The Crime Doctor's Strangest Case (1943)

The second film in a series adapted from the popular radio serial. 'The Crime Doctor' is  Dr. Robert J. Ordway played by William Baxter. Ordway was taken to the hospital after having been found thrown from a moving car, when he came to he had amnesia and eventually decided to become a psychologist, taking his name form the hospital wing where he recovered. Ordway's back story is covered in the first Crime Doctor film, which I saw years ago, this second outing concerns the death of a retired pharmaceutical magnet and it is indeed a strange case. The rich old man was killed, poisoned in his home, there where about half a dozen people on the premises when it happened, each with motive, and each acting rather odd, or should we say strange. The writing and Baxter's presence ground the film, it doesn't become comic like a Bulldog Drummond film or over the top like a Dick Tracy. The story none the less proves rather tangled owing to the presence of five red herring characters. Lloyd Bridges is in this in an early role. **1/2