***SPOILERS*** Uneven and confusing "Crime Doctor" movie that has to do with this psycho who has in in for young female models who the "Crime Doctor" Dr.Robert Ordway, Warren Baxter, teamed up with police inspector Dawes, John Litel, to put out of commission and behind bars.We have this side plot in the film involving the young and sensitive artist Clive Lake, Coulter Irwin, who's fiancée Connie Mace, Rusty Anderson, ended up being one of the psycho's victims! And on top of all that the amnesic Clive is later arrested in Connie's murder! The fact that Clive has been suffering from blackouts since he was a little boy, when his mom locked him in a closet, didn't help him in coming up with a alibi in where he was when Connie was murdered!It's Dr.Ordway who tries to give the very depressed Clive some confidence in his work as an artist by paying off famed art aficionado Fredrick Malone, Miles Mander,to display one of his works at his gallery in the city's famed Latin Quater. This is before Clive was arrested and charged with Connie's murder which made this all look ridicules in that he far more pressing problems like a life sentence behind bars instead of a future as an artist to worry about.The "Crime Doctor" does sniff out some clues in Connie's murder one of which is a safety deposit key that her killer dropped at the murder scene that was later retrieved from Dr.Ordway's rooming house while he was fast asleep. That's after bopping him on his head when he tried to follow the killer outside. The movie really goes nowhere with Clive losing and then recovering, due to Dr.Ordway's hypnotic powers, his memory while he's in jail. It's later almost halfway through the film that the on and off awake Clive, in him almost putting us watching the movie asleep, mercifully disappeared from sight never to be seen again as if his presents wasn't needed anymore.***SPOILERS*** Dr. Ordway does in fact track down Connie as well as other model Ellain Stewart's killer by tracking down the identity of the third model that was murdered by the deranged psycho who turned out to be his wife of one month Evelyn Harris! The killer made the mistake in having a portrait of Evelyn together with Connie & Ellain, called "The Ring", covered up with watercolors by artist Jimmy Gordon, John Abbott,instead of just burning it thus having the evidence of his crimes burnt along with it!By Dr.Ordway finding the portrait he could now prove that the killer in fact knew the two women Elline & Connie who ended up dead with the third Evelyn. That's after he murdered her and turned Evelyn into a paper machete doll to keep him company with! The very unsurprising ending with the killer eagerly exposing himself just to be arrested and put behind bars was even more silly then it looked at first. The killer was so overwhelmed in him being discovered by Dr. Ordway that he in fact almost dropped his gun, which he seemed to have trouble handling, in all the excitement! The Doc could have easily disarmed him far more effectively and without any effort then Inspector Dawes and the some half dozen policemen who burst into the place to take the both feeble and helpless old man down!

Warner Baxter reprises his role as the "Crime Doctor" in "The Crime Doctor's Warning," one of the later entries into the series. The director this time is William Castle.In this episode, Dr. Ordway is trying to help a young artist who has blackouts, during which one of his models is killed.I have to disagree with those who found this fast-paced. For me, it moves slowly, though the story is interesting. These Crime Doctor films generally have off-beat stories, but not the budget or quality directors to bring them up a level. In this case, Castle is an effective director, all right, but some of the acting is awful particularly from Coulter Irwin, who apparently was told to act like a vegetable.Warner Baxter, so frenetic in "42nd Street," is much more relaxed as Dr. Ordway, probably because he suffered a nervous breakdown. In any event, he's very natural and a likable character.These movies aren't great, but they sure did come up with some wild plots.

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).

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.