The Crime Doctor's Diary (1949)

Just perfect...

Absolutely Fantastic

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This was just a super end to a series that never slipped (much) from the high standard from which it started.Set in the crazy world of turntable booths, it starts out with Steve Carter (Stephen Dunne) being given an early release from prison on the recommendation of Dr. Ordway (Baxter). Even though it was through his testimony that Carter was imprisoned, Ordway has come to the conclusion that he was innocent of arson and thinks that with Carter being free the real fire bug will out themselves. Before his imprisonment he was employed at Bellem's Wired Music Co., a firm that has "request" juke boxes at diners and cafes. This was a real talking point at our house. Were they popular in the States during the 1940s? I seem to remember something like this in the Doris Day movie "My Dream is Yours" - patrons request a song through a telephone connected to the juke box, the message is then relayed to one of the girls in the turntable booth who then finds the song.One of Bellem's workers is simple minded (or is he?) Pete (an impossibly young Whit Bissell) who just happens to be the boss's brother. He has recorded a very annoying song and he frequents the cafes, always ringing up a request for that particular song - no one is amused, least of all Anson (an unbilled George Meeker who has a pretty sizable role) who has had a few altercations with him. Another person of interest is good old Robert Armstrong as "Goldie" Harrigan, owner of Harrigan's, Bellem's music opposition. His secretary is slinky Inez (Adele Jurgens, who was dubbed "The Eyeful" by a Columbia publicist) who went out with Carter before his imprisonment but whose disloyalty to him at the trial now makes her look very shifty. Then there is sweet Jane (Lois Maxwell, who became famous later on as Miss Moneypenny of James Bond fame), who has never stopped loving and believing in Carter even though he now wants to resume his relationship with Inez.When Anson is found dead, Carter's conversation with Ordway in which he details a dream, that has him shooting Anson with a smoking gun, comes back to haunt him - but as usual everyone is a suspect. Could it be poor Pete who had one last fight with him that fatal night, Carter who was seen going into the studio - even Bellem who had overheard Anson accusing him of lighting the original fire!!!Just love the last lines - "Do you think Pete will sing?" to which Ordway replies with a sigh "I'm afraid nothing will stop him"!!!

... and that is understandable because by this time - 1949 - Warner Baxter was pretty much in constant pain due to his arthritis. It's painful for me to watch this film not because it isn't good but because you can clearly see the man is suffering.Thus the usually supporting players take up the slack here, with Baxter really not participating that much in the action. Here we have a man, Steve Carter, getting paroled after serving three years for an arson he says he did not commit. The advice from the warden is for Steve to stay out of trouble, but with nothing but revenge on his mind for whoever it was who framed him, Steve isn't listening. The ever loyal Jane is waiting for him at the prison gates even though Steve threw her over for the more elegant Inez. Inez is now involved with tough guy George Goldie Harrison, played by Robert Armstrong, but that doesn't mean the two don't get locked in a passionate embrace the first time they meet after Steve's release. The news of this infidelity does not amuse Goldie.It isn't long before one of the guys on Steve's short list of people who could have framed him turns up dead. Since Dr. Ordway (Baxter) recommended Steve for parole in the first place and Steve is acting quite guilty by running from the police, will the good doctor wind up with egg on his face? Watch and find out.Making sure the mood doesn't get too heavy is Whit Bissell as a song writer who is obsessed with recording and performing just one awful tune. Is he harmless but annoying or is he the red herring villain that has ruined Steve's life for some reason real or imagined? Again I say, watch and find out.

Crime Doctor's Diary, The (1949) ** (out of 4) Tenth and final film in Columbia's Crime Doctor series is the least interesting of the nine I've watched. In this outing, the Crime Doctor (Warner Baxter) gets a man out of prison on arson charges even though everyone thinks he's guilty. The man eventually kills someone but once again claims he's innocent. This last entry was released two years after the previous film so I'm curious as to why Columbia tried to get the series back going. It seems everyone, including Baxter, is incredibly bored and weren't too interested in doing anything special with the film. The cast, including Robert Armstrong, sleepwalk through the production and direction is so bland that it's hard to find anything too special.

**SPOILERS** Released from prison after serving three years of a ten year sentence for the arson fire that burned down his boss' music studios Steve Carter, Stephen Dunne, is determined to find out who the real arsonist was who also ended up framing him for the crime. Carter's girlfriend at the music studio Jane Darrin, Louis Maxwell, whom he two-timed before he was sent up the river is still crazy about him. Jane wants Dr. Robert Ordway, Warner Baxter, who testified to Carters sanity at his trial to talk some sense into his hot head before he does something foolish. Like killing the person whom he thinks famed him co-worker Carl Anson, George Meeker, and end up in the Sign Sing electric chair.Given his job back by a grateful Phillip Bellem, Dan Deddoe, who's business he was convicted in burning down but who always felt that he was innocent Carter make it a point to confront Anson and Bellems rival in the music business jukebox king George "Goldie" Harrigan, Robert Armstrong. Carter feels their the two persons most responsible for burning down the Bellem Stuidos.Carter going to see Harrigan for a job, even though he already has one, so he can find out if he, an ex-gangster, was the one who had Bellem's place torched. Later when Carter plans to meet with Anson a his place of business at the Bellem Studios things go a bit screwy for him: Anson is found found shot death with Harrigan, who Carter asked for a job, mad as hell at him for sealing his lover and private secretary Inez Gray, Adele Jergens, from under his nose and out of his office.On the run for almost half of the movie Carter now wanted for Anson's murder knows that he's been framed for a second time by whoever framed him in the Bellem Studio arson. Carter now more then ever needs Dr.Ordway, who always felt that he's innocent, to come to his aid. Shot by the cops in an escape attempt from Jane's apartment Carter is left in limbo and on the run with all the evidence pointing to him as being Anson's murderer. It turns out that Anson's killer overlooked a record being recorded by Bellems brother Pete, Whit Bissell,a engineer at his business establishment. Pete was thrown out of the studio by Anson, for playing his personal insipid and annoying record, just before he was murdered. The record not only exposed who murdered Anson but also exonerated Carter of the earlier Bellem Studio arson.The last of the "Crime Doctor" series that had a very tired Warner Baxter looking as if he wanted to retire, which he was in the movie. Baxter died two years later in 1951 at the age of 62, in peace and quite and away from all the stress and demands as both a crime fighter and crime solver.