The Crime Doctor's Courage

As Doctor Robert Ordway, the Crime Doctor, Warner Baxter gets involved in all kinds of mysteries. But one usually doesn't get invitations to dinner like this even from beautiful women like Hillary Brooke.

Brooke married Stephen Crane whose two previous brides both had accidental deaths. For some odd reason, she's beginning to have second thoughts about the marriage. So the famous Crime Doctor is invited for dinner and a consultation to observe the behavior of her husband.

In true murder mystery style the husband is shot to death last night in a locked room with the house still full of guests. Baxter calls the police and Captaine Emory Parnell arrives on the scene. Of course Baxter is no small help in eventually arriving at the identity of the culprit though another murder takes place.

We've even got the supernatural involved because one of the suspects is half of a mysterious Spanish dancing team of Anthony Caruso and Lupita Tovar. They're suspected of being vampires.

The Crime Doctor's Courage I'm sure didn't people running for the exits when it played the bottom half of double bills in the Forties. One thing I will say though, the behavior of one of the suspects during a scene that didn't involve Baxter kind of gave away the identity of the murderer. Still it's a passable enough murder mystery.

Another nice entry in the Crime Doctor series [#4/10], with atmospheric almost noirish black and white photography and some splendid Spanish American backdrops and sets. And a more off-the-wall storyline too!

A man who looks like the insane murderer of his first two wives is found dead in a locked room after a dramatic dinner party. The Crime Doctor is on the scene (ostensibly as a guest) to immediately and resignedly proclaim it murder, and so we are presented with a quite weird set of people to mull over, for one of them did the deed. Was it the frothing brother of the dead 1st wife, the 3rd wife and rich widow Hilary Brooke, the dancing brother and sister vampires, the intense young man, the eccentric cabinet maker Lloyd Corrigan on loan from Boston Blackie, the irreplaceable butler, or odds-on Jerome Cowan? Police Inspector Emory Parnell had his work cut out, but Warner Baxter as Ordway was as unflappable as ever in working it all out. One of the goofs listed on the IMDb is wrong: On breaking into the murder room Ordway says "Right through the centre of the forehead" and Cowan replies "He didn't miss this time". Favorite bits: Baxter and Cowan travelling through club sandwiches and beer at the nightclub to make amends for their interrupted dinner party; The scene where the Braga's place of repose is seemingly rumbled. The plot does seem to meander a bit at times and the way it was all explained off was perhaps more worthy of Monogram, but leaving it in the air as supernatural wouldn't do either!

Well worth a watch if you already like the genre, you won't be disappointed unless you really don't like the genre.

I reckon that this is my favourite of these Warner Baxter outings as the sleuthing psychiatrist "Ordway". A man posing as a waiter at an swanky dinner accuses their host of being a wife-murderer. Not just one wife, mind - but two. Anyway he retires to his study where he seemingly commits suicide. "Ordway" is drafted in to investigate at the behest of the puzzled "Capt. Birch" (Emory Parnell) and is soon caught up with the antics of a cabaret act whom people are gradually beginning to believe are three hundred year old vampires! Of course there's no such thing - but the act are never seen in the dark and have papers signed in Madrid by none other than King Philip IV in the 1640s! The doc is bamboozled, but we just know he will use science and common sense to unravel the mystery and that there is a common sense - most likely venal - reason behind it all. There's quite a fun dynamic between Parnell and Baxter and a solid contribution from Hillary Brooke's "Kathleen" as well as a few rope-spinning performances from the seemingly immortal "Bragga" magicians. It's even got it's own butler - and does raise a smile now and again.

I saw this on TCM recently and, through the IMDb I found that there were seven "Crime Doctor" movies with Warner Baxter as the psychiatrist-detective. Baxter is a bit long in the tooth compared to his stolid performance in 42nd Street a decade earlier. Not noir, and a bit campy today, the movie also has a touch of the possible supernatural. The plot, black and white cinematography and characters are far more complex than those of the Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan series. There are subplots, unexpected twists and appearances by a number of B movie stalwartly we all should recognize immediately (none ever made it to the A status). It is a wonderfully unpredictable 70 minutes.

I would love to see a boxed DVD series of these films.

This Crime Doctor film starring Warner Baxter, (Dr. Robert Ordway) causes the doctor to investigate a murder of a man who lost his both wives on their honeymoon. The doctor is approached by Hillary Brooke,(Kathleen Carson) while the doctor was on vacation and there becomes evidence that there is vampires operating in an old house who are dancers and can only be seen at night time. Their act consists of a mysterious dance created in bright lights and then the female dancer disappears into thin air. This film has many twists and turns and you will have no idea just who the killer is or just what direction this film will take you and why all these murders. This is a rather hopeless film.