Just Before Dawn (1946) ** 1/2 (out of 4) William Castle directed this 7th entry in the Crime Doctor series. This time out the doctor (Warner Baxter) is called to a house to give insulin to a diabetic but it turns out to be poison so the good guy has to track down the bad guys. This was a pretty good entry but it's also pretty much just like all the rest. The film, and series, is entertaining but it's hard to get too excited about them. Baxter is his usual self but the supporting cast isn't too lively this time out. Director Castle brings some nice touches to the film but the major plot twist at the end is easy to see coming.

High-quality mystery that attempts a lot and delivers in a serious, solid manner. Warner Baxter as always does fine work with a kind of personal and professional integrity.This film is well-directed by someone who obviously knows the mystery genre. There is such immediate, sinister danger lurking over Dr.Ordway and everyone else that the plot remains taught from start to finish. Also enhanced by good plot twists, especially near the beginning and near the end. There are three very sinister bad guys, as portrayed with evil believability by Martin Kosleck and the actors portraying his henchmen. The henchman named Casper is every bit as threatening as the killer "Lash Canino" in Bogart's "The Big Sleep".First-rate character actor Charles D. Brown is excellent as the police inspector. Robert Barratt and Mona Barrie are solid and watchable as a couple caught up in the story.

**SPOILERS**Being a good neighbor Dr. Robert Ordway, Warner Baxter, after being summoned to his next door neighbors house party in the hope that he'll revived the out cold Walter Foster, George Meeker, who passed out after he took a couple of drinks. The celebrated crime doctor sees that Walters condition is the result of Walters drinking and forgetfulness of him taking his daily insulin injection. After getting the insulin kit from Walter's overcoat Dr. Ordway gives him a shot in the arm and within seconds Walter, regaining consciousness, is as good as new. Then inexpediently seconds later he goes into a series of deadly convulsions and expires.It's obvious that someone at the Foster party pulled a switcheroo substituting the insulin for poison to take Walter out of his life as well as the killers hair. But with some two dozen people at the party who was it! It becomes evident from watching the movie that this creepy looking undertaker Karl Ganss, the Joesph Geobbles looking Martin Kosleck, and his hulking henchman Casper played by the TV "Millionaires" Marvin Miller-look alike Marian Miller were responsible for Walters death. As we later find out, together with Dr. Ordway, that there's a lot more then meets the eye in this murder mystery and that has to do with who the two weirdo, Ganss & Casper, are working for. And far more important whats the motivation, besides money, that their doing what their doing.Dr. Ordway gets a little too close to what's behind Walter Foster's murder when his sister Clair, Adele Roberts, and Ganss funeral assistant Connie Day, Peggy Converse, goes missing. Thats after he gets involved with them in uncovering Walters strange death. It's later that even the doctor himself becomes the victim of Ganss' and Casper's shenanigans. Thats when Casper brings in to see the doctor for help this paranoid schizophrenic, played the skeletal-looking Skelton Knaggs, claiming to be his crazed and unstable brother Louie. Casper after getting Dr. Ordway alone in his office sicks, like he was a mad and rabid dog, Louie on him who ended up shooting the doctor in the face temporally blinding him. Louie himself was soon discarded by Casper who threw him out the window of Dr. Ordways high rise building as he quickly fled the scene of his crime.Recovering from his wound Dr. Ordway played it cool making it look like he was blinded and used that excuse to have the Walter Foster's, as well as his sister Clair and Connie Day, killers drop their guard and have them exposed, thinking that Ordway was sightless, themselves. It's then the cops, together with the crime doctor, could not only get the drop on them but get Mr.Big himself to confess. But only after Dr. Ordway risked his life in giving Mr. Big enough confidence and rope , knowing that the good doc was not long for this world, to hang himself. We and Dr. Ordway can all thank God for the invention of the good old stomach pump which without it would not have made a happy ending in the movie "Just Before Dawn" possible.

Good entry in the Crime Doctor series where our hero, Dr. Robert Ordway, inadvertently gives poison to a man in diabetic shock. The police are willing co-conspirators to the Crime Doctor's sleuthing in this case but there will be additional murders before a final resolution.The real issue is not murder but a business being run out of a funeral parlor. The dying diabetic mumbles something before passing that is later revealed to be from Hamlet: "God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another" (Hamlet 3.1). What could possibly be going on in the funeral parlor in the evening? Direction by future horror meister William Castle results in some excellent shots of where something sinister is implied with off-screen mayhem. Recommended