The Crime Doctor's Warning (1945)

John Litel had been in the first "Crime Doctor" movie - he had played a tough mobster who wanted Ordway dead. Now he returns as Inspector Dawes who needs Ordway's help in solving the murder of a young model in this above average entry in the "Crime Doctor" series. This movie has Ordway taking a much more active approach in the proceedings as opposed to the later ones when he often took a back seat to the harassed detectives.A young painter, Clive Lake, hesitantly visits Ordway complaining of black outs but before they can meet again Clive's fiancée Connie ("Dusty" Anderson) is murdered. Things look bad for Clive. He went up on the roof to think things out, then a mysterious cloaked man (looking similar to Clive) is seen entering his studio flat via the skylight and then killing Connie whose body is discovered soon after, under a bed. Everyone in the room (there was a party going on) is a suspect and Ordway is soon plunged into the world of artists and models.He visits Malone's Fine Arts Gallery, hoping that if Malone accepts one of Clive's paintings, the young artist's confidence will be restored as will his sanity. Malone isn't keen but when Ordway returns to the gallery it is to find that the painting has already been brought by a stranger. The Crime Doctor is then followed by a caped stranger - who can it be - is it the garrulous Bohemian painter Duval, a disgruntled sitter or even the dour silhouette artist??Clive returns to his domineering mother whose harsh treatment when he was a child is at the root of his blackouts. Under hypnosis Ordway hopes Clive will name the man on the roof - ??? - and he also recalls that Connie and the model who was murdered at the film's beginning both posed for a painting called "The Ring" and Ordway now has a race to find the third girl before she is killed. The search leads him back to a familiar face who married the third model, killed her and then tracked down the other two to prevent an investigation.This is another compelling entry in the Crime Doctor series - George Meeker, who seemed to have roles in almost all the series, appeared in this one as one of Clive Lake's greedy relatives.

***SPOILERS*** Uneven and confusing "Crime Doctor" movie that has to do with this psycho who has in in for young female models who the "Crime Doctor" Dr.Robert Ordway, Warren Baxter, teamed up with police inspector Dawes, John Litel, to put out of commission and behind bars.We have this side plot in the film involving the young and sensitive artist Clive Lake, Coulter Irwin, who's fiancée Connie Mace, Rusty Anderson, ended up being one of the psycho's victims! And on top of all that the amnesic Clive is later arrested in Connie's murder! The fact that Clive has been suffering from blackouts since he was a little boy, when his mom locked him in a closet, didn't help him in coming up with a alibi in where he was when Connie was murdered!It's Dr.Ordway who tries to give the very depressed Clive some confidence in his work as an artist by paying off famed art aficionado Fredrick Malone, Miles Mander,to display one of his works at his gallery in the city's famed Latin Quater. This is before Clive was arrested and charged with Connie's murder which made this all look ridicules in that he far more pressing problems like a life sentence behind bars instead of a future as an artist to worry about.The "Crime Doctor" does sniff out some clues in Connie's murder one of which is a safety deposit key that her killer dropped at the murder scene that was later retrieved from Dr.Ordway's rooming house while he was fast asleep. That's after bopping him on his head when he tried to follow the killer outside. The movie really goes nowhere with Clive losing and then recovering, due to Dr.Ordway's hypnotic powers, his memory while he's in jail. It's later almost halfway through the film that the on and off awake Clive, in him almost putting us watching the movie asleep, mercifully disappeared from sight never to be seen again as if his presents wasn't needed anymore.***SPOILERS*** Dr. Ordway does in fact track down Connie as well as other model Ellain Stewart's killer by tracking down the identity of the third model that was murdered by the deranged psycho who turned out to be his wife of one month Evelyn Harris! The killer made the mistake in having a portrait of Evelyn together with Connie & Ellain, called "The Ring", covered up with watercolors by artist Jimmy Gordon, John Abbott,instead of just burning it thus having the evidence of his crimes burnt along with it!By Dr.Ordway finding the portrait he could now prove that the killer in fact knew the two women Elline & Connie who ended up dead with the third Evelyn. That's after he murdered her and turned Evelyn into a paper machete doll to keep him company with! The very unsurprising ending with the killer eagerly exposing himself just to be arrested and put behind bars was even more silly then it looked at first. The killer was so overwhelmed in him being discovered by Dr. Ordway that he in fact almost dropped his gun, which he seemed to have trouble handling, in all the excitement! The Doc could have easily disarmed him far more effectively and without any effort then Inspector Dawes and the some half dozen policemen who burst into the place to take the both feeble and helpless old man down!

Crime Doctor's Warning (1945) ** 1/2 (out of 4) William Castle steps in to direct this fifth film in Columbia's mystery series. This time out the Crime Doctor (Warner Baxter) is investigating a painter who suffers from blackouts, which leads to his models turning up dead. Castle brings quite a lot of energy to this film but it's not enough for me to call this a good movie. This entry is pretty much on par with the rest of the series in that it's decent time killers but the stories just aren't strong enough or interesting enough to make them work all the way around. Baxter is good once again but the supporting cast doesn't leave him too much to work with. Castle makes for some interesting scenes where the suspected killer is under hypnosis but that's about it.

Dr. Robert Ordway, (Warner Baxter) plays another role as Crime Doctor and gets involved with a young man named Clive Lake, (Coulter Irwin) who has problems with black outs when he returned from WWII. Clive lives with his mother who is very domineering and is very unhappy about her son falling in love with a model and then her sudden death which was caused by a murder. The police get involved and Inspector Davis, (John Litel) wants to book Clive for the girls killing; however, Dr. Ordway feels that Clive is innocent of the crime and proceeds with his own investigation, meanwhile other murders are committed. There is a painting called "The Ring" which shows three models in the picture which will reveal some deep dark secrets about the murders Nice low budget film from the past. Enjoy.