Crime Doctor's Strangest Case

A young LLOYD BRIDGES plays a man whose wealthy employer is found dead of poisoning. Bridges needs the help of crime doctor WARNER BAXTER to prove that he's not the murderer. When Bridges makes a quick getaway, we have Baxter left with a household of prime suspects, including REGINALD DENNY, LYNN MERRICK, ROSE HOBART and, later on, JEROME COWAN as a man who lights too many careless matches.

VIRGINIA BRISSAC is good as a loyal but suspicious housekeeper who takes Baxter into her confidence, but it's young up and coming actor LLOYD BRIDGES who manages to make the strongest impression among the supporting cast. He was a more than capable actor even then.

Based on characters created in a radio play, the nice thing about CRIME DOCTOR'S STRANGEST CASE is that all the loose ends are neatly tied up by Baxter's sleuthing abilities.

Summing up: Mystery buffs should find this fast moving B-film a very enjoyable crime drama from Columbia.

Warner Baxter is the "Crime Doctor," and here he is in the second film of the series, "Crime Doctor's Strangest Case," filmed in 1943. This one has a perk for baby boomers as it stars a very young Lloyd "Sea Hunt" Bridges as a man acquitted of killing his boss who consults Dr. Ordway (Baxter), the man who helped him in his case. Though he was found not guilty, he has had terrible trouble finding a new position. Now he's been offered a job working for a person instead of a company - a similar situation to his first job, and he wants to get married. Ordway recommends that he look instead for a corporate position, even if he has to leave town, and wait to get married.

The Bridges character doesn't take Dr. O's advice, and when his boss is killed, it does look as though he was given the job so he could be framed. Ordway steps in to investigate, dueling wits with the detective in charge of the case (Barton MacLaine).

This "Crime Doctor" has some comedy in it, with Jerome Cowan as a musician who is careless with matches. There's also a hilarious, very fast change of identity.

This is a good series, and I hope to see more of it on TCM.

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.

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.

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.