THE CRIME DOCTOR'S STRANGEST CASE
US, 1943, 68 minutes, Black-and-white.
Warner Baxter, Lloyd Bridges, Lynn Merrick, Gloria Dickson, Barton McLane?, Jerome Cowan, Reginald Denny, Rose Hobart, Virginia Brissac.
Directed by Eugene J.Forde.
The Crime Doctor was a very popular series in the 1940s, B-budget from Columbia Studios, supporting features. The stories were based on a very popular radio program. This is the second in the series, the initial film introducing Warner Baxter, Oscar-winner for In Old Arizona, 1928, and explaining his background, crime, amnesia, parole board, psychiatrist.
Lloyd Bridges plays a young man accused of murdering his employer. He was helped by the doctor in the past for a new trial. He is now intending to marry, visiting the doctor with his fiancee, explaining that he has a similar kind of job to the past. The doctor intends to visit his employer but arrives to find that has been poisoned. The young man declares his innocence, makes an escape, is found to have married his fiancee and takes refuge with her.
At the house, the doctor is welcomed by an eccentric housekeeper of 30 years, a former showgirl, an intriguing dotty performance by Virginia Brisssac. There is the dead man’s brother who runs a pharmaceutical company. There is a dead man’s wife of only one year. There is also the nephew of the dead man. Also present is the housekeeper of six months.
There is a great deal of plot in the one hour plus running time. The doctor investigates the past of the dead man, getting information about his partner of the time who disappeared, allegedly embezzling all the money. The man who disappeared also had a daughter at the time – and it is she who is disguised as the housekeeper at the mansion. She has a most eccentric husband, a popular song composer, played by Jerome Cowan.
Much of the action takes place in the club owned by the two men, shut for 30 years, though the dead man paying taxes – and the corpse of his partner being found. There are various people lurking in the club, a dangerous fire but the doctor escaping. The dead man’s brother is also found hanged in the club.
Eventually, a confrontation, a visit to the club and the unmasking of the villain.
1. The popularity of the Crime Doctor series? Mysteries? Investigations, the doctor and the police? Based on a popular radio program?
2. Warner Baxter as the doctor, screen personality, background, psychiatrist, crime investigations?
3. The settings, the doctor and his office, the mansion and the interiors, the decayed nightclub, dark and sinister settings? The musical score?
4. The doctor, personality, his work, with Jimmy, helping him in the past with his trial, giving advice to him and his fiancee, going to see the employer, discovering the murder, the information from Miss Patricia, meeting those present, wife, brother, nephew, the housekeeper? Suspects?
5. The difficulties for Jimmy, talking with the doctor, but running away, fear that he would not be believed, going to his fiancee, the discovery that they were married? The club, the fiance going to visit with the doctor? His eventually being vindicated?
6. The doctor, the confrontation with the housekeeper, the audience seeing her changing her clothes, wig, transforming from dowdy to blonde in her early 30s? Her escape? The doctor tracking her down, her musician husband, his eccentric behaviour, the danger with fires? The arrival of the police, to charge him? The fire on the police car? The revelation of who the housekeeper was? Daughter of the partner of the dead man?
7. The dead man, explanations, his double dealings, his partner and the birth of his daughter, his disappearance with the money? The discovery of the corpse in the club? The dead man paying taxes for 30 years? The flashbacks – and Miss Patricia as a dancer?
8. Miss Patricia, her devotion, the past, eccentric behaviour, advice to the doctor?
9. The doctor returning, climbing the ladder, the dead man’s wife and her fears? The doctor reassuring her?
10. The episodes in the club, the darkness, the lamp, the fire? The dead body? The brother found hanging?
11. The police, collaboration with the doctor, his eluding them?
12. The buildup to the confrontation, the return to the club, the nephew and his presence, prepared to shoot the doctor, his being recorded? Unmasked?
