The Crime Doctor’s Strangest Case (1943)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Don't listen to the negative reviews

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Blistering performances.

Crime Doctor's Strangest Case finds Warner Baxter checking on Lloyd Bridges whom he considers a success story as a reclamation project while he was on the parole board. Bridges just got a job with George Lynn, a multimillionaire real estate tycoon whom we learn as Baxter arrives to visit Bridges on the job we learn that Lynn was poisoned by a cup of coffee Bridges brought to him. This case is not only strange, but quite baffling as the roots go back thirty years to the disappearance of Lynn's partner in an old musical theater and vaudeville house. The theater has been boarded up and shut down ever since. Other than Dr. Ordway and the police everybody is a suspect in this one, not excluding Bridges who has a couple of scenes that make you wonder whether Dr. Ordway missed a bet with him. This Crime Doctor is a worthwhile bit of time spent viewing.

Crime Doctor's Strangest Case, The (1943) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Second film in Columbia's Crime Doctor series has the psychiatrist (Warner Baxter) trying to solve the murder of a real estate agent. All fingers point to a man (Lloyd Bridges) who the crime doctor got off of murder charges the year before. This second film is certainly better than the first film but it's still not top-notch mystery. Baxter seems a little bit more at ease here but again, his performance isn't anything that really jumps off the screen. Bridges steals the film as the man who knows his past will make him look guilty here. The rest of the supporting cast is pretty forgettable as is most of the mystery but at 68-minutes it never gets too slow.

Enjoyed this black and white picture from 1943 and Warren Baxter,(Dr. Robert Ordway) who is a psychologist and at the same time gets himself involved solving crimes and out smarts all the professional police enforcers. In this picture Dr. Robert Ordway comes to the aid of Loyld Bridges, (Jimmy Totter) who is an ex-con and seeks the doctors advice about starting a new position and the fact that he had intentions of marrying Lynn Merrick, (Ellen Totter). Dr. Ordway suggests that he not get married for awhile until he gets settled in his new job. There is plenty of trouble that starts and the mystery gets quite complicated and many scenes are filmed in an old night club that is closed and everything is mostly done in the complete dark with very poor flashlights and even kerosene lamps are used and a telephone rings right after a fire in the night club.

A young LLOYD BRIDGES plays a man whose wealthy employer is found dead of poisoning. Bridges needs the help of crime doctor WARNER BAXTER to prove that he's not the murderer. When Bridges makes a quick getaway, we have Baxter left with a household of prime suspects, including REGINALD DENNY, LYNN MERRICK, ROSE HOBART and, later on, JEROME COWAN as a man who lights too many careless matches.VIRGINIA BRISSAC is good as a loyal but suspicious housekeeper who takes Baxter into her confidence, but it's young up and coming actor LLOYD BRIDGES who manages to make the strongest impression among the supporting cast. He was a more than capable actor even then.Based on characters created in a radio play, the nice thing about CRIME DOCTOR'S STRANGEST CASE is that all the loose ends are neatly tied up by Baxter's sleuthing abilities. Summing up: Mystery buffs should find this fast moving B-film a very enjoyable crime drama from Columbia.