The Crime Doctor's Warning

A struggling artist seeks help from the Crime Doctor (Warner Baxter). He's been suffering from blackouts and short term memory loss. When two models (one of which is his fiancee) are murdered, he's an immediate suspect. The Doctor isn't so sure. There are others with motive, including the artist's overprotective mother and a very misogynistic male model.

An efficient and solid mystery that is suspenseful and absorbing from beginning to the end. Coulter Irwin as the suspect who suffers from blackouts is excellent as is Warner Baxter as the hero. There's a dreamy quality to this great entry, it's well-paced and has a good, though unusual finale.

Crime Doctor's Warning (1945)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

William Castle steps in to direct this fifth film in Columbia's mystery series. This time out the Crime Doctor (Warner Baxter) is investigating a painter who suffers from blackouts, which leads to his models turning up dead. Castle brings quite a lot of energy to this film but it's not enough for me to call this a good movie. This entry is pretty much on par with the rest of the series in that it's decent time killers but the stories just aren't strong enough or interesting enough to make them work all the way around. Baxter is good once again but the supporting cast doesn't leave him too much to work with. Castle makes for some interesting scenes where the suspected killer is under hypnosis but that's about it.

Dr. Robert Ordway, (Warner Baxter) plays another role as Crime Doctor and gets involved with a young man named Clive Lake, (Coulter Irwin) who has problems with black outs when he returned from WWII. Clive lives with his mother who is very domineering and is very unhappy about her son falling in love with a model and then her sudden death which was caused by a murder. The police get involved and Inspector Davis, (John Litel) wants to book Clive for the girls killing; however, Dr. Ordway feels that Clive is innocent of the crime and proceeds with his own investigation, meanwhile other murders are committed. There is a painting called "The Ring" which shows three models in the picture which will reveal some deep dark secrets about the murders Nice low budget film from the past. Enjoy.

The Crime Doctor films are always interesting and intriguing, and he comes very close to the Sherlock Holmes standard. This is about an art riddle, art models are being murdered one after another, and a poor young artist suffering from moments of amnesia is worried about the possibility of he being the subconscious murderer. It's not as simple as that, which Doctor Ordway soon finds out. His murder intrigues usually start with a loose thread, which compels him to pull it in, which usually leads him into an inextricable mess of mysteries. It's the same thing here. It is impossible to guess at the clue of the mystery, while you are left like Doctor Ordway hanging entangled in a nest of loose threads, until a jolly Scotsman brings him to a proper lead. Like the other Crime Doctor films, the cinematography and the music add to the atmosphere, keeping you agog until the final strike. This crime mystery would be especially interesting to artists, there are some splendid eccentric artists on parade here, and the intrigue is well sustained until the last minute.

Another consultation gets Warner Baxter as the famous Crime Doctor involved in another murder. Young Coulter Irwin is having some kind of flashback occurrences and keeps wandering over to a location that he has no apparent meaning for him.

Before Baxter finishes he's involved in the murder of three female artist's models and of course it's Irwin who's suspected because of the unexplained blackouts and because he's an artist.

The problem with the Crime Doctor series and with some of the B mystery series is that many times the small cast doesn't leave you too many suspects. In this case the murderer's behavior early on does kind of tip you off in terms of his identity.

Still Warner Baxter is always good in whatever film he's in and he gets good support from a familiar cast of players.