Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

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?

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** One of the most strangest of all the "Crime Doctor" films has the "Crime Doctor" police psychiatrist Dr. Robert Ordway, Warner Baxter, go on vacation in sunny Southern California to sooth his nerves only to run into a pair of Spanish vampires who spend all their daylight hours in coffins and at night do an on stage brother and sister disappearing act.The Vamps Miguel & Delores Bragga, Anthony Caruso & Lupita Tovar, get involved with Dr.Ordway in an out of the way connection in the murder of Gordon Carson, Stephen Crane. Gordon who's two previous marriages ended with with the bride getting killed in a mysterious accident was just married to bride #3 the gorgeous Kathleen Carson,Hillary Brooke. It in fact was Kathleen who invited the "Crime Doctor" to the Carson Mansion where she was throwing a party so he can check out her husband Gordon whom, after being married to him for just one day, she suspects him to be a both homicidal lunatic as well as being completely off his rocker! Katheen had gotten these mysterious letters and newspaper clippings about Gordon that convinced her she made the wrong choice in marrying him!It's during dinner that one of Gordon's dead wive's brother David Lee, Dennis Moore, disguised as a waiter crashed the party accusing Gordon of murdering his sister. Hurt and humiliated in being accused of murder in front of all his friends including his wife Kathleen Gordon locked himself into an outer room and before the guests at the party could get the door open shot himself to death! Dr. Ordway smells a rat right away in that the gun that Gordon used to kill himself was ice cold, instead of warm, proving that it was planted on the dead Gordon after he was murdered. What's even more strange is that the Bargga's who were at the party are the only one's who could have pulled, Gordon's murder, it off in the fact they had the means, by making themselves invisible, to do it!****SPOILERS**** Dr. Ordway plays it both cool and straight in solving Gordon's murder not for once falling for the con-job that there in fact are such things as vampires which later turned out to be a red herring in order to cover Gordon's killers tracks. What really lead to Gordon's murder as well as number of other killings to cover it up was that fact that he married Kathleen! The killer was so obsessed with Kathleen that when he heard she left him for another man, Gordon Carson, he completely flipped out. Using the phony vampire angle that mystery writer Jeff Jerome, Jerome Cowan, provided him with the killer planned to get Kathleen back by both murdering her husband Gordon and at the same time pining his murder on the totally innocent Bragga's!This plan would have worked with the police, who fell for the phony vampire act, but not with the wise old and experienced "Crime Doctor Robert Ordway! After over 12 years investigating the strange and the unknown there's very little that the Doc doesn't know about con jobs and the shysters who try to use the supernatural to throw the police off their trail. In this case Dr. Ordway saw right away, through his friend Jeff Jerome, that the Bragga's were being set up to take the rap in Gordon's murder! The only thing left for him to uncover is who was the person who set them up!

Spondonman Another nice entry in the Crime Doctor series [#4/10], with atmospheric almost noirish black and white photography and some splendid Spanish American backdrops and sets. And a more off-the-wall storyline too!A man who looks like the insane murderer of his first two wives is found dead in a locked room after a dramatic dinner party. The Crime Doctor is on the scene (ostensibly as a guest) to immediately and resignedly proclaim it murder, and so we are presented with a quite weird set of people to mull over, for one of them did the deed. Was it the frothing brother of the dead 1st wife, the 3rd wife and rich widow Hilary Brooke, the dancing brother and sister vampires, the intense young man, the eccentric cabinet maker Lloyd Corrigan on loan from Boston Blackie, the irreplaceable butler, or odds-on Jerome Cowan? Police Inspector Emory Parnell had his work cut out, but Warner Baxter as Ordway was as unflappable as ever in working it all out. One of the goofs listed on the IMDb is wrong: On breaking into the murder room Ordway says "Right through the centre of the forehead" and Cowan replies "He didn't miss this time". Favorite bits: Baxter and Cowan travelling through club sandwiches and beer at the nightclub to make amends for their interrupted dinner party; The scene where the Braga's place of repose is seemingly rumbled. The plot does seem to meander a bit at times and the way it was all explained off was perhaps more worthy of Monogram, but leaving it in the air as supernatural wouldn't do either!Well worth a watch if you already like the genre, you won't be disappointed unless you really don't like the genre.

cosiz It's Saturday, it's raining, and I think every movie should have at least one comment... so I just watched "The Crime Doctor's Courage" all the way through. It's a murder mystery with a typical cast of characters, and a couple of the usual suspects -- each with their own possible motive for the crime. The story starts abruptly and the viewer is thrown into the plot with no character development or storytelling whatsoever. I guess that's not too surprising for a B movie of this period. There are also some moments which look and feel like this is pre-WWII, but perhaps that is due to the writer's background in radio shows.The "Crime Doctor" is the sleuth who happens to be visiting California for some R&R from his psychiatry practice on the East coast. He hooks up with a mystery novelist friend with whom it is implied has been along for one or more previous mystery solving capers. The novelist occasionally fills the role of sidekick to our sleuth (AKA Dr. Watson), and also occasionally lightens things up with a bit of comic relief (sort of).There is also a somewhat simple, but not quite bumbling police captain who at times is annoyed by the meddling sleuth. And then there are the mysterious Braggas, a brother and sister who are dance artists at a night-club. The dance is sort of an interpretive dance that happens to be one of those moments which feels more like the 30's than the 40's. Though the story location is California, the Braggas appear to live in a castle!There was one plot element which managed to keep me somewhat amused, but I won't divulge any more than that because I always enjoy movies more when the story is discovered, rather than known in advance. (even though I can think of many, many, B films which would rate higher and it is difficult to say that watching this one is time well spent) I have not seen any other movies from the "Crime Doctor" series, so I can't make any comparisons.