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 Shadows in the Night (1944)

The birth of Robert Ordway M.D.

This was the opening chapter in the Crime Doctor series from Columbia, and as usual the first cut is the deepest. The other nine films veered from lightly sparkling to slightly insipid but all lovely to see - this one was strikingly thought provoking with many memorable scenes scattered throughout. Additionally the production values, acting and plots were of a consistently high standard, and basically Columbia allowed Warner Baxter a six year holiday with the filming of them to help him recover his dodgy health.

A man is tossed out of a moving car as one dead in 1932, turns out an amnesiac who is nursed back to good health by a good doctor who encourages him to become a good friend, good citizen and ultimately a good psychiatrist. He achieves all this by 1943, by which time his shady past is starting to catch up with him, 3 dumb guys eager to reclaim USD 200,000 stolen in his previous life. How it all unfolds and is resolved is as ingenious as the b picture format and the Hays Office could allow. Favourite bits: The 4 of them sitting round the table in Frankie's, all wondering what was going off; Margaret Lindsay – almost too exquisite too watch here; Leon Ames, the violent patriot in prison for life then out in a twinkling; the trial of Phil Morgan and Robert Ordway.

It should be an incredibly rewarding 65 minutes to fans of this genre of film, if you find yourself unmoved by it my advice is don't bother with the rest and do yourself and the fans a favour.