User reviews

Having seen most of the series over the decades there's a couple of Crime Doctor films I've still to see, this was one of them until last night. Was it worth it the wait? Like the previous commenter, as a fan of b movie detective films (especially from the Golden Age): Yes! This was no. 3 and Columbia were well into their stride by now – and with Boston Blackie, the Lone Wolf and the Whistler – churning out 10 films in 6 years until everyone ran out of steam in 1949.

A mysterious woman visits Dr. Ordway (always played by the ever dependable Warner Baxter) at 3 am in the pouring rain for his psychiatric help because she doesn't know whether the bad dreams she's having tempting her to suicide are actually real. This leads him to stay at her spooky but extremely scenic house and grounds by the ocean containing a motley assemblage of strange guests and staff with secrets galore – when one of them gets murdered the game is afoot to unmask the culprit. The usual stuff in other words, but expertly handled with high production values and a nice brooding smoky atmosphere. George Zucco helps the film but hinders Ordway as a fairly mad scientist – a brilliant stroke to put him in! Distracted Nina Foch plays the woman apparently having nightmares; just about the only film you see her in over here nowadays is An American In Paris. Favourite bits: Ordway's sleepwalking adventure; searching the cellars and the dark underground journey. It's all reasonably cogent and it all fits neatly together by the end.

A nice entry in the series, one I can recommend to fans of the genre as usual and encourage non-fans to save their time as usual.

Of the ten Crime Doctor films starring Warner Baxter released by Columbia from 1943 through 1949, this is the only one that Turner Classic Movies has never aired. This third entry is one of the earliest screen roles for the young Nina Foch (pronounced Fosh), who plays a neurotic young woman having strange nightmares and calls upon Dr. Ordway to pay a house call at her seaside estate. There is no shortage of suspicious characters not the least of which is Nina's chemist uncle Frank Swift, played by the always enjoyable George Zucco. Other familiar faces include Lester Matthews and Ben Welden. A screen heartthrob during the early talkie era whose health problems by this time included emphysema and arthritis, Warner Baxter was truly grateful for the steady employment of a 'B' movie series like this one. Columbia was one of the few Hollywood majors whose bread and butter came from series like the Crime Doctor, The Whistler, Boston Blackie, and the trio of "I Love a Mystery," all of which were based on popular radio shows of the day. Until their recent airings on TCM, these films had not been widely seen so 'B' movie buffs like myself have been rejoicing ever since. The Crime Doctor series differs from the others in that (with the exception of the initial entry) the title character was never saddled with a love interest and always dedicated to the psychological aspects of the cases (shades of Philo Vance!). Warner Baxter was a native of Columbus Ohio who died in 1951 at the age of 62, much beloved at the time but quietly forgotten today, although his early talkies include appearances opposite Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. While none of Dr. Robert Ordway's adventures were truly outstanding, the only one I could not recommend remains the one set in Paris (the ninth, "The Crime Doctor's Gamble," director William Castle's 4th and last entry). Perhaps the most intriguing entry would be the last, "The Crime Doctor's Diary" (1949) which featured an early Hollywood appearance by future Moneypenny Lois Maxwell.

"Shadows in the Night" is one of the weirdest of the Crime Doctor series of movies...probably the weirdest. The plot, though enjoyable, is just very strange and incredibly farfetched...but still watchable.

A woman comes to visit Dr. Ordway (Warner Baxter). She has been having weird dreams and has been having some suicidal thoughts. The doctor decides to drop by the lady's home for an extended visit..in order to investigate the strange happenings. Soon, the doc is having some strange visions himself. One involves finding a dead body. The body disappears and later is found dead in the surf nearby. Now this part makes zero sense....Dr. Ordway is the crime doctor and has a history of solving crimes. He quickly identifies the body in the surf as the one he saw in the house...yet everyone quickly dismisses him. Huh?? He is a trained psychiatrist and yet he's assumed to be delusional and the fact a body soon IS found means nothing! These sorts of logical errors and the actual cause of the sleepwalking and delusions is pretty silly....though the rest of the film is enjoyable and Baxter and the rest are good actors. Worth seeing for lovers of the series.

One thing about Dr. Robert Ordway he keeps some strange office hours As in Shadows In The Night when Nina Foch comes to his home in the middle of the night and invites him to her place. Off he goes without any hesitation.

Foch is a rich young woman who has a collection of permanent party guests, friends and relatives of a sinister nature. Right now Foch is just having sleepwalking problems, but soon murder among he guests happens.

The solution is a scientific one and the murder for very understandable motives. With his knowledge of medicine and the mind Warner Baxter figures it out.

The murderer was not who I expected so that is always a plus.

Nina Foch comes to see psychiatrist Warner Baxter. She''s been sleepwalking onto the beach from her house by the shore, and having threatening, incoherent dreams. Eventually, Baxter comes to visit her. Miss Foch's family is decayed gentry. Although she has the house, she earns a living as a textile designer. She also runs a perpetual house party for family and friends, including mildly nutty chemist George Zucco, her sister and brother-in-law, and so forth. To see if there is something about her bedroom, she sleeps in one of the guest rooms and has Baxter take hers for the night.... and he has threatening, incoherent dreams and goes sleepwalking onto the beach. Then Zucco turns up dead.....and everyone in the house seems intent on the inquest declaring it an accident.

It's a pretty good mystery, although there's a fake-science edge to it, but the cast of capable performers do nicely with the material under high-speed director Eugene Forde. The result is an excellent B picture, one of the series that occupied Bater for most of the last decade of his life.

When the young "Lois" (Nina Foch) starts having nightmares at her seaside home, she calls in the help of renowned psycho-sleuth "Ordway" (Warner Baxter) to help her out. He duly arrives at her rambling pile and finds on his first night that he has become a sleepwalker. Luckily he is found by "Uncle George" (George Zucco) on the beach and escorted back to the house where he discovers a body. Rousing "Lois" they return to discover it's gone! What is going on here? What's with the eerie smoke that hovers around the rooms at times? Is "Lois" just not quite the full shilling or is George Zucco up to his usual nefarious acting tricks? I quite liked this - it's dark and coastal scenario, bodies there then not and just a little chemistry do rather point us to the conclusion, but the whodunit element is still a little left field. It's production is basic, as is just about everything else - but it passes an hour enjoyably enough.

Flaccid. Incoherent. I don't know what movie other reviewers saw but this was truly a mess. Not enough of a motivator in the plot to generate all the mayhem and is never fully explained. Well it's explained and the explanation is absurd and unrealistic. You Tube has all the Crime Doctor movies available, which is where I found this one. I will watch another one as the cast was good in this particular offering. Very atmospheric. Looked like it had potential. What a dud. Many thanks to the other reviewers of this picture for the historical background on the series. Your synopses of the movie were far more interesting than the film itself. I found it trite, un-engaging and ridiculous. My opinion only. No one has to agree with me. I'll give the series another chance though.

There are reminders here both of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie, in the mystic gloom of the environment with secret corridors and caves and even hypnotic gas, which would have interested Agatha Christie, who was the expert on chemistry in crime; but here the intrigue is just as intricate and complicated as any intrigues of hers, and like in her stories, it is impossible to figure out who the murderer is, although he has time to commit a number of murders in the course of the film, which is just for about 70 minutes. Warner Baxter's cases are always interesting, since he is both a psychiatrist with a criminal past who knows how to use his knuckles while at the same time he is an expert psychologist and doctor, so you can always rely on him, even when he gets into trouble himself and starts sleepwalking finding strange dead bodies in strange places. This is criminal entertainment and almost as good as any Sherlock Holmes adventure, while you will not be the only one to be surprised at the end.

Former criminal Dr. Robert Ordway is now a criminologist. Ordway is visited at three in the morning by the mysterious Lois Garland. Lois complains of nightmares, where the theme of suicide keeps recurring. Ordway then decides to stay in her haunted house, located on the Pacific Ocean. Lois receives several mysterious guests and one of them is murdered. Ordway decides to unmask the culprit using hypnosis and begins investigating the dark cellars beneath Lois's house.

A good entry of the crime Doctor series starring the charismatic Warner Baxter who gets involved in murder and strange apparitions. The ambience is certainly classic dark and brooding with lots of nooks and corners with the house overlooking the sea. Loved all the hidden stairways to the cave to the beach. The Gothic elements, headed by Zucco as a suavely sinister uncle and a ghostly apparition dripping wet from the sea, is well done.

This film is the tenth and last of the Crime Doctor films that I've tracked down. It's the hardest to see for reasons I don't know. The other films have screened on TCM over the past few years since TCM picked up the old Columbia catalog, but this one stubbornly refuses to show up.

Well, I'm glad to say Dr. Ordway saved the best for last for me. The film's generic-sounding title is a little off-putting. It has plenty of shadows and in fact, even has a little bit of a horror film feel in a few moments. That's helped out by the presence of George Zucco, most welcome here as a mysterious chemist. Warner Baxter is terrific in his role as the Crime Doctor. I used to not like him so much based on some of his early films that I had seen, but he has totally won me over as Dr. Ordway. His extremely calm and unassuming manner is always relaxing to see and in this one (the third out of ten) he clearly has his character down and is able to get away with a few rather rude moments (such as throwing the chemical bottle at Zucco's feet) with barely a rise out of the other characters due to his otherwise professional demeanor.

The plot is very exciting in this entry - a young woman comes to Ordway's home in the middle of a rain-stormy night to beg for his help with her sleepwalking nightmares. At her home, Ordway encounters a dead body after suffering a similar such sleepwalking nightmare. Yet, all of the characters, including the young woman (an excellent Nina Foch) think their friend died of natural causes. Ordway's persistence proves otherwise.

As usual with classic Hollywood detective films there are always some plot holes, but this film easily overcomes them by succeeding with terrific atmosphere, steady pacing and by simply being a fun whodunit. Cheers to Dr. Ordway!

Nina Foch stars in the meller from Columbia Pictures about a troubled textile designer, living in her oceanfront home with a group of leeching friends, who seeks help from a psychiatrist when she can no longer tell the difference between her dreams and reality (she wakes up with her feet covered in sand!). Warner Baxter returns as sleuthing Dr. Ordway, aka "The Crime Doctor", in what would be the third entry in a 10-picture series turned out by Columbia between 1943 and 1949, based on the radio serial in which different actors assumed the lead role. Satisfactory murder mystery with spooky trimmings packs a lot of plot into its 67mns, what with a dead body appearing and disappearing, a host of houseguests acting suspiciously, and the silhouette of a long-haired figure that appears in a cloud of mist. Resolution of the crime is amusingly right out of a game of Clue; rest of the film is adequate--and the tag at the end is funny--although more wit in the writing would have been welcomed. ** from ****