The Crime Doctor's Warning (1945)

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Blistering performances.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

***SPOILERS*** Uneven and confusing "Crime Doctor" movie that has to do with this psycho who has in in for young female models who the "Crime Doctor" Dr.Robert Ordway, Warren Baxter, teamed up with police inspector Dawes, John Litel, to put out of commission and behind bars.We have this side plot in the film involving the young and sensitive artist Clive Lake, Coulter Irwin, who's fiancée Connie Mace, Rusty Anderson, ended up being one of the psycho's victims! And on top of all that the amnesic Clive is later arrested in Connie's murder! The fact that Clive has been suffering from blackouts since he was a little boy, when his mom locked him in a closet, didn't help him in coming up with a alibi in where he was when Connie was murdered!It's Dr.Ordway who tries to give the very depressed Clive some confidence in his work as an artist by paying off famed art aficionado Fredrick Malone, Miles Mander,to display one of his works at his gallery in the city's famed Latin Quater. This is before Clive was arrested and charged with Connie's murder which made this all look ridicules in that he far more pressing problems like a life sentence behind bars instead of a future as an artist to worry about.The "Crime Doctor" does sniff out some clues in Connie's murder one of which is a safety deposit key that her killer dropped at the murder scene that was later retrieved from Dr.Ordway's rooming house while he was fast asleep. That's after bopping him on his head when he tried to follow the killer outside. The movie really goes nowhere with Clive losing and then recovering, due to Dr.Ordway's hypnotic powers, his memory while he's in jail. It's later almost halfway through the film that the on and off awake Clive, in him almost putting us watching the movie asleep, mercifully disappeared from sight never to be seen again as if his presents wasn't needed anymore.***SPOILERS*** Dr. Ordway does in fact track down Connie as well as other model Ellain Stewart's killer by tracking down the identity of the third model that was murdered by the deranged psycho who turned out to be his wife of one month Evelyn Harris! The killer made the mistake in having a portrait of Evelyn together with Connie & Ellain, called "The Ring", covered up with watercolors by artist Jimmy Gordon, John Abbott,instead of just burning it thus having the evidence of his crimes burnt along with it!By Dr.Ordway finding the portrait he could now prove that the killer in fact knew the two women Elline & Connie who ended up dead with the third Evelyn. That's after he murdered her and turned Evelyn into a paper machete doll to keep him company with! The very unsurprising ending with the killer eagerly exposing himself just to be arrested and put behind bars was even more silly then it looked at first. The killer was so overwhelmed in him being discovered by Dr. Ordway that he in fact almost dropped his gun, which he seemed to have trouble handling, in all the excitement! The Doc could have easily disarmed him far more effectively and without any effort then Inspector Dawes and the some half dozen policemen who burst into the place to take the both feeble and helpless old man down!

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.

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.

Another consultation gets Warner Baxter as the famous Crime Doctor involved in another murder. Young Coulter Irwin is having some kind of flashback occurrences and keeps wandering over to a location that he has no apparent meaning for him. Before Baxter finishes he's involved in the murder of three female artist's models and of course it's Irwin who's suspected because of the unexplained blackouts and because he's an artist.The problem with the Crime Doctor series and with some of the B mystery series is that many times the small cast doesn't leave you too many suspects. In this case the murderer's behavior early on does kind of tip you off in terms of his identity.Still Warner Baxter is always good in whatever film he's in and he gets good support from a familiar cast of players.