The Crime Doctor's Diary (1949)

The 10th and final Crime Doctor movie is a silly business about a silly business. Like many Crime Doctor films the plot is strangely complicated, suffice it to say the story is about a man (Stephen Dunne) sent to prison for arson, who upon his release attempts to clear his name by finding the real arsonist. This is all set against the back drop of the cut-throat music industry, the famed, by which I mean non existent, rivalry between the jukebox syndicate and the "wired music" business. The concept of "wired music" seems to have been invented for the film, the idea is that there are these booths connected to the phone lines where for a small fee you can order up nearly any musical selection from a central office and they will play that music for over the phone lines and through the booths speakers. It's a kind of proto itunes, though I can't imagine the music quality's that good coming through 1940's Ma Bell. Anyway, this is a strangely competitive business and when you add a love quadrangle, well things can happen. An odd, yet strangely fitting final gasp for the franchise. *1/2