Truly Dreadful Film

Really Surprised!

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

John Litel had been in the first "Crime Doctor" movie - he had played a tough mobster who wanted Ordway dead. Now he returns as Inspector Dawes who needs Ordway's help in solving the murder of a young model in this above average entry in the "Crime Doctor" series. This movie has Ordway taking a much more active approach in the proceedings as opposed to the later ones when he often took a back seat to the harassed detectives.A young painter, Clive Lake, hesitantly visits Ordway complaining of black outs but before they can meet again Clive's fiancée Connie ("Dusty" Anderson) is murdered. Things look bad for Clive. He went up on the roof to think things out, then a mysterious cloaked man (looking similar to Clive) is seen entering his studio flat via the skylight and then killing Connie whose body is discovered soon after, under a bed. Everyone in the room (there was a party going on) is a suspect and Ordway is soon plunged into the world of artists and models.He visits Malone's Fine Arts Gallery, hoping that if Malone accepts one of Clive's paintings, the young artist's confidence will be restored as will his sanity. Malone isn't keen but when Ordway returns to the gallery it is to find that the painting has already been brought by a stranger. The Crime Doctor is then followed by a caped stranger - who can it be - is it the garrulous Bohemian painter Duval, a disgruntled sitter or even the dour silhouette artist??Clive returns to his domineering mother whose harsh treatment when he was a child is at the root of his blackouts. Under hypnosis Ordway hopes Clive will name the man on the roof - ??? - and he also recalls that Connie and the model who was murdered at the film's beginning both posed for a painting called "The Ring" and Ordway now has a race to find the third girl before she is killed. The search leads him back to a familiar face who married the third model, killed her and then tracked down the other two to prevent an investigation.This is another compelling entry in the Crime Doctor series - George Meeker, who seemed to have roles in almost all the series, appeared in this one as one of Clive Lake's greedy relatives.

I haven't checked my reviews for all the other Crime Doctor films, so I hope I haven't said any of the rest of them were worst in the series. But, I think after finally seeing this film (the final one for me to see), I can safely say it's the worst. Now this doesn't mean it's a terrible film--heck, this is a generally nice B-movie series--but its standards are noticeably lower than the other films in the series.Warner Baxter returns as 'Dr. Ordway'--a psychiatrist who specializes in criminals and forensics. He's very much the smart and likable guy, though oddly, in this film he seems to be "made of money"--throwing around money like a millionaire. He never did this in other Crime Doctor films and spends money haphazardly. Sure, it only amounts to $700--but that's a huge sum of money for 1945. In one case, he buys a painting by an unknown artist sight unseen for $200 and later in the film he pays a man $500 for information that he was willing to give Ordway for free!! I really think Ordway was the one who should have been consulting a psychiatrist!! However, this is only a minor gripe about the plot. The biggest problem I have is how confusing and convoluted it all was. Plus, in the end when you find out who the real murderer is, it really makes no sense at all--nor does his bizarre statue in the basement. In fact, the whole thing makes my brain hurt despite a good performance by Baxter despite being given a script written by pre-schoolers.

This was another nice entry in the Crime Doctor film series and sharper and darker than those preceding, maybe partly thanks to Columbia b unit director William Castle who teetered on the edge of murky seediness throughout.Engage your senses from the off: there's a puzzling opening with Dr. Ordway (Warner Baxter) and a police Inspector (John Litel) reviewing their case in the bedroom of a murdered woman who had been stabbed earlier in the day. The man suspected has "mental lapses" but Ordway doesn't believe he did it, meaning at this stage we haven't seen the crime or the victim and are rooting for the suspect we haven't seen yet either! Psychoanalysis is called for, along with the usual unhindered sleuthing from the good Doctor. There's a descent into the Bohemian world of artists, models and paintings - most regrettably of gorgeous young women instead of ugly old men, plenty of lovely creeping about in the dark usually with pointy shadowy hats on, and an outlandish plot – great stuff! Favourite bits: the meeting between Baxter and art dealer Miles Mander – the epitome of succinct and scholarly sinisterness; the busy traffic up on the roof at night and those fabulous apartment windows; the hurried snack Baxter and Litel have after the second murder – what was that all about?Well worth while to a fan of the genre, the effort will probably be too much for non-fans. I was concentrating so hard I missed what the Warning of the title was (if there was one), but my own warning is if you watch it be careful not to blink near the end because they closed this one down fast.

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.