utgard14 A man (Warner Baxter) is thrown from a speeding car and awakens with amnesia. He befriends a doctor and, when it appears his memory will never return, he begins a new life under the name of Robert Ordway. He trains to become a criminal psychologist and goes to works in a prison. Eventually his past comes to light. First and best in a series of films from Columbia, all starring Baxter. Ray Collins, who had previously played the Crime Doctor role on radio, plays his friend in this entry. Margaret Lindsay plays his love interest in this first film. One of the issues with the series was the lack of recurring supporting characters. None of the characters here return in later sequels, besides Ordway himself. Playing the bad guys here are Harold Huber, John Litel, and Don Costello. This is a good start to an enjoyable series, although it's not one of my favorites. You know from early on that this guy had a checkered past so there isn't much mystery to be had, which makes it more of a drama. On that front it's fine, with Baxter and the quality character actors he's working with all doing good jobs. It just doesn't have enough meat on the bone to stand up under comparison with the better movie detective series of the '30s and '40s.

Gangsteroctopus Let me start off by saying that I actually like a lot of the old B-movie cheapie film series, like 'Boston Blackie,' 'The Falcon,' 'The Saint,' et.al. - just so you know that I'm not some ADD-addled kid who can't sit still unless a movie is edited like it's been thrown into a blender by Michael Bay.But, c'mon, let's be serious: this is a pretty terrible film, on almost every level.First off, Warner Baxter looks awful. Every time one of the women in the film talks about how he's "good-looking," you have to laugh. I realize that in real life Baxter had had a nervous breakdown and was suffering terribly from arthritis (so much so that he eventually had a lobotomy - ! - to relieve the pain). But then the writers should have either cut the lines where women comment on his looks, or the producers should have cast a different actor in the role.And to be honest, appearance aside, Baxter is a really underwhelming screen presence: his voice quavery, his manner hesitant, his whole demeanor uncommitted. He looks and acts a LOT older than 54. He seems to be barely able look any of the other actors in the eye. (Pretty everyone else in the entire film comes off better than Baxter, in terms of their performances - it's astonishing to think that he once won an Oscar.) I know I should feel sorry for the guy, but that's no reason to let him ruin what might have been a memorable recurring character.The only reason that I didn't give this film a one-star rating is because it DOES have an initially intriguing premise, one that seems to anticipate "A History of Violence," among other more interesting films. But the writers quickly botch any sense of intrigue, completely throwing the story off the rails with all kinds of irrelevant tangents and sub-plots (how can a 64-minute film have this many sub-plots?), like the various criminals (female thief, disgraced Air Force officer) with whom Dr. Ordway deals with in the course of his work. These little side-stories have NO relevance whatsoever to the main story, adding nothing at all to it and, to boot, are uninteresting and insipid. Get back to the amnesia thread, you idiot writers! This is not to mention all of the improbabilities and convenient 'coincidences' that occur throughout the story, further stretching credulity well past the breaking point. (Two of Ordway's former cronies just happening to be in a nightclub where Ordway is with his fiancé, then one of them breaks a glass accidentally, requiring medical attention and, of course, Ordway is the only doctor present - yeah, right.) And why, for example, do Ordway's former partners in crime keep insisting to themselves that Ordway is faking the amnesia? For TEN YEARS he keeps up this charade, goes through medical school, gets a psychiatry degree, sets himself up in private practice, instead of just absconding with the loot and skipping town - say WHAT? How in the hell does that make any sense at all? I'll only mention in passing how poorly directed this film is, especially in regards to the pacing in the dialogue. Actor A, for example, says something, Actor B ponders these words for what feels like an eternity, then eventually, slowly responds - aaaarrrgh! Another reviewer has said that this is actually the least of the 'Crime Doctor' series, so maybe I'll give the next installment a chance (I recorded a bunch of them off of TCM), although I am not overly sanguine, and I still think that Warner Baxter is TERRIBLE.

bkoganbing One of the wilder premises involving a movie series was in the Crime Doctor films that starred Warner Baxter. We are asked to believe that Baxter was once gentleman crook Phil Morgan who held out the loot from his gang and who slugged him and threw him from a moving car and left him for dead. He didn't die, but has a case of amnesia. In any event ten years go by and in those ten years we are asked to believe that Baxter has acquired the eduction and training to become criminal psychologist Robert Ordway a most respected gent. The Crime Doctor character came from radio and I assume that radio provided a lot of background so that the Ordway character became more believable. Given the fact that the movie-going public had been used to the Crime Doctor radio program the whole premise was easier to swallow in 1943 than it is today.Baxter who is now a successful criminal psychologist and engaged to Margaret Lindsay is visited by old gang member John Litel who wants to know where the stashed loot is. He's not buying the amnesia story. He assembles the rest of the gang and the film is a battle of wits between Baxter and the rest. Need I tell you who wins?Future Crime Doctor films gradually left out the part that Baxter was a convict and as a result they have not become as dated and are more believable than the first film. Some are actually pretty good with the simple premise that Baxter with his psychological training is a pretty good criminologist, better in many cases than those who carry a badge. In fact Jeff Goldblum's character on Law and Order: Criminal Intent who does carry a badge can trace his origins back to Warner Baxter's Robert Ordway. A good screen character with too much unbelievable baggage.

sol **SPOILERS** Left for dead as he's thrown from a speeding car the man, Warner Baxter,recovers but completely lost his memory of just who he is and what was the reason for he his attempted murder. In the hospital the nurses are just crazy about the tall dark and handsome, as well as bandaged, stranger whom they affectionately give him the name of the wing of the hospital that he's staying in Robert Ordway a well known philanthropist and humanitarian.Ordway obsessed in finding out his identity, since no one in the medical profession could, goes the full nine yards in working his way through medical school as well as getting a degree in psychology, this in eight hard and back breaking years. Now a full fledged doctor and psychiatrist Dr. Ordway has just about forgotten what was the reason he put himself through all this just like he forgot who he originally was. Dr. Ordway is now a respected member of the community and has finally put his past, whatever that was, behind him until he meets some old friends, that knew him before he became Dr. Ordway, and that shocked him back to reality.The first of the "Crime Doctor" series that in fact establishes that the "Crime Doctor" Dr. Robert Ordway was into crime himself before he, with the help of hitting himself on the head, became the famous "Crime Doctor". The movie makes a plea to the audience that just because one has a criminal past doesn't mean that he'll have a criminal future as well. This is firmly established in Dr. Ordway himself who was in his previous incarnation the ruthless and brutal crime boss Phil Morgan. Morgan was the mastermind of the notorious Nordon payroll robbery back in 1932 that resulted in him being double-crossed by his associates, fellow hoods, Emlio Joe Nick & Myrtle.What Emilio and his gang didn't know when they double crossed Morgan is that Morgan had in fact double-crossed them in switching the suitcase with the payroll cash, $200,000.00,with a suitcase stuffed with old newspapers. Ordway now a marked man after he was spotted, by one of his former gang members, with his girlfriend Grace Fielding, Margaret Lindsay, is to really go all out in not only finding out who he is but were he hid the stolen payroll cash; the only thing that can keep him alive as long as Emilio & Co. don't get their hands on it.In the end Ordway/Morgan pays his debt to society not in just the good work that he did as a prison doctor and member of the parole board but also has the hoods, Emilio & Co, who tried to do him in brought to justice. As for reformed hoodlum Robert Ordway/Phil Morgan Justice being both just and merciful took into account Dr. Ordways accomplishments in both medicine and psychiatry, as well as him turning around the lives of the many convicts under his care, and forgave, with the jury recommending mercy, his past and youthful discretions. This had the presiding judge, who was ready to throw the book at him, put the grateful Dr. Ordway on probation for ten years.