JohnHowardReid The title is a misnomer. Edward Anholt's ingenious plot has nothing to do with a diary, but it's an excellent screenplay anyway with a very fast-moving and difficult to spot the murderer plot. Terse dialogue and some very interesting characters provide plenty of great moments for a fine array of players. Whit Bissel has a particularly meaty role – and he takes full advantage of all his opportunities. There's also am amusing little cameo by Sid Tomack as an unregenerate pickpocket. My old favorite, Fred F. Sears (who later became a director), can be fleetingly glimpsed as a detective. Adele Jergens plays the femme fatale with all her usual dash. Lois Maxwell too does well as the drab heroine. Baxter fills out the title role with more ease here than he displayed in many of his "A" pictures. Director Seymour Friedman keeps the movie moving at a fast clip. There are also some appealing lighting effects by photography Vincent Farrar. There is no sign of stinting on the art director's part either. The sets look convincingly real and there are plenty of scene changes. Film editing is nice and smooth. Music score is attractive. Altogether a first-class "B" entry, And yes, the writer is none other than Academy Award winner (for Panic in the Streets) Edward Anhalt.

kidboots This was just a super end to a series that never slipped (much) from the high standard from which it started.Set in the crazy world of turntable booths, it starts out with Steve Carter (Stephen Dunne) being given an early release from prison on the recommendation of Dr. Ordway (Baxter). Even though it was through his testimony that Carter was imprisoned, Ordway has come to the conclusion that he was innocent of arson and thinks that with Carter being free the real fire bug will out themselves. Before his imprisonment he was employed at Bellem's Wired Music Co., a firm that has "request" juke boxes at diners and cafes. This was a real talking point at our house. Were they popular in the States during the 1940s? I seem to remember something like this in the Doris Day movie "My Dream is Yours" - patrons request a song through a telephone connected to the juke box, the message is then relayed to one of the girls in the turntable booth who then finds the song.One of Bellem's workers is simple minded (or is he?) Pete (an impossibly young Whit Bissell) who just happens to be the boss's brother. He has recorded a very annoying song and he frequents the cafes, always ringing up a request for that particular song - no one is amused, least of all Anson (an unbilled George Meeker who has a pretty sizable role) who has had a few altercations with him. Another person of interest is good old Robert Armstrong as "Goldie" Harrigan, owner of Harrigan's, Bellem's music opposition. His secretary is slinky Inez (Adele Jurgens, who was dubbed "The Eyeful" by a Columbia publicist) who went out with Carter before his imprisonment but whose disloyalty to him at the trial now makes her look very shifty. Then there is sweet Jane (Lois Maxwell, who became famous later on as Miss Moneypenny of James Bond fame), who has never stopped loving and believing in Carter even though he now wants to resume his relationship with Inez.When Anson is found dead, Carter's conversation with Ordway in which he details a dream, that has him shooting Anson with a smoking gun, comes back to haunt him - but as usual everyone is a suspect. Could it be poor Pete who had one last fight with him that fatal night, Carter who was seen going into the studio - even Bellem who had overheard Anson accusing him of lighting the original fire!!!Just love the last lines - "Do you think Pete will sing?" to which Ordway replies with a sigh "I'm afraid nothing will stop him"!!!

Neil Doyle WARNER BAXTER was approaching the end of his life by the time he did THE CRIME DOCTOR'S DIARY, the last film in the Crime Doctor series.This above average programmer is slickly produced, written and acted in true "Crime Doctor" style with some nice performing by LOIS MAXWELL and a good role at the center for STEPHEN DUNNE as an innocent man released from prison and, as it turns out, wrongly framed for arson.The plot has to do with a record music company delivering call-in juke-box service where patrons could request certain records to be played by request, a forerunner of disc jockeys. Haven't been aware of the existence of this sort of thing until I saw MY DREAM IS YOURS (same year) wherein Doris Day worked in such a record establishment where she could be heard by bar patrons.WHIT BISSELL, who turns up in so many films from the '40s and '50s, does a neat job as a mentally deficient but good-humored man trying to get the music industry interested in his foolish folk song. ADELE JERGENS is the girlfriend of Dunne who has the courage to help him when he's on the lam after being hurt by a police bullet, and ROBERT ARMSTRONG is her jealous boss.It's noticeable that there's no strenuous action staged for Baxter, as there usually is in a "Crime Doctor" movie, since the actor was obviously not well during filming. He gets to comment briefly on things and hasn't much of a role at all while others get to hold center stage.But it makes a good crime doctor story and unfolds in a crisply efficient sort of way to make pleasing entertainment. STEPHEN DUNNE and LOIS MAXWELL are both seen to advantage here.Summing up: Not bad at all. One of the more interesting in the series.

HallmarkMovieBuff One thing that makes this final entry in the Crime Doctor series better than average, aside from the interesting collection of players, is the writing, a mixture of 1940s crime dramas with a few throwbacks to 1930s comedies.On one hand we have a spattering of old-timey cops-and-robbers lingo, with terms like "moll," "dip," "binnie", "pigeon," and "prowl car". Plus, there's the gratuitous use of firepower to pursue an obviously unarmed suspect which wouldn't be tolerated in today's televised police procedure.On the other hand there are several laugh-out-loud zingers and one-liners that are clever in context but would make no sense if repeated here.With a less convoluted plot than previous entries in the series, there is still a sufficient number of suspects to keep one guessing as to the perpetrator; but this tale depends less on our good doctor's crime-solving abilities than on a device introduced midway through the action at which one's immediate reaction is "evidence".