Crime Doctor's Man Hunt (1946)

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"!!

With the title of Crime Doctor in the series and Warner Baxter playing a psychiatrist in the role, the mental health issues of the criminal are what Baxter delves into in order to solve a given case. He's pretty respected by law enforcement and the police as personified here by William Frawley have no problem in asking for his assistance. I've always been surprised that the Crime Doctor was never taken up as a television series. The closest we've seen is recently is Jeff Goldblum on Criminal Intent who has and used that background to solve his cases when the show was still running.Dr. Ordway after meeting a young veteran with amnesia issues tries to keep an appointment and finds him shot to death with a pair of toughs trying to dispose of the body. Baxter does a beautiful drunk act to keep from ending up the same way. Later on Baxter meets Ellen Drew who was the fiancé of the deceased John Foster. She's a girl with a lot of issues herself and gives a dandy performance in this film.This was a good series for Warner Baxter and the episodes were always competently made although some were better than others. This one's a good prototype.

***SPOILERS*** The "Crime Doctor" Dr. Robert Ordway gets caught up with an identity crisis in the movie "The Crime Doctor's Manhunt" in two people in the film having two different names, one real one fake, to hide their real identity! It's up to Dr.Ordway to find out who's who and why their trying to hide the fact from him and later the police just who they really are! All this confusion started when shell-shocked ex-GI John Foster came to Dr.Ordway's office to find out why he has lapses in his already shattered, from the war, memory and what's causing them! It's later that Foster's fiancée Irene Cotter shows up at the Doc's office telling him that her boyfriend is acting very strange and Dr. Ordway should follow up in his head shrinking treatments on him. As it turns out Foster never shows up to be treated which has Dr.Ordway go to Foster's usual hang out at the local carnival to see if he's responding to his treatment that he already gave him. Before he can talk to Foster Dr. Ordway finds him shot in the head outside his apartment by two hoods who are trying to dispose of his body. Faking to be drunk Dr. Ordway is left alone after being escorted to his "pad" by the hoods who are so stupid in that they let him, the one person who can identify them and send them to both prison and the electric chair, get away! The movie gets even more confusing then it already is when Irene's control freak sister Natalie shows up on the scene after a three year absence. It soon discovered, by the dead man's US Army dog tags, that John Foster is really Phil Armstrong Irene's fiancée who never bother to tell the Crime Doctor, when she visited him in his office, what his real name was? ***SPOILERS*** Dull and at times hard to follow "Crime Doctor" film with the "Crime Doctor" Dr. Ordway as usual doing all the heavy lifting and taking all the hits as he and police inspector Harry B.Manning track down who offed John Foster/Robert Armstrong and why! Natalie later has a falling out with the two hoods who murdered Armstrong over money and end's up offing them, by turning up the gas at their hideout, as well. The "Crime Doctor" soon sees through Natalie's act and uses himself, like he does in most of the "Crime Doctor" film, as bait to get her to slip up! Nothing to really write home about here that's we haven't seen before in the 'Crime Doctor" movies but that the "Crime Doctor" or the actor who plays him Warren Baxter is starting to get a wee bit tired of playing him being a detective instead of practicing his craft: Psychitry. That's by Dr.Ordway being forced by the writers and directors of the series to be a hard boil take it on the chin private eye instead!

This film was a very short low budget film running only sixty-one minutes and Dr. Robert Ordway once again gets involved with a case dealing with a dual personality. Irene Cotter, (Ellen Drew) plays the role as a very pretty but timid person who was devoted to her sister Natalie who left her family and went away three years ago. There are two men who visit the home of Irene and talk to their landscaper and ask about Natalie because they wanted to speak to her, these two guys were hoods and were looking for money from Natalie. After this incident, a murder is committed and Police Inspector, (William Frawley) gets involved and gives a great supporting role. This is a great film with an unusual story line of mystery.