SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Madilyn Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

calvinnme ... might be a better title than the vague "Crime Doctor's Courage".The film starts by showing a young couple on their honeymoon. The new bride insists on going to the edge of a rocky cliff. Her husband (Stephen Crane as Gordon Carson) wants her to move away from the edge because his first wife died in an accident during the first week of their marriage just a year ago. She hit her head while swimming, it was ruled an accident, but the deceased bride's brother still thought it was murder.The couple argue. During the argument, Gordon's new wife pulls away from him, loses her footing and falls off of the cliff to her death. The sheriff calls it an accident, but the brother of the first wife believes that now Gordon is some kind of maniac that enjoys marrying women and then killing them in ways that look like accidents. His parting words to the sheriff are "Who will it be next year?".The answer to that question is Hillary Brooke as Kathleen Carson. She interrupts Dr. Robert Ordway (Warner Baxter) the psychiatrist on a vacation to sunny California that he is taking on doctor's orders. Kathleen has only been married one day and believes her husband could be insane. She asks Ordway to dinner to observe her husband. There are quite a few people at the dinner besides Ordway and the Carsons, and one of the servants is actually the first bride's brother who apparently has been popping up all over the place for the last year urging Gordon to either commit himself to an asylum or commit suicide before he kills someone else. Gordon is obviously troubled, retires to his study alone, and a shot rings out. Ordway and crime novelist Jeff Jerome (Jerome Cowan) burst in and find a gun near the body of Gordon, but the gun is cold. Somebody has tried to cover the murder of Gordon Carson with a fake suicide. But who could murder Gordon when he is locked inside his study and there are bars on the only window?Ordway finds his help unwanted by the local police, but he can't help coming across clue after clue. For one, the newly widowed Kathleen disappears right after the murder, hiding at the castle like home of the mysterious Braggas. A new will leaving everything of Gordon's to Kathleen was made out the day before Gordon's death. As for the mysterious Braggas, nobody has ever seen them out after dark, there is a portrait of them that is apparently 300 years old, they keep coffins in their basement, and they perform a dancing act at a local club in which one family member disappears and then just as mysteriously reappears. Did I mention that Miguel Bragga is in love with Kathleen? Could a vampire that can disappear and reappear at will possibly be the murderer? Watch and find out in this atmospheric entry to the crime doctor series. There are more suspects than I mention here, so it is not so cut and dried as you might think and remember, this is the crime doctor we're talking about, a man of science and reason, not Kolchak the night stalker! Highly recommended.

classicsoncall If they hadn't used the title in the Crime Doctor series of films two years earlier, this one probably could have gone down as his 'Strangest Case'. Because this one had me going with it's interesting plot and Gordon Carson's (Stephen Crane) alleged 'suicide' right up until the word 'vampire' was introduced into the story. With that 'huh?' moment, one can only hope to stay attentive long enough to scramble together a host of disparate elements in order to close out this baffling murder mystery.It didn't start out so confusing. You had a wealthy businessman who's first two wives died mysteriously within days of their respective weddings under unusual circumstances. Coincidental enough to cast doubt on Carson's innocence, sure, but having him wind up dead shortly after marrying the third time was turning the tables on the story. Eventually it becomes clear that wife number three (Hillary Brooke) did it for the money, so even if she were to be a suspect, the fact that her husband died of a gunshot wound in his locked study with no means of entry or exit to be found, seems to make this an open and shut case for suicide.But then you have the brother and sister dance team (Anthony Caruso, Lupita Tovar) who's publicity guru (Jerome Cowan) suggests they're never seen during the day, don't have mirrors in their dressing room, and sleep in coffins. Well then, the vampire angle gains some traction and the crime doctor has one more bizarre hurdle to overcome to solve the crime of Carson's murder. It all hinges on the idea that one or the other of the Bragga's can 'disappear' at will, thereby suggesting that one of them could have killed Carson while invisible.Well I won't give it all away here, but the resolution to the mystery is a whole lot more mundane than anything that went before. I think if you watch this film a second time after knowing how the story ends, it would make more sense and not seem so bizarre with the vampire angle thrown in. Still, questions remain, like why was it necessary for Miguel Bragga to give Ordway the knockout drink? And why, even if they went along with the vampire pretense, would the Braggas sleep in coffins? Who would ever know?

bkoganbing As Doctor Robert Ordway, the Crime Doctor, Warner Baxter gets involved in all kinds of mysteries. But one usually doesn't get invitations to dinner like this even from beautiful women like Hillary Brooke.Brooke married Stephen Crane whose two previous brides both had accidental deaths. For some odd reason, she's beginning to have second thoughts about the marriage. So the famous Crime Doctor is invited for dinner and a consultation to observe the behavior of her husband.In true murder mystery style the husband is shot to death last night in a locked room with the house still full of guests. Baxter calls the police and Captaine Emory Parnell arrives on the scene. Of course Baxter is no small help in eventually arriving at the identity of the culprit though another murder takes place.We've even got the supernatural involved because one of the suspects is half of a mysterious Spanish dancing team of Anthony Caruso and Lupita Tovar. They're suspected of being vampires.The Crime Doctor's Courage I'm sure didn't people running for the exits when it played the bottom half of double bills in the Forties. One thing I will say though, the behavior of one of the suspects during a scene that didn't involve Baxter kind of gave away the identity of the murderer. Still it's a passable enough murder mystery.

marrj-1 I saw this on TCM recently and, through the IMDb I found that there were seven "Crime Doctor" movies with Warner Baxter as the psychiatrist-detective. Baxter is a bit long in the tooth compared to his stolid performance in 42nd Street a decade earlier. Not noir, and a bit campy today, the movie also has a touch of the possible supernatural. The plot, black and white cinematography and characters are far more complex than those of the Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan series. There are subplots, unexpected twists and appearances by a number of B movie stalwartly we all should recognize immediately (none ever made it to the A status). It is a wonderfully unpredictable 70 minutes.I would love to see a boxed DVD series of these films.