The Crime Doctor’s Strangest Case (1943)

There are a lot of positive reviews for this old mystery crime flick here on the IMDb, which is why I think one of Miss Patricia's (Virginia Brissac) lines quoted above seems so appropriate for me. What exactly am I missing?Granted, I was somewhat entertained by this movie in the same way I'm entertained by Charlie Chan, Mr. Wong and Boston Blackie films of the same era. But how do you make sense out of some of the elements offered here, like a working phone in an abandoned night club building that's been shuttered for thirty years, a skeleton in the basement of the same building that was never discovered, and the very same club virtually engulfed in flames only to be visited the very next day by our intrepid crime doctor Robert Ordway (Warner Baxter), searching for a killer that will exonerate a young bookkeeper (Lloyd Bridges) from a murder charge. Oh yeah, I almost forgot - doesn't anyone else think it's unusual that Ordway would be climbing a ladder set up against the Burns home at two in the morning searching for clues, and two of the residents just as handily greet him once he's inside. All of this almost makes the murder of Walter Burns seem inconsequential by comparison, because I'm too busy wondering who came up with this stuff to pass off as a crime thriller.Well, for whodunit fans this one has a few red herrings and you'll have to outguess a number of principals in the picture who each have their own idea about who murdered old Burns. The reveal at the end of the story doesn't come off as a complete surprise; if you followed along attentively you'd have pegged him as a prime suspect. But I'm not telling, I'm still trying to fit all the other stuff that happened into my head.

***SPOILERS*** Going against his good friend Dr. Robert Ordway, Warren Baxter, advice the just found innocent accused murderer Jimmy Trotter,Llyod Briges, gets a job as the private secretary to Walter Burns, George Lynn! That's the same kind of job he had where he was accused of murdering his former employer Mr. Goulding that he stood on trial for . Wanting to marry his girlfriend Ellen Monroe, Lynn Merrick, Jimmy needed the income working from Burns to make the marriage a go.Dr. Ordway dropping into the Burns estate to check out how Timmy is doing he shocked to find out from the places housekeeper Patricia Cornwell, Virginia Brissac, that the man of the house, Mr. Burns, has just been found dead in his bed after having a sip of his evening coffee! Jimmy who's in the basement working on the Burns finances is totally in the dark to what happened to his boss but is soon to become the #1 suspect in his murder! That in the eyes of everyone,including the local police, in that Jimmy murdered before even though he was found innocent of the crime it's no stretch of the imagination that he murdered again! In fact it was Jimmy who was she last person to see Mr.Burns alive when he brought him the coffee that ended up killing him!On the run from the law Jimmy gets in touch with his just married wife Ellen begging her to keep him hidden until the storm blows over and the real killer of Mr. Burns is found! Dr. Ordway knowing in his gut that Jimmy is innocent goes out on his own to track down Mr.Burns' killer. This leads Dr. Ordway to the now shuttered down "Golden Nights Cafe" that Burns still owns after he relinquished all his real estate proprieties. It's at the "Golden Nights Cafe" that the truth is to be found to what lead up to Burns murder that involved the murder of the late Walter Burns' partner in the establishment George Fenton, Ray Walker, 30 years ago in 1912!It's doesn't take that long for Dr. Ordway to figure that there's a fly in the ointment in Burns murder and that being the Burns in house cook Mrs. Keppler, Gloria Dickson. Mrs. Keppler got her Job at the Burns estate with the help of housekeeper Mrs. Cornwall who in fact used to work at the "Golden Nights Cafe" and knew ****SPOILERS*** Mrs. Keppler's father George Fenton! It was Fenton who disappeared the very night together with $50,000.00 is cash belonging to Walter burns that Mrs. Keppler, who's really Evelyn Fenton Cartwright, his daughter was born!****SPOILERS*** As things soon turned out Dr.Ordway almost ended up getting murdered himself but with the help of his bloodhound like intuition soon tracked down who not only murdered Walter Burns but his brother Addison, Sam Flint, whom the killer strangled and made to look like a suicide. That's by Dr. Ordway tricking him into thinking that he's on to where the $50,000.00 is hidden and thus having him expos himself! That by trying to gun down Dr.Ordway with the doctor's gun that he purposely left for him to do it with that wasn't loaded!

Dapper yet avuncular Warner Baxter, one of cinema's earliest Oscar winners (Best Actor in 1928's IN OLD ARIZONA), is put through his paces in this second entry in Columbia Pictures' CRIME DOCTOR series, based on the hit radio series. Baxter plays the title character, a.k.a. Dr. Ordway, an amnesiac who learned (in the first CRIME DOCTOR movie) he used to be a gang leader. Since then, Dr. Ordway's been using his knowledge of the criminal mind to become an in-demand psychiatrist. (My husband wondered if he was able to psych out his rival gangsters in his hoodlum life.) Baxter's testimony had helped acquit Jimmy Trotter (a young Lloyd Bridges), who'd been accused of poisoning his previous employer. Jimmy finds that even when you're proved innocent, it's tough to find a job when you've got "Accused Poisoner" on your resume. But does Jimmy follow Dr. Ordway's advice and get a fresh start with his new wife in a new town? No-o-o-o! Jimmy grabs the first job he can get, as assistant to a Realtor, only to find himself jobless and the prime suspect when the Realtor dies of poisoning. Dr. Ordway gets involved, and before you can say "It's old Mr. Withers! He wanted to get the land cheap!", he's up to his fedora in wily blondes disguised as brunette cooks, family skullduggery, a would-be George Gershwin who's careless with matches (played for comic relief by Jerome Cowan, best known in our household as Miles Archer in the classic 1941 version of THE MALTESE FALCON. Fellow ... FALCON alumnus Barton MacLane plays the police detective on the case), and an anxious middle-aged lady whose freaky dreams may be the key to the mystery. That dream sequence is surprisingly intense, with imagery of silhouetted girls plummeting off cliffs and hanging from nooses; it's almost like a welcome bit of comic relief when a sinister male silhouette holding a suitcase labeled "POISON" shows up! THE CRIME DOCTOR'S STRANGEST CASE may not be THE MALTESE FALCON, but Baxter is an ingratiating lead and the flick is an entertaining way to spend 68 minutes. Give it a look next time it turns up on Turner Classic Movies!

This movie is the 2nd in the Crime Doctor series. He is now a famous and successful Psychologist, The first Crime Doctor sets him up and explains who, why and how. The rest of the Crime Doctor stories like this one are Who Dunnits. And not bad ones at that. Depending if you are an aficionado of old movies and mystery stories, I am of both, the plot should be interesting and hold your interest. Usually the Crime Doctor gets involved in the mystery through a patient and this story is no exception. The patient this time is a ex-convict who is taking on a new job. Pretty soon it looks like he has been hired so that he can be framed for the murder. Crime Doctor interviews the other people who are related to or work for the murdered man. Somewhere among them he finds the real murderer.