. Ordway saved the best for last for me. The film's generic-sounding title is a little off-putting. It has plenty of shadows and in fact, even has a little bit of a horror film feel in a few moments. That's helped out by the presence of George Zucco, most welcome here as a mysterious chemist. Warner Baxter is terrific in his role as the Crime Doctor. I used to not like him so much based on some of his early films that I had seen, but he has totally won me over as Dr. Ordway. His extremely calm and unassuming manner is always relaxing to see and in this one (the third out of ten) he clearly has his character down and is able to get away with a few rather rude moments (such as throwing the chemical bottle at Zucco's feet) with barely a rise out of the other characters due to his otherwise professional demeanor.

The plot is very exciting in this entry - a young woman comes to Ordway's home in the middle of a rain-stormy night to beg for his help with her sleepwalking nightmares. At her home, Ordway encounters a dead body after suffering a similar such sleepwalking nightmare. Yet, all of the characters, including the young woman (an excellent Nina Foch) think their friend died of natural causes. Ordway's persistence proves otherwise.

As usual with classic Hollywood detective films there are always some plot holes, but this film easily overcomes them by succeeding with terrific atmosphere, steady pacing and by simply being a fun whodunit. Cheers to Dr. Ordway!

Of the ten Crime Doctor films starring Warner Baxter released by Columbia from 1943 through 1949, this is the only one that Turner Classic Movies has never aired. This third entry is one of the earliest screen roles for the young Nina Foch (pronounced Fosh), who plays a neurotic young woman having strange nightmares and calls upon Dr. Ordway to pay a house call at her seaside estate. There is no shortage of suspicious characters not the least of which is Nina's chemist uncle Frank Swift, played by the always enjoyable George Zucco. Other familiar faces include Lester Matthews and Ben Welden. A screen heartthrob during the early talkie era whose health problems by this time included emphysema and arthritis, Warner Baxter was truly grateful for the steady employment of a 'B' movie series like this one. Columbia was one of the few Hollywood majors whose bread and butter came from series like the Crime Doctor, The Whistler, Boston Blackie, and the trio of "I Love a Mystery," all of which were based on popular radio shows of the day. Until their recent airings on TCM, these films had not been widely seen so 'B' movie buffs like myself have been rejoicing ever since. The Crime Doctor series differs from the others in that (with the exception of the initial entry) the title character was never saddled with a love interest and always dedicated to the psychological aspects of the cases (shades of Philo Vance!). Warner Baxter was a native of Columbus Ohio who died in 1951 at the age of 62, much beloved at the time but quietly forgotten today, although his early talkies include appearances opposite Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. While none of Dr. Robert Ordway's adventures were truly outstanding, the only one I could not recommend remains the one set in Paris (the ninth, "The Crime Doctor's Gamble," director William Castle's 4th and last entry). Perhaps the most intriguing entry would be the last, "The Crime Doctor's Diary" (1949) which featured an early Hollywood appearance by future Moneypenny Lois Maxwell.

When the young "Lois" (Nina Foch) starts having nightmares at her seaside home, she calls in the help of renowned psycho-sleuth "Ordway" (Warner Baxter) to help her out. He duly arrives at her rambling pile and finds on his first night that he has become a sleepwalker. Luckily he is found by "Uncle George" (George Zucco) on the beach and escorted back to the house where he discovers a body. Rousing "Lois" they return to discover it's gone! What is going on here? What's with the eerie smoke that hovers around the rooms at times? Is "Lois" just not quite the full shilling or is George Zucco up to his usual nefarious acting tricks? I quite liked this - it's dark and coastal scenario, bodies there then not and just a little chemistry do rather point us to the conclusion, but the whodunit element is still a little left field. It's production is basic, as is just about everything else - but it passes an hour enjoyably enough.