Crime Doctor's Man Hunt

Crime Doctor's Man Hunt (1946)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

William Castle returns as director in this sixth entry. A man returns home from the war suffering from amnesia so he goes to the Crime Doctor (Warner Baxter) for help. Within days the man is found dead and all fingers point to his fiancé but there might be more behind his death. Once again director Castle is able to build some nice atmosphere in some moody scenes but overall this is on par with the rest of the series. This one here manages to become one of the better entries due in large part to the screenplay giving Baxter some nice supporting characters and actors to play them. Ellen Drew, Frank Sully and William Frawley are all good in their roles. The mystery is also laid out pretty well as this film features a different screenwriter than the previous five films.

Warner Baxter is again the "Crime Doctor" in "Crime Doctor's Man Hant," a 1946 entry into the series, this one directed by William Castle.

In this one, Dr. Ordway (Baxter) deals with a returning serviceman who seems to be blacking out at times and winding up in an unfamiliar place in town. Ordway actually goes to this area and discovers the man murdered. The man's fiancée (Ellen Drew) has a sister who completely disappeared three years ago but once dominated her life.

This is a pretty good Crime Doctor mystery, given style by Castle. What brings it down is the lousy acting by Ellen Drew and other characters introduced and not fleshed out. William Frawley plays a smart police inspector.

As usual, Baxter, who early in his career was so hyper, is very relaxed and natural in his performance. Sometimes he's a little too relaxed, but the actor had suffered a nervous breakdown. He actually creates quite a likable character.

Nice twist ending that I figured out. Recommended.

With the title of Crime Doctor in the series and Warner Baxter playing a psychiatrist in the role, the mental health issues of the criminal are what Baxter delves into in order to solve a given case. He's pretty respected by law enforcement and the police as personified here by William Frawley have no problem in asking for his assistance. I've always been surprised that the Crime Doctor was never taken up as a television series. The closest we've seen is recently is Jeff Goldblum on Criminal Intent who has and used that background to solve his cases when the show was still running.

Dr. Ordway after meeting a young veteran with amnesia issues tries to keep an appointment and finds him shot to death with a pair of toughs trying to dispose of the body. Baxter does a beautiful drunk act to keep from ending up the same way. Later on Baxter meets Ellen Drew who was the fiancé of the deceased John Foster. She's a girl with a lot of issues herself and gives a dandy performance in this film.

This was a good series for Warner Baxter and the episodes were always competently made although some were better than others. This one's a good prototype.

While this isn't the best B-detective film ever made, it is different enough from the usual style that it's well worth watching. Warner Baxter's detective is a psychiatrist and instead of following the usual formula employed by Boston Blackie, The Falcon and MANY other film detectives, his films are a little more cerebral as well as more believable. There is also a real plus because the usual cop investigating the case isn't a total idiot, so I am very thankful for the role William Frawley played. The film itself is well-paced (being only 61 minutes long), interesting and offers a fun twist ending (though psychologically speaking, it was VERY far-fetched). Not a great film, but a welcome film since it is different enough that it doesn't just blend in with the crowd.

Building on the now well trammelled theme of these "Crime Doctor" films, this time "Dr. Ordway" (Warner Baxter) is engaged by a man who is finding himself in strange parts of town with no idea how he got there. It's whilst investigating that the doctor discovers that this fellow has been slain. Things get more complicated when he meets the despondent fiancée "Irene" (Ellen Drew) who is from a wealthy and dysfunctional family and who also proves to be somewhat enigmatic. Meantime, there are also two goons hanging around too. What can they want with her sister "Natalie"? Loads to challenge the little grey cells here and this largely spares us the psycho-babble and just presents us with a mystery that the audience knows about for most of the film, but it's still enjoyable enough watching Baxter pick up the clues and solve the conundrum. No, it's not great - it's procedural low-budget stuff, but Drew is rather better than most of the damsels in these films and it's amongst the best of the series,