GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #49

THE CRIME DOCTOR

 Created by Max Marcin, "The Crime Doctor" was a long running radio series that began in 1940 on CBS.  Sponsored by Philip Morris cigarettes it was broadcast from August 4, 1940 to October 19, 1947.  "The Crime Doctor" was unique as a radio crime drama in that the central character, Dr. Benjamin Ordway, was originally a criminal mastermind named Phil Morgan who suffers a head injury and loses his memory.  With the help of a kind doctor he builds a new life and identity, studies medicine and eventually goes into psychiatry.  He specializes in criminal psychiatry because of his intense interest and understanding of the criminal mind.  A photographic story about the program in a 1946 issue of Radio Mirror magazine explained, "Dr. Ordway has become such a favorite with the police department of his city that he is constantly being called upon for his shrewd and eager opinions in baffling murder cases."

"The Crime Doctor" initially had Ordway as a member of the parole board.  When a convict came before the board Ordway heard the presentation and then asked a "jury" selected from the studio audience to decide the prisoner's fate.  After 1942 the format of the show was revised.  Ordway now worked from home, helping ex-convicts keep out of trouble while at the same time aiding the local police in the unending fight against crime.  Listener's knew the culprit's identity from the beginning of each episode and the mystery was how he would be caught.  Near the end of each episode the announcer would say, "Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Ordway will be back in exactly forty-seven seconds with the solution to tonight's case."  Over the years, Ordway was portrayed by Ray Collins, House Jameson, John McIntire, Hugh Marlowe, Brian Donlevy, and Everett Sloane.

Max Marcin (1879-1948) was born in Posen, Germany (now Poznan, Poland).  At the age of seven he emigrated to the U.S. with his parents and siblings.  They settled in NYC where his father became a butcher and Max would attend City College in 1895.  He began his career as a newspaper reporter in 1898 with the New York World where he covered the police beat.  A contemporary said of Max, "In those days he knew practically every underworld character in New York, some of them intimately."  He maintained his underworld contacts, using his knowledge to create plotlines for the radio series that seemed true to life.  Max Marcin died in Tucson, Arizona at age 68.

FILMS

The main character's name was changed from Benjamin to Dr. Robert Ordway for the movie series that was launched in 1943.  Ordway was a medical detective and most of his cases involved the mentally aberrant and the solutions were based on psychiatry.  "The Crime Doctor" was timely as psychiatry was enjoying its first important vogue as a dramatic device.

"The Crime Doctor" Columbia, 1943.  Warner Baxter (Ordway), Margaret Lindsay, John Litel.  Director: Michael Gordon.  In the initial film of the series Dr. Ordway is the respected head of a parole board and a noted criminal psychiatrist, although there is amnesia in his past.  A convict whose parole has been denied reveals that Ordway was once the leader of a gang - and he had disappeared with the proceeds of a payroll robbery.  A blow on the head helps Ordway remember both his evil past and the location of the hidden money.  Happily, his subsequent good works and regeneration exonerate him - and he settles down to a lifetime of bizarre cases.

"The Crime Doctor's Strangest Case" Columbia, 1943.  Baxter, Lynn Merrick, Lloyd Bridges, Reginald Denny.  Director: Eugene Forde.  A former convict is accused of murdering a millionaire in a case that is not, in spite of the title, particularly strange.

"Shadows in the Night" Columbia, 1944.  Baxter, Nina Foch, George Zucco.  Director: Forde.  A distraught young heiress tells Dr. Ordway that a ghost haunts her sleep, insisting that she jump from her cliffside home into the ocean.  Ordway discovers that hypnotic gas, piped through the vents, is causing her dreams.

"Crime Doctor's Courage" Columbia, 1945.  Baxter, Hillary Brooke, Jerome Cowan.  Director: George Sherman.  A dance team, made up of a husband and wife who seemingly have occult powers, involves Dr. Ordway in the murder of a friend.

"Crime Doctor's Warning" Columbia, 1945.  Baxter, John Litel, Dusty Anderson.  Director: William Castle.  Two models who have posed for a young artist, another victim of amnesia, are discovered murdered.  A third model is missing and Dr. Ordway sets out to find her.

"Crime Doctor's Man Hunt" Columbia, 1946.  Baxter, Ellen Drew, William Frawley.  Director: Castle.  A war veteran tells Dr. Ordway about his irrational fear of a certain part of the city.  Later, Ordway finds his body there.  The heiress to whom the victim had been engaged is certain that he was killed by her jealous twin sister, who is often missing for long periods of time.

"Just Before Dawn" Columbia, 1946.  Baxter, Adelle Roberts, Martin Kosleck, Mona Barrie.  Director: Castle.  Dr. Ordway administers to a stricken diabetic at a party, using the sick man's own hypodermic - but the needle contains poison rather than insulin.  Ordway later pretends to be blind in order to trap the guilty person.

"The Millerson Case" Columbia, 1947.  Baxter, Nancy Saunders, Clem Bevans.  Director: George Archainbaud.  On a backwoods hunting trip, Dr. Ordway discovers that someone has used a local typhoid outbreak to cover up a poisoning and then killed the local doctor when he became suspicious.  In the end the unmasked killer feigns insanity but is no match for the sharp-witted Ordway.

"Crime Doctor's Gamble" Columbia, 1947.  Baxter, Micheline Cheirel, Roger Dann, Steven Geray.  Director: Castle.  On a vacation in Paris, Ordway is invited by his old friend Inspector Morell to look into the case of a young man accused of murdering his own father during a quarrel over a girl.

"Crime Doctor's Diary" Columbia, 1949.  Baxter, Stephen Dunne, Lois Maxwell, Adele Jergens.  Director: Seymour Friedman.  A convict who Ordway had helped to get paroled finds himself caught in the intrigues of the music recording business and framed for murder.

Veteran film actor Warner Baxter was contracted to play the semi-sophisticated title role.  Baxter was born in 1892 in Columbus, Ohio.  Making his film debut in 1922, Baxter's performance as The Cisco Kid in "In Old Arizona" (1929) won him the Academy Award - he was only the second recipient of the Oscar for Best Actor.  Baxter suffered and recovered from a nervous breakdown in the early 1940s before assuming the Crime Doctor series.  Baxter was 51 at the time and each film was shot in less than four weeks on the studio backlot.  Throughout the series Baxter was plagued with advanced arthritis.  His condition was becoming so serious that he made no films in 1948 as the arthritis was increasingly crippling.  In the last film he was off the screen more than he was on.  In an effort to ease the pain of his arthritic condition, Baxter agreed to submit to a partial lobotomy (!)  He didn't survive the operation, dying on May 7, 1951, while undergoing cranial surgery.