Moving right along in the Crime Doctor series is The Crime Doctor’s Diary (1949), once again with the dependable Warner Baxter (this time saddled with a suit a good size too large). Here he’s assisting a man an arsonist whose out on parole. Or was he framed? He keeps insisting he didn’t do it. He’s hardly out of prison a day before he gets himself shot, while the man who might be considered an alternative suspect in the arson is found dead. Meanwhile, the retarded psychotic won’t stop playing the music that drives everyone mad! (My Arts Editor just yelled that the song, about a man with a french horn, is “quite the ear-worm”, so prospective watchers, beware the cave of the ear worm!)
Just for fun, the arsonist has a girlfriend who’s working at a precursor to Netflix (hey, I’m just as surprised as you), and she & Steve can hardly wait to get it on, indeed even messing him up as he applies for a job. Our good Doctor has little more to do than stumble about, looking for clues, and indeed one wonders why they made this movie in this series since, in retrospect, Dr. Ordway has little to do with the solution to the crime; instead, mere chance triumphs over spite, and in a hail of bullets, all is revealed.
It’s fun and interesting, but fails to capitalize on the elements unique to the Crime Doctor. A story for a sleepy, rainy day. Like today.
