The Crime Doctor is a fictional character created by Max Marcin. A crook named Phil Morgan suffers amnesia

Amnesia

Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...

 and becomes criminal psychologist Dr. Robert Ordway.

He was the hero of a popular CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 program titled Crime Doctor on Sunday nights between 1940 and 1947, as well as a series of low-budget mystery thrillers inspired by the radio show. On radio, he was played by Ray Collins

Ray Collins (actor)

Ray Bidwell Collins was an American actor in film, stage, radio, and television. One of Collins' best remembered roles was that of Lt. Arthur Tragg in the long-running series Perry Mason.- Biography :...

, House Jameson, Everett Sloane

Everett Sloane

Everett Sloane was an American stage, film and television actor, songwriter, and theatre director.-Early life:...

 and John McIntire

John McIntire

John McIntire was an American character actor.-Career:The craggy-faced film actor was born in Spokane in eastern Washington State but reared in Montana, growing up around ranchers and cowboys, an experience that would later inspire his performances in dozens of westerns.A graduate of USC, McIntire...

, but on film, exclusively by Warner Baxter

Warner Baxter

Warner Leroy Baxter was an American actor, known for his role as The Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona , for which he won the second Academy Award for Best Actor in the 1928–1929 Academy Awards. Warner Baxter started his movie career in silent movies...

. In the first film of the series, he regains his memory, captures his former gang members, and turns them over to the police. As an in-joke

In-joke

An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or in joke, is a joke whose humour is clear only to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of common understanding...

, Collins appeared in the film, but not as Ordway. Baxter was in poor health, and two years after making the tenth film, he died of pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

.

Films

• Crime Doctor
  Crime Doctor (film)
  Crime Doctor is a crime film starring Warner Baxter as a man with amnesia determined to remember his past. The film, released by Columbia Pictures, was based on the Crime Doctor radio program and was followed by nine sequels:...
  
  (1943)
• Crime Doctor's Strangest Case (1943)
• Shadows in the Night (1944)
• Crime Doctor's Warning (1945)
• The Crime Doctor's Courage (1945)
• Just Before Dawn
  Just Before Dawn (1946 film)
  Just Before Dawn is a 1946 American black-and-white crime/mystery film based on the radio drama Crime Doctor. The film is the seventh production of the series, written by Max Marcin and adapted to the screen by Eric Taylor and Aubrey Wisberg. It was directed by William Castle and starred Warner...
  
  (1946)
• Crime Doctor's Man Hunt (1946)
• The Millerson Case (1947)
• Crime Doctor's Gamble (1947)
• The Crime Doctor's Diary (1949)

External links

• MP3 files of radio episodes at archive.org