bkoganbing 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.

sol ***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!

blanche-2 Warner Baxter is again the "Crime Doctor" in "Crime Doctor's Man Hant," a 1946 entry into the series, this one directed by William Castle.In this one, Dr. Ordway (Baxter) deals with a returning serviceman who seems to be blacking out at times and winding up in an unfamiliar place in town. Ordway actually goes to this area and discovers the man murdered. The man's fiancée (Ellen Drew) has a sister who completely disappeared three years ago but once dominated her life.This is a pretty good Crime Doctor mystery, given style by Castle. What brings it down is the lousy acting by Ellen Drew and other characters introduced and not fleshed out. William Frawley plays a smart police inspector.As usual, Baxter, who early in his career was so hyper, is very relaxed and natural in his performance. Sometimes he's a little too relaxed, but the actor had suffered a nervous breakdown. He actually creates quite a likable character.Nice twist ending that I figured out. Recommended.

Neil Doyle This time amnesia is woven into the theme of CRIME DOCTOR'S MAN HUNT with WARNER BAXTER again essaying the title role. ELLEN DREW is the young woman who comes to see Dr. Ordway about her fiancé who has lapses of memory after suffering from shock. It's interesting to note how casually Ordway treats both her fears and the man's confession about lapses before getting involved in the case when his patient is murdered. WILLIAM FRAWLEY is the police inspector investigating the case (Fred Mertz to "Lucy" fans). The story only begins to pick up steam midway with Ordway creeping around a deserted house before being bonked on the head by the two "strong arm boys" who had something to do with his patient's murder. Ordway survives and the investigation leads to a luxurious house in the country where ELLEN DREW resides. It soon becomes clear that Drew is not well at all and has something to do with the strange affair. To divulge any more would be to give away too much of the plot which takes a twist at this point. Mystery fans can spot the psychological clues that explain the outcome, near the beginning of the story, largely due to a simplistic performance by Ellen Drew that is never wholly convincing. She's a very pretty woman but no actress of depth. One of the least complicated of the "Crime Doctor" stories, it makes for an entertaining little mystery.