Crime Doctor (1943)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Michael Gordon

Writers:

C. Graham Baker (screenplay)
Louis Lantz (screenplay)

Release Date:

22 June 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Radio's Top Crime Thriller AT LAST on the Screen!

Plot:

Amnesia victim, Robert Ordway, becomes the country's leading criminal psychologist. When he is hit on...

Plot Keywords:

Amnesia | Parole Board | Prison Reform | Trial | Psychiatrist

Cast

Warner Baxter	...	Dr. Robert Ordway, formerly Phil Morgan
Margaret Lindsay	...	Grace Fielding
John Litel	...	Emilio Caspari, the mystery man
Ray Collins	...	Dr. John Carey
Harold Huber	...	Joe Dylan
Don Costello	...	Nick Ferris alias Jim Warren
Leon Ames	...	William Wheeler

Runtime:

66 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16

Company:

Larry Darmour Productions

Trivia:

Fans of The Three Stooges may recognize the same cheap studio sets and on-the-quick lighting we associate with their B&W shorts. Typical of the B pictures Harry Cohn's Columbia Pictures Gower Street lot ground out in the 1940s, Crime Doctor (1943) and many of the best Stooges shorts were shot during the same World War II years. Crime Doctor (1943) is one of the first films directed by Michael Gordon, who was from the Yale Drama School and The Group Theater with Elia Kazan, and who, after many years of being blacklisted during the McCarthy red scare era, eventually directed the Doris Day / Rock Hudson hit Pillow Talk (1959).

Movie Connections:

Followed by The Crime Doctor's Diary (1949)

better than average for the genre

This film is much better than what one might expect, given the studio that made it and the other films of this type put out at the time. Warner Baxter was a good actor, the supporting cast is able, and the writing is taut, uncomplicated and well-done. Direction, lighting and photography are professional. In short, there are few, if any, faults, and the film is well worth a watch. Leon Ames makes an early appearance in a somewhat far fetched sequence involving the rehabilitation of a hardened, bitter convict, but this is a minor, minor flaw in an otherwise very well constructed film. As another reviewer wrote, there are, thankfully, no dumb cops or simple minded assistants, just a well thought out plot and good acting.