Michael_Elliott 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.

bkoganbing Another consultation gets Warner Baxter as the famous Crime Doctor involved in another murder. Young Coulter Irwin is having some kind of flashback occurrences and keeps wandering over to a location that he has no apparent meaning for him. Before Baxter finishes he's involved in the murder of three female artist's models and of course it's Irwin who's suspected because of the unexplained blackouts and because he's an artist.The problem with the Crime Doctor series and with some of the B mystery series is that many times the small cast doesn't leave you too many suspects. In this case the murderer's behavior early on does kind of tip you off in terms of his identity.Still Warner Baxter is always good in whatever film he's in and he gets good support from a familiar cast of players.

HallmarkMovieBuff One of the better films in the Crime Doctor series, this entry has enough variety to sustain interest, enough characters to keep one confused, and enough twists and turns to keep the viewer guessing as to the perpetrator right up towards the end.But where has the luscious Dusty Anderson, who plays one of the artist models, been all my viewing career? A bit player for Columbia around the end of WW II, research reveals that she married director Jean Negulesco and became a painter, not too far distant a profession from the one she plays in this movie. I'd suggest to anybody wanting to see more of her, however briefly, to look for her in one of several Rita Hayworth movies. (Check her IMDb.com entry for a list.) For me, however, this movie was stolen by J. M. Kerrigan and Miles Mander, both of whom play art dealers, and both highly credible in their parts, the former a Scotsman who "would swim to Glasgow for a farthing" (if I recall the quote correctly), and the latter a sophisticated high-end dealer who doesn't sell any painting for under $500 (no small sum in those days).

Neil Doyle Hardly likely to rank with an Agatha Christie type of mystery, these are fast paced, entertaining little items from Columbia starring WARNER BAXTER as the crime doctor/sleuth. He's always faced with a bunch of red herrings and a crime that baffles the police--as well as the viewer, at least until the last five minutes when everything is wrapped up with such rapidity that you barely have time to recover from trying to guess who done it.And there are plenty of suspects in the murder of models (male and female) and an artist--but at the center of the story is a young man (COULTER IRWIN) who blacks out on a regular basis and seems to be framed for the murder of one of his models.Supporting cast is dotted with well-known character actors from the '40s, including JOHN LITEL as a detective, ALMA KRUGER as Coulter's overbearing mother, JOHN ABBOTT as a shady sculptor, and MILES MANDER as an equally shady art dealer. There's also an outrageously hammy performance by EDUARDO CIANNELLI as a crazed artist who knows something about a painting beneath a painting.The viewer is kept in the dark as to the identity of a man creeping about and committing the crimes until the last few minutes in time for the usual abrupt ending.Summing up: Too many elements of the story are unbelievable, but it's still briskly produced and passes the time quickly.