User Reviews

With the exception of the Rathbone and Bruce Sherlock Holmes series, this is quite possibly the best of the 'mystery' series of the 30s and 40s. The series begins with this movie as Phil Morgan, master criminal, is double crossed by his gang, beaten and dumped along a roadside. As a result, he suffers from amnesia. This movie, the first of the series, establishes The Crime Doctor's background, explains how and why he became a doctor (a psychiatrist, actually), head of the parole board and helped many convicts find the 'straight and narrow'.

The element that makes this movie and the series in general unique is that it relies on psychiatry and the tendencies of the mentally ill. They often tease you by inserting an obviously unbalanced person and although the plot may lead one to believe that person is the "perp" they may or may not be the actual "perp". Because psychiatry was relatively new and often misunderstood, it provided general insight to the subject. In many ways, the series has yet to become dated although the psychological concepts may appear to be fairly basic nowadays.

A series of factors make this movie series much more enjoyable than others such as The Lone Wolf, Boston Blackie or Bulldog Drummond. The first is the consistency. The quality of the stories in all ten movies remains high throughout the series where the stories of other series tend to deteriorate into standard potboilers after the studio has captured the audience's interest. Second, the same actor plays the lead character in all of the movies. Third, the quality of the supporting cast is exceptional throughout the series. Some of the more recognizable supporting cast includes John Litel, Ray Collins, Harold Huber, Barton MacLane, Jerome Cowan, Reginald Denny, Eduardo Ciannelli, Nina Foch, George Zucco, Ben Weldon, Hillary Brooke, William Frawley, Ellen Drew and last, but far from least, a very young Lois Maxwell who played Miss Moneypenny in at least 15 James Bond films.

However, over the six years the series was shot, one can easily see Baxter's health deteriorating.

I hope that TCM broadcasts more of the "Crime Doctor" series, based on the radio show. Starring Warner Baxter, 1943's "Crime Doctor" is one of the first films Michael Gordon (Pillow Talk) directed, and it's a good, solid B movie.

Baxter plays a criminal named Phil Morgan who gets amnesia after being left for dead on the side of a road. He rehabilitates himself and, still not knowing who he is, becomes a noted psychiatrist named Robert Ordway who works with prisoners as well as other patients. However, Phil Morgan stole and hid $200,000 and his fellow gang members want the money. As word gets around that Dr. Ordway is Phil Morgan, the question is - does he really not remember, or does he know who he is and where he put the money? Baxter was 54 years old when this film was made. Fifty-four in 1943 isn't what it is today, so when the character announces that "thirty years of his life" have been wiped out, one wonders which thirty years he's talking about. The film covers a span of ten years, but it's just as hard to buy he's forty. It's a minor point - Baxter gives a sincere performance with an undertone of real gentleness.

The supporting cast includes the lovely Margaret Lindsay, John Litel (who play Nancy Drew's father in the series), Perry Mason's Ray Collins, and Leon Ames.

I hope TCM shows more of the "Crime Doctor" series.

... as well as the Great Depression as a two front war with everything at stake yields bigger fish to fry. This is what this first film in the Crime Doctor crime/mystery series represents in the person of Dr. Robert Ordway (Warner Baxter).

The movie opens with a car speeding along the road with a sign referring to the presidential campaign of 1932. The car slows down and an unconscious man is dumped from the vehicle that then speeds off again. Next we see the man without an identity recovering in the hospital with no memory of who he was before. The nurses dub the mystery man Robert Ordway after the wing of the hospital in which he is staying. Kindly Dr. John Carey (Ray Collins) works with Ordway after he is discharged to help him recover his memory, but no association -not even going through the phone book name by name - yields results. A check of his fingerprints with police records also turns up nothing. Of course, all that proves is that Ordway was clever enough to never be arrested, not that he wasn't a criminal. With all of the time he's spent with the good doctor, Ordway has developed an interest in medicine, and with he and Dr. Carey agreeing that the unmasking of his identity is something that he should no longer hope to have solved in the near future, he decides to study medicine himself and specialize in psychiatry.

So Ordway starts out as a freshman in college in his early 30's, with his studies requiring the next ten years of his life. The world changes a great deal in the next ten years - Prohibition ends, the Depression eases, and World War II begins. In all this time Ordway is no closer to recovering his identity. As he begins to practice medicine, he spends a great deal of time working with convicts at the prison. He's drawn here because he wants to do some good but also because he hopes that someone there will recognize him and help him reclaim his memory. In the back of his mind he's got to know that nobody gets dumped as he did from a speeding automobile in 1932 without the high probability that he was somehow mixed up in crime.

There's a complicating factor too. Ordway has become involved with an attractive young woman who works with female ex-cons - Grace Fielding (Margaret Lindsay). At this point, Ordway doesn't even know if he has a wife out there somewhere, so he can't make plans with Grace until he knows his true marital status. How will all of this work out? Watch and find out.

This first in the series was probably never intended to be anything other than just one film, so this movie wraps up in a self-contained kind of way that will leave you wondering what ever happened to this or that character if you watch the whole series. It was a big hit, so Columbia released a whole series featuring the Dr. Robert Ordway character, always starring Warner Baxter, over the next seven years. The rest of the series focuses not so much on Ordway's life as it does on some mystery Ordway has wandered into and how he solves it, but in this first film the mystery is Ordway himself. Who is he really? And if he recovers his memory and the news is bad - will remembering alone make him a criminal all over again? Does a man need a clean slate of a mind to really have a clean slate? Interesting material done in the quick spartan way required by poverty row Columbia's budget, but done well all the same.

Crime Doctor (1943)

** (out of 4)

First film in Columbia's Crime Doctor series has a man (Warner Baxter) thrown out of a car, which leaves him with amnesia. Not knowing who he is, the man decides to start a new life as a doctor but then learns that in his previous life he was a gangster. This was the first film from the series that I watched and I certainly hope they get better. I suspect this film just tells a backstory, which could have been told in the first five minutes of another movie. I found the film incredibly dull and the story itself really wasn't all that involving. Baxter was good in his role but I still wouldn't rank him very high among the countless mystery/detective films of the 30's and 40's.

A man (Warner Baxter) is thrown from a speeding car and awakens with amnesia. He befriends a doctor and, when it appears his memory will never return, he begins a new life under the name of Robert Ordway. He trains to become a criminal psychologist and goes to works in a prison. Eventually his past comes to light. First and best in a series of films from Columbia, all starring Baxter. Ray Collins, who had previously played the Crime Doctor role on radio, plays his friend in this entry. Margaret Lindsay plays his love interest in this first film. One of the issues with the series was the lack of recurring supporting characters. None of the characters here return in later sequels, besides Ordway himself. Playing the bad guys here are Harold Huber, John Litel, and Don Costello. This is a good start to an enjoyable series, although it's not one of my favorites. You know from early on that this guy had a checkered past so there isn't much mystery to be had, which makes it more of a drama. On that front it's fine, with Baxter and the quality character actors he's working with all doing good jobs. It just doesn't have enough meat on the bone to stand up under comparison with the better movie detective series of the '30s and '40s.

"The Crime Doctor" was the first of a series of WW-II-era "B-Picture" mysteries based upon a popular radio series. During WW-II many well-known leading actors left Hollywood to enlist in the military, including such famous stars as James Stewart, Leslie Howard, David Niven, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Robert Taylor and Henry Fonda. As a result, the movie industry had to fall back upon well-known actors who had once been popular stars, but who were now becoming older, and would otherwise probably not be have been engaged for leading roles. One such actor was Warner Baxter, formerly a well-known and popular leading man who, though now in his 50s, was clearly still capable of getting the job done.

In this case Baxter portrays a character of indeterminate age, but one who is clearly not necessarily a young man. He has had been suffering from amnesia for the past ten years after being found beside the road suffering from a head injury. Although he has no knowledge of his previous life, the implication is that he had formerly been some sort of criminal. In an effort to recover his memory (and despite his age and the fact that he has no identity or credentials), he enrolls in medical school and becomes a psychiatrist.

At that time psychiatry was still fairly new and revolutionary, and books and movies concerning the work of psychiatrists were very popular. It was during that period that Hollywood produced films well-known such as "Kings Row" and "Now, Voyager", both of which were heavily involved with psychiatry. Clearly, "The Crime Doctor" series was intended to cash in on that popularity.

"The Crime Doctor" is typical of the sort of low-budget "B-Picture" movies series that Hollywood produced during the war years. While they were not bad, their production values were clearly constrained both by budget and time. However, they provided employment to a lot of talented people who would otherwise have been unemployed, and they provided a brief escape for audiences during a period when the entire world was plunged into a conflict, of which the outcome was still not yet certain.

When a 1943 movie boasts it's based on a radio show, one doesn't exactly expect Shakespeare. When it tells the story of a criminal with amnesia who breezes through medical school to become a leading psychiatrist one doesn't expect much relation to reality as we know it. This expectation is fulfilled by depictions of hospitals, universities, prisons and courtrooms in keeping with 1940s comic book standards.

Those quibbles out of the way, I must admit this is fast-paced fun with plenty of action, not much real violence, a plot that makes sense within its simplistic worldview, snappy dialog and minor characters with personality in their brief appearances. The fact that this film spawned nine sequels in six years indicates it must have had something going for it.

A few relatively bigtime actors (Warner Baxter, Ray Collins, Leon Ames) if not in their most memorable roles, a few interchangeable attractive, if not well-remembered, young actresses, and 66 minutes of escapist fun, reminiscent to this old-timer of movies we'd watch on TV in the 50s on rainy afternoons. And now you can see it uninterrupted by commercials. What more could you ask for?

A man is in the hospital after a car wreck. He has complete amnesia. Another man calls him Phil and seems to know a lot about his real life. He takes on the name Robert Ordway and a decade later, he becomes a successful psychiatrist. He still has no memory from before but other criminal types know that he's Phil Morgan who has $200k hidden somewhere.

This is adapted from a radio series. I've never heard of this franchise before this. The premise is somewhat unconventional and interesting. This first movie lays it out. It has the potential for some intriguing writing. He could keep running into people from his past. I would like this to be more action oriented. Warner Baxter with his moustache isn't that type of actor.

It's twenty years into the new millenia and the combination o being subjected to boredom, not so thinly veiled agendas, and a nostalgic longing for a better time gone have all collided in a quest resulting in my latest discovery. It's a discovery alright as it has been around for nigh on 80-years without my awareness. I'm talking about a series of movies revolving around a character called "The Crime Doctor".

The Crime Doctor movie series doesn't try to be original. Instead it recycles Sherlock Holmes - you know: help from a whip-smart 'professor type" in order to solve a crime. It worked for that Sherlock Holmes series alright, and sans side-kick Dr. Ordway is, basically, a lone Holmes-type man of rare insight and deductive powers

Warner Baxter plays Ordway and while short of making the character iconic, as Rathbone's Holmes, he is pleasing, likeable, and just authorative enough (i.e. A little cocksure). While the quality varies from movie to movie in the series, it is a good series overall. I would say the entire series rates between 5 and 7 on a 10-point scale.

It's odd that CRIME DOCTOR ('43), the film that started the B-film series at Columbia, is one of the least involving of the Dr. Ordway stories. The first half-hour is pretty dull before the film takes on any real interest in the amnesia background of Baxter's character.

His development from complete amnesia to gradual recall is well handled and some of the scenes with JOHN LITEL have a certain amount of interest, but the story lacks overall believability with RAY COLLINS turning to the phone book in a search for Baxter's name and then becoming his mentor and leading him into a doctor's career with a quick montage of events establishing Baxter as a psychiatrist.

MARGARET LINDSAY is attractive as the female interest, looking so much like a prettier version of Barbara Stanwyck, whom I always thought she resembled in manner and looks. For fans of the series, this one will do, but surprisingly it's not the sort of "first film in the series" that I expected and you have to wonder why Columbia decided to make a series after this one.

WARNER BAXTER looks quite ill in most of his close-ups, so you can see the man was in fragile health all during these "Crime Doctor" films. He gives his usual solid performance but the film was a disappointment for me.

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.

"CRIME DOCTOR" is a well-made, fast-paced 1943 Columbia Pictures programmer directed by MICHAEL GORDON, actor and film editor, who had been a classmate of Elia Kazan at the Yale Drama School, and one of the younger members of the Group Theater during its final Broadway years. This film is distinguished by fine acting, particularly by a number of Hollywood's most reliable character actors for once cast against type: Ray Collins (Boss Gettys in CITIZEN KANE), John Litel (Nancy Drew's understanding father) and Leon Ames (Father in MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS), all playing the sort of roles they were rarely given again. It's unlikely that Gordon, on staff at Columbia at the beginning of his career had anything to do with the casting, but he's does a splendid job with all members of the cast. Gordon, who was blacklisted in the McCarthy era, is best remembered today for PILLOW TALK. This film is a perfect example of the factory system that gave many a talented beginner a chance to learn how to make movies.

One of the wilder premises involving a movie series was in the Crime Doctor films that starred Warner Baxter. We are asked to believe that Baxter was once gentleman crook Phil Morgan who held out the loot from his gang and who slugged him and threw him from a moving car and left him for dead. He didn't die, but has a case of amnesia. In any event ten years go by and in those ten years we are asked to believe that Baxter has acquired the eduction and training to become criminal psychologist Robert Ordway a most respected gent.

The Crime Doctor character came from radio and I assume that radio provided a lot of background so that the Ordway character became more believable. Given the fact that the movie-going public had been used to the Crime Doctor radio program the whole premise was easier to swallow in 1943 than it is today.

Baxter who is now a successful criminal psychologist and engaged to Margaret Lindsay is visited by old gang member John Litel who wants to know where the stashed loot is. He's not buying the amnesia story. He assembles the rest of the gang and the film is a battle of wits between Baxter and the rest. Need I tell you who wins?

Future Crime Doctor films gradually left out the part that Baxter was a convict and as a result they have not become as dated and are more believable than the first film. Some are actually pretty good with the simple premise that Baxter with his psychological training is a pretty good criminologist, better in many cases than those who carry a badge. In fact Jeff Goldblum's character on Law and Order: Criminal Intent who does carry a badge can trace his origins back to Warner Baxter's Robert Ordway.

A good screen character with too much unbelievable baggage.

Let me start off by saying that I actually like a lot of the old B-movie cheapie film series, like 'Boston Blackie,' 'The Falcon,' 'The Saint,' et.al. - just so you know that I'm not some ADD-addled kid who can't sit still unless a movie is edited like it's been thrown into a blender by Michael Bay.

But, c'mon, let's be serious: this is a pretty terrible film, on almost every level.

First off, Warner Baxter looks awful. Every time one of the women in the film talks about how he's "good-looking," you have to laugh. I realize that in real life Baxter had had a nervous breakdown and was suffering terribly from arthritis (so much so that he eventually had a lobotomy - ! - to relieve the pain). But then the writers should have either cut the lines where women comment on his looks, or the producers should have cast a different actor in the role.

And to be honest, appearance aside, Baxter is a really underwhelming screen presence: his voice quavery, his manner hesitant, his whole demeanor uncommitted. He looks and acts a LOT older than 54. He seems to be barely able look any of the other actors in the eye. (Pretty everyone else in the entire film comes off better than Baxter, in terms of their performances - it's astonishing to think that he once won an Oscar.) I know I should feel sorry for the guy, but that's no reason to let him ruin what might have been a memorable recurring character.

The only reason that I didn't give this film a one-star rating is because it DOES have an initially intriguing premise, one that seems to anticipate "A History of Violence," among other more interesting films. But the writers quickly botch any sense of intrigue, completely throwing the story off the rails with all kinds of irrelevant tangents and sub-plots (how can a 64-minute film have this many sub-plots?), like the various criminals (female thief, disgraced Air Force officer) with whom Dr. Ordway deals with in the course of his work. These little side-stories have NO relevance whatsoever to the main story, adding nothing at all to it and, to boot, are uninteresting and insipid. Get back to the amnesia thread, you idiot writers!

This is not to mention all of the improbabilities and convenient 'coincidences' that occur throughout the story, further stretching credulity well past the breaking point. (Two of Ordway's former cronies just happening to be in a nightclub where Ordway is with his fiancé, then one of them breaks a glass accidentally, requiring medical attention and, of course, Ordway is the only doctor present - yeah, right.)

And why, for example, do Ordway's former partners in crime keep insisting to themselves that Ordway is faking the amnesia? For TEN YEARS he keeps up this charade, goes through medical school, gets a psychiatry degree, sets himself up in private practice, instead of just absconding with the loot and skipping town - say WHAT? How in the hell does that make any sense at all?

I'll only mention in passing how poorly directed this film is, especially in regards to the pacing in the dialogue. Actor A, for example, says something, Actor B ponders these words for what feels like an eternity, then eventually, slowly responds - aaaarrrgh!

Another reviewer has said that this is actually the least of the 'Crime Doctor' series, so maybe I'll give the next installment a chance (I recorded a bunch of them off of TCM), although I am not overly sanguine, and I still think that Warner Baxter is TERRIBLE.

In the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood made a huge number of "B" detective series films. They were called "B" because they had lower budgets, were shorter than the average film and were meant to be the second film in a double feature--the lesser of the two films. In general, these films were a lot of fun to watch BUT they also were very formulaic and repetitive. I enjoy Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan, Boston Blackie and the Saint, but will gladly admit that once you've seen a few they all seem to blend together--particularly the Blackie series. It is because of this sameness that I really, really appreciate the Crime Doctor films--they are not so predictable and offer some nice innovations.

This movie is the first, and from what I've seen, the best of the Crime Doctor films. It sets the stage for future films by explaining how Warner Baxter became a psychiatrist and crime solver and is well-written and interesting throughout--even though this movie's plot isn't original--having been a variation on a film from 1936. The acting is very good and the film is played more seriously than the average film of the genre--with no goofy sidekick or stupid police investigator. And, frankly, this is a good thing as the others are clichés that just seem to permeate almost every B detective film. Give it a watch--it's very enjoyable and doesn't disappoint, as the characters behave intelligently and believably.

After being thrown from a moving vehicle, a mysterious man wakes in the hospital with no memory. As much as he'd like, the doctor that takes his case can't help revive his memories. The man, now known as Robert Ordway (Warner Baxter), decides to help himself and, ten years later, he's a practicing psychiatrist. Out of the blue, he meets a couple of men who refer to Ordway as Morgan. Do these men know anything about Ordway / Morgan's past? And what of the $200,000 they claim Morgan stole?

I'm a huge fan of the 30s and 40s era mystery programmers that all the studios were producing. Whether it's Chan, Holmes, the Falcon, or the Saint, there's an appeal these films have to me. I'm not sure why I've never seen any of the Crime Doctor movies, but I'm glad to have finally corrected that oversight. Admittedly, I didn't find this one, the first in the series, as entertaining as I'd hoped, but it was good enough to seek out the others in the series.

I think my main issue with Crime Doctor is how long it took things to get going. The first half is a drag. It's not until Ordway's past starts to catch up with him and the mystery heats up that things get interesting. I'd probably rate the first half a 4/10 and the second half a 6/10. I'd probably rate the second half even higher if the ending didn't feel so rushed. I'd like to have known more about the location of the missing $200,000.

Baxter is fine, if not a bit underwhelming, in the lead role. He's joined by a surprisingly strong cast, including Margaret Lindsay, Harold Huber, Don Costello, and Leon Ames (always a favorite of mine). But the best of the cast had to be John LItel. He played a fantastic smart, threatening hood. He had a way about him that made me uncomfortable to watch. Nice going.

5/10

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.

I recently saw all of the Crime Doctor movies on Turner Classic Movies. I'd sure like to see these made available on DVD, but it doesn't seem that they're available on ANY medium yet.

I rather enjoyed all of the movies of the "Crime Doctor" series. I have a particular affinity for detective stories and crime dramas from that time period, in both the movie and radio formats. I consider them to be at least the same caliber as the "Thin Man" series, although "Crime Doctor" tended to be more cerebral, while Nick Charles was rather more flamboyant and party-hardy, and I suspect that Asta was smarter than he was!

If the Crime Doctor is made available on DVD, perhaps they might at least be released on CD as an audio series. Perhaps I might even be able to find some of the original issues from Detective Comics.

This is a very good and interesting story concentrated into less than 70 minutes of tense action and intrigue, and like all stories of amnesia, this warrants some very fascinating insights into the human mind and its capacities. Warner Baxter introduces the film by being thrown out of a car at full speed, and he is later recalled to life with some difficulty at a hospital, where he has the good fortune to receive Ray Collins as his doctor. Ray Collins is intrigued by his case and allows him to live together with him, and eventually he inspires him to become a doctor and assistant. As such he develops into an indispensable doctor, psychologist and humanitarian, working miracles at hospitals and prisons as ultimately the director of the board of paroles, still without remembering anything of his dark past, but his former accomplices do and insist on trying to remind him, not knowing if he is faking his amnesia or actually having forgotten all about what they did together.

The story is marvelous and should have been a major subject for Hitchcock, and it's actually better than most of the Hitchcock plots, displaying some virtuoso psychology and a very fascinating character development of a man who as an amnesia patient started from scratch and made a jackpot. It is very inspiring, the acting is good, the direction is sustained enough all the way, so there are no flaws anywhere, and nothing for a critical eye to get caught on.

Robert Ordway, a victim of amnesia, will be the country's leading criminal psychologist. When he hits his head (someone from his past), he suddenly remembers his previous life as a criminal.