Crime Doctor (film)
| Crime Doctor | |
|---|---|
theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Michael Gordon |
| Produced by | Ralph Cohn |
| Written by |
C. Graham Baker Louis Lantz Jerome Odlum (adaptation) |
| Based on |
Crime Doctor 1940-7 radio series by Max Marcin |
| Starring |
Warner Baxter Margaret Lindsay John Litel |
| Music by |
Lee Zahler Mischa Bakaleinikoff (uncredited) |
| Cinematography | James S. Brown Jr. |
| Edited by | Dwight Caldwell |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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66 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Crime Doctor (1943) is a crime film adapted from the radio series of the same name. The film stars Warner Baxter as a man with amnesia determined to remember his past. The film was released by Columbia Pictures.
Nine sequels followed, all starring Baxter. These later movies were somewhat more conventional mysteries than the original film. Baxter finished his career with the series, which was relatively easy work for him after a nervous breakdown he had suffered. He died two years after the final "Crime Doctor" movie.
During the Great Depression, a man (Warner Baxter) is thrown out of a speeding car. When he regains consciousness in a hospital, he has amnesia. He is visited by a man who accuses him of faking his condition. The stranger calls the patient Phil and demands to know what happened to a valise, then runs away when Phil summons a nurse for help. When the man recovers, he takes the name Robert Ordway, after a hospital benefactor.
Ordway's doctor, John Carey (Ray Collins), wants to continue treating him and offers lodging in his house. All attempts to discover his identity fail, so Ordway decides to learn all he can about his condition. After ten years, he has become a successful psychiatrist, in partnership with Carey. Ordway begins treating prison inmates. He is so successful, he is named head of the state parole board.
While on a date in a nightclub with social worker Grace Fielding (Margaret Lindsay), he is recognized by two men from his past: Joe Dylan (Harold Huber) and Nick Ferris (Don Costello). They and a third man, Emilio Caspari (John Litel), are unsure if he is their partner in crime. They convince convict Pearl Adams (an uncredited Dorothy Tree), their associate's ex-girlfriend, to apply for parole. At her hearing, she calls Ordway "Dr. Morgan". Ordway badgers her until she reveals that he is Phil Morgan, the mastermind of a $200,000 payroll robbery from which the money was never recovered.
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