Crime Doctor's Man Hunt (1946)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

When Warner Baxter returned to the screen after a two year absence his first role was as Robert Ordway - Crime Doctor. He was initially happy, hoping it would lead to character roles but it didn't and he was virtually a prisoner of the role for the rest of his life. But the series was one of the better ones and often featured actresses up and coming or soon to be on their way down.This entry has Ordway on a man hunt to find the killer of a returned soldier who seeks the Crime Doctor's help to cure him of complications arising from combat fatigue. Dr. Carey is now obviously by the wayside and Ordway is now working alongside gruff Inspector Harry Manning (William Frawley).The search starts at a boarding house where one of the tenants is the manageress of the shooting gallery where the murder weapon was stolen from. Meanwhile the two thugs who were seen with the body take their orders from a sultry dame who is a dead ringer for Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity". The shooting gallery gal turns Ordway's attention to a boarded up house where things go bump in the night and which also happens to belong to the family of the dead man's fiancée, Irene. Suddenly the focus is turned to Irene's sister Natalie who had disappeared a few years before. Where Irene is weak and indecisive, Natalie is strong willed and dominating and had left the house after an argument with her father, who wanted to free Irene from Natalie's domination.After a false start William Castle soon found himself one of the top directors in Columbia's B unit (he directed a few in the Whistler series as well as the superb "When Strangers Marry") and 15 years later he returned to the same startling story twist (sort of) in "Homicidal". Irene was played by Ellen Drew who found most of her splashier roles at the beginning of her career - after that she drifted into Bs but she definitely gave the character of Irene an aura of "other worldliness"!!

... because they usually have nothing to do with the actual subject of the film. You also have to make sure you don't blink during these short fast-paced films or else you'll miss something important. Here the film opens on a young man stumbling around an amusement park in a fog of amnesia. He's had several of these spells lately and goes to Dr. Robert Ordway (Warner Baxter in the title role) for help. Ordway goes to the place where the young man says he found himself stumbling about. After walking around awhile what does he see but a couple of men coming out of a boarding house carrying the body of the young amnesiac man who came to see him that day, a bullet wound to his head. The bad guys spot Ordway so he has to feign drunkenness and pretend that he thinks the dead body they are carrying is actually another drunk or he's afraid that he'll share the young man's fate. The henchmen buy the act and let Ordway go. Ordway goes straight to the police and together they raid the boarding house. Nobody has ever seen the men Ordway saw, nobody every heard a shot, and no sign of violence is to be found anywhere in the boarding house. Police Inspector Harry B. Manning (William Frawley) obviously respects Ordway from his past help in solving crimes, but this time thinks maybe the good doctor is imagining things.Ordway knows that he saw what he thought he saw, so he first has to prove there was a crime then find the criminals. In the process Ordway runs across the young man's fiancée, a mousy and wealthy girl who's so meek she's almost invisible, a boarded up old mansion that for some reason has a master bedroom that is still completely furnished, and the dead bodies of the two henchmen Ordway saw carrying the young man's body. They've been asphyxiated in their sleep by gas, only they're not in their own apartment at the time of their deaths. Who is going about causing all of this mayhem? Watch and find out.William Castle directed several Crime Doctor films, and they always have that touch of the macabre. Thus this film has not only the well constructed mystery typical of the Crime Doctor films, it has lots of atmosphere as well. Highly recommended.

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.

This time amnesia is woven into the theme of CRIME DOCTOR'S MAN HUNT with WARNER BAXTER again essaying the title role. ELLEN DREW is the young woman who comes to see Dr. Ordway about her fiancé who has lapses of memory after suffering from shock. It's interesting to note how casually Ordway treats both her fears and the man's confession about lapses before getting involved in the case when his patient is murdered. WILLIAM FRAWLEY is the police inspector investigating the case (Fred Mertz to "Lucy" fans). The story only begins to pick up steam midway with Ordway creeping around a deserted house before being bonked on the head by the two "strong arm boys" who had something to do with his patient's murder. Ordway survives and the investigation leads to a luxurious house in the country where ELLEN DREW resides. It soon becomes clear that Drew is not well at all and has something to do with the strange affair. To divulge any more would be to give away too much of the plot which takes a twist at this point. Mystery fans can spot the psychological clues that explain the outcome, near the beginning of the story, largely due to a simplistic performance by Ellen Drew that is never wholly convincing. She's a very pretty woman but no actress of depth. One of the least complicated of the "Crime Doctor" stories, it makes for an entertaining little mystery.