Warner Baxter in the first Crime Doctor

Crime Doctor featured Dr. Ordway's origin story. The Ordway character began as a criminal named Phil Morgan who lost his memory after he was double-crossed and thrown from a moving car. Taking his name from the Ordway ward of the hospital where he recuperated the amnesia victim seeks out his past with the aid of Dr. Carey. Frustrated that Dr. Carey can't help him, Ordway decides to help himself and embarks on a period of study leading to his own medical degree.

The Crime Doctor solves his own past in Crime Doctor before being spun off into more familiar mystery stories in the nine sequels to follow.

This page is meant to serve as a Crime Doctor episode guide. No cases are spoiled. Details are kept to the people, places and situations that best identify each movie.

Crime Doctor Index

While the first entry will take you to another page, the subsequent Crime Doctor movies are all covered on this page. At this time six of the nine sequels are detailed. I will add the other three as I gain access to them. Click any title to head directly to that entry.

1. Crime Doctor (1943)
2. Crime Doctor's Strangest Case (1943)
3. Shadows in the Night (1944)
4. The Crime Doctor's Courage (1945)
5. Crime Doctor's Warning (1945)
6. Just Before Dawn (1946)
7. Crime Doctor's Man Hunt (1946)
8. The Millerson Case (1947)
9. Crime Doctor's Gamble (1947)
10. The Crime Doctor's Diary (1949)

Note: I find it funny that the three I'm missing are those which don't include the words "Crime Doctor" in the title. Somebody at Turner Classic Movies needs to take a little more care when assembling their next Crime Doctor marathon!

Crime Doctor's Strangest Case (1943)

The first sequel in the Crime Doctor series catches itself up to Ordway's story line from the radio by having him mention that he's resigned from the parole board and setting him off to run his own investigation separate from that of the police.

Crime Doctor's Strangest Case is filled with familiar faces and moves at breakneck pace. It's simple beginning takes place in Ordway's office where Jimmy Trotter (Lloyd Bridges) and his fiancé Ellen (Lynn Merrick), visit. Sometime previous to this Ordway had managed to get Jimmy a second trial that cleared him of murdering his boss, but now he is concerned that Jimmy has taken on a similar position as secretary to Walter Burns. He advises Jimmy and Ellen to wait to get married until Jimmy finds a different job.

Curious as to why anyone would hire an accused poisoner to work for him Ordway heads off to the Burns residence to have a word and that's where the fun begins. When the Crime Doctor rings the bell confused old Miss Patricia (Virginia Brissac) thinks he's come in response to her having called the police. Walter Burns is dead. Poisoned, just like Jimmy's previous employer had been.

Alongside Burns' corpse in his bedroom are his much younger wife, Diana Burns (Rose Hobart); Addison (Sam Flint), brother of the deceased; Paul Ashley (Reginald Denny), his nephew; and the too polite cook, Mrs. Keppler (Gloria Dickson). While Mrs. Keppler speaks softly and kindly the Burns family members are all rather short-tempered with Doctor Ordway and to the viewer any of them seem a possible suspect. Their moods are not improved any when Detective Rief (Barton MacLane) and his sidekick Yarnell (Thomas E. Jackson) arrive. The real police are surprised by Ordway's presence and make it clear that he has nothing to do with them.

While the police question Jimmy upstairs, Ordway feigns his exit and instead heads to the kitchen to have a cup of tea and bit of conversation with Mrs. Keppler. But Ordway's chit chat isn't conducted idly, he concludes by calling her out as a fake but is interrupted by a gun shot from upstairs before he's able to reveal the path of his deductions to us. Leaving the kitchen Jimmy races out the front door with Detectives Rief and Yarnell giving chase and firing their guns after him. Meanwhile Mrs. Keppler hurries to her bedroom, locks the door and slips out of her disguise.

All of those introductions and resulting action and we're only 15 minutes into Crime Doctor's Strangest Case. Directed by Eugene Forde, who had had series experience at 20th Century-Fox in multiple Charlie Chan outings, Crime Doctor's Strangest Case never stops moving, brings several, if not all, characters under suspicion, and even takes an artsy turn with a dark dream sequence recounted by Miss Patricia.

Miss Patricia's dream in Crime Doctor's Strangest Case

Fine acting by all even getting a little more out of Warner Baxter than is summoned in later entries, Crime Doctor's Strangest Case also features a smarmy Jerome Cowan and the return of Doctor Ordway's nurse, Betty, played by Constance Worth. Betty is dropped after this second entry, a shame since she had more to do in this one as sort of a Della Street to Ordway's Perry Mason than she had in the Crime Doctor's initial outing.

Highly recommended and a superior mystery story in comparison to the previous Crime Doctor.

Shadows in the Night (1944)

This space will be filled after I secure and view a copy of Shadows in the Night.

The Crime Doctor's Courage (1945)

A brother and sister dancing combo played by Anthony Caruso and Lupita Tovar figure in the most intriguing bits of The Crime Doctor's Courage. They have what appears to be a gimmicked act where the sister, Dolores Bragga, disappears into thin air in the middle of their performance.

The Crime Doctor rides with the Braggas

When Ordway asks about the origins of the dance brother Miguel Bragga replies that "We have been doing that dance for 300 years." Left a moment on his own in the Bragga's den Ordway spots a painting of the siblings and can't help but to notice that it is dated 1648. The Braggas can't stand daylight and are said not to throw a reflection in any mirror. They employ a mute goon (King Kong Kashey) to move a large trunk that supposedly shields them from the sun so they can come and go from the club. Ordway also bumps into two empty and open coffins secluded away in the Braggas basement behind a padlocked door.

In a fantastic extra little touch Lupita Tovar, making her final film appearance in The Crime Doctor's Courage, had previously played the female lead in the 1931 acclaimed Spanish version of Dracula! Tovar is still with us today at over 100 years old!

This is the Crime Doctor entry with the vampires. Or is it?

The Crime Doctor's Courage opens with newlyweds Evelyn and Gordon Carson (Stephen Crane) honeymooning at a mountainside resort. Dialogue reveals that this is Gordon's second marriage and the first didn't end well. Gordon was cleared of any wrongdoing but his first wife died soon after they were married, drowned at a resort on the coast of Maine.

Wife number two is gone before we even meet Ordway. Our first glimpse of the Crime Doctor this time around finds him on vacation at a California resort taking in some rays and relaxing with a beer. It's there that he bumps into an old New York acquaintance, Kathleen Massey (Hillary Brooke) who quickly notes that her married name is now Carson and that she'd like Dr. Ordway to come meet her husband, Gordon, because "I want you to tell me if I'm married to a madman."

We meet the rest of our characters at the Carson party that evening. Jerome Cowan is back, mentioning he hasn't seen Ordway in three years. Actually it's just over one year since Cowan's appearance in Crime Doctor's Strangest Case, but we can let that slip since he's playing a totally different character here, mystery writer Jeff Jerome.

Jerome Cowan and Warner Baxter

Ordway first spots the Braggas at the party and he's also introduced to Kathleen's father, John Massey, a cabinet maker played by Lloyd Corrigan, then a semi-regular with Columbia's Boston Blackie series. Kathleen's friend Bob (Mark Roberts) is at the party as is "a servant who isn't a servant" who turns out to be David Lee (Dennis Moore), brother to Gordon Carson's late first wife.

Lee breaks the party up by exposing Carson's past sending guests every which way, many for the door, and it's then that someone meets a violent end.

West Coast law enforcement is soon on the scene as Captain Birch (Emory Parnell) arrives to be told what's what by The Crime Doctor.

One of the more intriguing Crime Doctor stories with the accumulating hints pointing to vampirism, but surely one of the most rushed as well with terrible, thankfully brief, performances from Moore and Crane and even Baxter flubbing his lines at least three times. The copy I viewed almost seemed as though it were edited for TV with a handful of scenes ending abruptly and leaving me feeling as though I had missed something. Despite its flaws as entertaining as any of the other Crime Doctor entries.

Crime Doctor's Warning (1945)

The first of four Crime Doctor entries to be directed by William Castle, famed B-movie director best remembered for later chillers such as House on Haunted Hill (1958), The Tingler (1959), 13 Ghosts (1960), Straight-Jacket (1964), and others. Despite being at the start of his career Castle had already directed two of the Richard Dix led Whistler series entries for Columbia prior to his Crime Doctor quartet.

Crime Doctor's Warning opens with Ordway (Warner Baxter) having his silhouette cut out of paper by nervous silhouette artist Jimmy Gordon (John Abbott). It's no surprise when Ordway walks around the corner to hand the artwork off to Inspector Dawes (John Litel) and they discuss whether it's in the same style as cut-out found in the same apartment as a recent murder victim.

Ordway is soon visited by another artist, Clive Lake (Coulter Irwin), who is concerned over some serious memory lapses brought on by a spate of blackouts. Kind-hearted Ordway gives Lake his card and suggests he give him a call the next time he feels one of the warning headaches coming on that trigger the blackouts. A thankful Lake departs and Ordway gets in touch with Frederick Malone (Miles Mander), proprietor of a local art gallery, with the request Malone take on one of Lake's paintings to help boost the young artist's confidence.

While Lake's work is not up to Malone's standards for his gallery, Ordway arranges an acceptable solution and the painting is taken on. Back at Clive Lake's studio he paints his model and girlfriend, Connie Mack (Dusty Anderson), pausing to give Ordway a call when he feels one of his spells coming on. Lake excuses himself from Connie and heads up to the roof of his building for some fresh air.

Immediately after Lake reaches the roof a dark figure climbs down a ladder from that same roof and slides into Lake's apartment through a window Lake himself had just opened prior to his exit from his apartment. It's curtains for Connie whose body is stored under Lake's bed and discovered later at a party Lake throws to celebrate the sale of the painting Ordway had left with Malone's Gallery.

Lake is chief suspect for Inspector Dawes, but Ordway senses there may be more to the mystery than that, especially after meeting Lake's protective mother (Alma Kruger). Also figuring in the mystery are fine artist Duval (Franco Corsaro), eccentric male model Nick Petroni (Eduardo Ciannelli), and a painting titled "The Ring" which includes the original murder victim along with Connie and a third girl who the other two victims knew.

Just Before Dawn (1946)

This space will be filled after I secure and view a copy of Just Before Dawn.

Crime Doctor's Man Hunt (1946)

Also directed by William Castle and starting out much like Crime Doctor's Warning in that a man calling himself John Foster (Myron Healey) pays a visit to Ordway (Warner Baxter) to inquire about his lapses in memory. When "Foster" exits Ordway's offices we're shown a woman outside who has trailed him. The woman, who we later find out is called Irene Cotter (Ellen Drew) pushes her way into Ordway's office and begs him to tell her what "Foster," her fiance, had talked to him about. Ordway cites patient-doctor confidentiality and the woman is on her way.

Walking home through a dark alley Ordway soon comes upon two thugs who are holding the limp body of John Foster. Spotted before he could duck away Ordway puts on a delightful drunk act, bumps into one of the thugs and spots a trickle of blood running down Foster's temple. Ordway's supposed state helps him escape the same fate himself. The men drop him at a random apartment that Ordway claimed was his own. As soon as he's free the Crime Doctor springs into action putting in a call to Inspector Manning (William Frawley).

William Frawley and Warner Baxter

At first Frawley comes off as a bit too tough as the Inspector but he soon settles into the character and a somewhat enjoyable and unlikely crime fighting duo is formed between himself and Baxter.

Also figuring in Crime Doctor's Man Hunt are a mysterious tough-as-nails blonde in glasses who doles out orders to our thugs; Irene's meek father, Gerald Cotter (Francis Pierlot); Ruby Farrell (Claire Carlteton), another tough dame, who operates a shooting gallery at a local carnival; Alfredi (Ivan Triesault), a fortune teller at the carnival who had set Foster off by predicting his death; the carnival barker (Cy Malis), who we only see a couple of times but who gives Ordway the real stink eye; Marcus Le Blaine (Olin Howland) as a goofy phrenologist who steals the scenes in an apartment that Ordway and the Inspector investigate; Tom, the Cotter's gardener (Paul E. Burns), who the thugs get a little tough with when seeking the whereabouts of Irene's missing sister, Natalie; finally, Mr. Harrera (Leonardo Scavino), a litigious loudmouth who hurls threats at the Inspector for smearing the name of his wife, Natalie Cotter.

Quite the roll call of characters including several suspects in this entertaining Crime Doctor entry!

The Millerson Case (1947)

This space will be filled after I secure and view a copy of The Millerson Case.

Crime Doctor's Gamble (1947)

This Crime Doctor entry takes place entirely in Paris as Ordway visits on a two week lecture tour. Beyond Warner Baxter the cast is composed primarily of French and European actors.

Ordway is in Paris to lecture and hopes not to become involved with any criminal cases. Easier said then done when he stops by a Paris police station to visit his old friend Inspector Morrell (Marcel Journet). Apparently the men met nine years previous when Ordway hosted the Inspector at the 1939 World's Fair in New York.

Morrell takes Ordway out for a night on the Paris town culminating on the wrong side of the tracks at a club called Le Coo Rouge. The entertainment begins with dancers but when the floor show turns to a hooded knife thrower Ordway soon declares that "That fellow plays with murder!"

Playing with murder!

Inspector Morrell makes it clear that this is exactly what he suspects. When Ordway returns to the station to meet Morrell for lunch the next day, Morrell asks him to wait a moment while he talks with Henri Jardin (Roger Dann), suspect in a very curious murder case.

Jardin is suspected of flying into a rage and killing his own father. Morrell, who spent three years in a concentration camp with Jardin during the war, wants his friend to plead insanity. No go for Jardin who had previously been declared sane and released from an institution.

To connect the dots Jardin has recently married the former Mignon Duval (Micheline Cheirel). Ordway had seen Mignon the night before--when her father, Maurice Duval (Eduardo Ciannelli), practiced his trade throwing knives at her at the Le Coo Rouge.

Oh, Jardin's father was murdered with a letter opener. A weapon not very unlike a knife.

Also figuring in the story are the young artist, Anton Geroux (Maurice Marsac) who is expert in painting reproduction copies of master works and happens to be in love with Mignon; Jules Daudet (Steven Geray), the senior Jardin's former attorney now charged with defending Henri for having killed his father; Louis Chabonet (Henri Letondal), owner of the art gallery who consigns work from Geroux.

Emory Parnell, who previously had a more major role as Captain Birch in The Crime Doctor's Courage, shows up in a minor role as O'Reilly, an American bidder at an auction.

Crime Doctor's Gamble remains intriguing by killing off its most likely suspects early and not giving away the mystery until the trap Ordway sets is sprung.

The Crime Doctor's Diary (1949)

Ordway pays a visit to prison where the Warden (Selmer Jackson) tells him convicted firebug Steve Carter (Stephen Dunne) is being released on parole today. Ordway, who signed off on the parole, is glad to hear it because he always thought Carter innocent of the arson charge anyway.

Bellem Music Company, Steve's place of employment prior to prison, is an interesting and extinct business. They are a storehouse for records, vinyl that is, where requests are taken by phone and the music piped back to their customers on the other end of the line. A bar that Pete Bellem (Whit Bissell) frequents even has a machine that plays back the requests, like a 40's virtual jukebox.

Pete isn't the Bellem in charge of the Bellem Co., though, that would be his brother, Phil (Don Beddoe). Also on the premises are Bellem's partner, Carl Anson (George Meeker), and Jane (Lois Maxwell), one of the girls who takes the requests and plays back the records. Jane is Steve Carter's ex-girlfriend and despite warnings from Bellem and Anson she drives out to the prison to give him a ride back to New York.

Carter comes out of prison with a chip on his shoulder, determined to prove his innocence. He seems rather sure that either the cantankerous Anson or former mobster and head of Bellem's rival company, Goldie Harrigan (Robert Armstrong), set the fire that he took blame for. Complicating matters for Jane is Inez Gray (Adele Jergens) at Goldie's company. Steve is in love with Inez.

Robert Armstrong and Adele Jergens

The first third or so of The Crime Doctor's Diary is spent introducing these characters and following Steve as he attempts to clear himself of past accusations. There's not much for the Crime Doctor to do until one of the characters mentioned above is murdered.

That brings Inspector Manning (Cliff Clark) onto the case. Ordway and Manning don't see eye to eye at all on this one. The Inspector accuses Ordway of believing the crime is part of a gang war angle: jukebox syndicate versus wired music people, a theory the police have already ruled out. But Ordway says no, he thinks it might be a love angle.

Fittingly, Crime Doctor's Diary was the last of the Crime Doctor movies I watched in anticipation of preparing this report. It is also, of the seven entries I watched, the darkest Crime Doctor movie of them all. Directed by Seymour Friedman, who had previously directed two Boston Blackie movies for Columbia, Crime Doctor's Diary was the only Crime Doctor entry (except perhaps Crime Doctor's Man Hunt) that really hints at a film noir style when viewed through modern eyes.

Afterward

Warner Baxter had spent the bulk of the decade playing Dr. Robert Ordway. Between the first Crime Doctor in 1943 and The Crime Doctor's Diary in 1949, he only appeared in two non-series releases and one of those was filmed before the first Crime Doctor. He would appear in three additional films following the the final Crime Doctor with Columbia's State Penitentiary being his final role.

Baxter was ill and would be hospitalized twice in 1951 prior to his death on May 7 of that same year. He was 62 years old.

If you'd like to know more about Warner Baxter's life and career here is a brief biography I wrote about him a little over two years ago.

US Auctions Australian Auctions Austrian Auctions Belgian Auctions Canadian Auctions French Auctions German Auctions Indian Auctions Irish Auctions Italian Auctions Dutch Auctions Spanish Auctions Swiss Auctions UK Auctions

Best Match Time: ending soonest Time: newly listed Price: lowest first Price: highest first Price + Shipping: lowest first Price + Shipping: highest first

1923 Warner Baxter Silent Film Actor Biography Print - ORIGINAL HISTORIC IMAGE    US $44.95

1938 Warner Baxter Actor Henry Major Bugs Baer Lithograph    US $73.95

1933 Richard Barthelmess Warner Baxter Actor Film Print Biography Movie Screen    US $49.95

THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND / WARNER BAXTER / JOHN FORD / 1936 / MOVIE POSTER    US $210.00

View Page:   1  2  3

Feature eBay Auctions on your site

On the Gallery & Guide page I wrote: "While referring to Secrets Magazine it seems to title the set Broadway Fortune-Telling Cards--these seem to be better described as Film Star Playing Cards, so I'm not sure if the set is just poorly named or if I received mine inside the wrong wrapper."

I'm going to correct that at some point--I still don't get the Broadway connection, but with a recently acquired second batch of cards I focused a little better on the text printed on them. They are fortune-telling cards.

Beyond the fact that we'd probably need to miniaturize ourselves to actually play a card game with these tiny 1-1/4" X 1-3/4" playing cards it becomes a pretty quick deck to read seeing that the reverse side of each features one of fifty-two different film star images.

Wait, is that Lew Ayres? Then he does have the Ace of Spades!

Now I'm left wishing that I had a set of directions to go with that wrapper. I have no idea how this game is played or how your fortune is read. But I did get a chuckle out of a few of the fortune telling messages on the cards after taking the moment to actually focus on the text this time.

For instance, reading this:

And turning the card over to see him:

--immediately brought to mind Manners' Jonathan Harker from Dracula (1931).

Sticking in the horror genre this brief message:

Made the Panther Woman's face seem very appropriate:

Reading this:

Almost led me to expect to see every leading lady's best pal on the other side:

Though I should note that Merkel was actually married in real life at this time.

This one seemed a no-brainer:

Even if she is pretty definitely a blonde here:

This one made me giggle:

And then I turned it over and chuckled a bit more:

Well over, I'd say--57 years old in 1935! (Though I must admit the image looks like it's from a few years earlier than that).

Finally, an ominous warning:

Reveals:

As if she needed any more of a complex!

A fun and unusual card set that shows off a nice mix of Golden Age Hollywood film stars with a handful of British stars in the mix as well.

They are all shown on the original Gallery & Guide page HERE.

eBay listings are found HERE with more singles coming soon to the Immortal Ephemera Store.

While I wouldn't call the 1934 Ardath Famous Film Stars set a common set it is one that is typically available if you're looking for it. Murray's most recent guide values a complete set at £50 though I'd say you're more likely to run into a mid-grade set in the $60-$75 bracket. A little better than that even at auction.

If it's singles you're after I've already listed all 50 of the ones shown in the new gallery for sale in the Immortal Ephemera Store at prices approximately 10% under my eBay rates. Spend $20 or more there and enter coupon code 10PERCENT at checkout to save another 10% off Immortal Ephemera marked prices.

The Famous Film Stars set features two cards each of Mae West and Marlene Dietrich plus another 46 individual stars including Clark Gable, James Cagney, Myrna Loy and Joan Crawford. They're pretty cards: not colorful, featuring basically dark tones, but sharp close-up images which make the set extremely recognizable.

As for teaser to the new gallery I've chosen what I consider a typical pose from the set, one which fits the bill of what I tried to describe above, card #40 Lew Ayres:

Once more here's the new Gallery & Guide where you can see all 50 cards in the 1934 Ardath Famous Film Stars set.

Coming soon to eBay: I'm going to be listing several vintage press and still photos including multiple shots of Joan Crawford, Robert Taylor, Maureen O'Sullivan, Edward G. Robinson, Fredric March, and William Powell from the 1920's through 1940's; Also individual press photos from The Jackie Robinson Story (1935); a new set of 1935 Secrets mini Playing Cards will be listed; a set of 1934 Godfrey Phillips Stars of the Screen will be broken and offered for sale soon.

The last 3 complete years of Harrison's Reports (1937, 1938, 1939) are ending in auctions this week.

More soon!
Thanks, Cliff

We've been going through each of the real photo BAT Modern Beauties sets recently. They're gorgeous, but they're black & white. So consider this brief guide and gallery to be my best attempt at staving off any perceived redundancies by chucking some pretty images of colorful cards at you.

The 1924 Moustafa Hand-Coloured Pictures of Cinema Stars is small 25 card set of British tobacco cards. I don't usually do this but my gallery selection is even smaller offering just 16 of those 25 cards for viewing. That's all I have on hand.

At this point my feeling is this: I've been doing this pretty regularly for 10 years now and so if something comes in that I haven't seen before chances are that it isn't offered very often. That's the case with these Moustafa hand-coloured cards.

They remind me a lot of a similar set of Cinema Stars issued a decade later with Abdulla brand tobacco. If the 16 new Moustafa images aren't enough for you, you can revisit the 1934 Abdulla Cinema Stars gallery HERE.

The 1924 Moustafas that I did have included many familiar silent film star names plus a few major or popularly collected stars in Mabel Normand, Mary Miles Minter, Mary Pickford and Tom Mix.

The small handful that I picked up are now available for sale on eBay with those four bigger names currently at auction on the site.

For our sample image I've selected Tom Mix solely because this is one of the few card issues I've seen of him minus a big cowboy hat. In fact, he looks quite relaxed and a bit like a preppy on his 1924 Moustafa card!

See the entire Gallery and Guide HERE.

Coming Articles

I hope you caught yesterday's article about Crime Doctor (1943) starring Warner Baxter. I'm going to have more centered around that character prior to TCM's May 31 Crime Doctor morning marathon.

I just signed up for Page's Horseathon at My Love of Old Hollywood. Do you remember the Dogathon a few months back? I covered The Voice of Bugle Ann (1936) for that one. Page was kind enough to send me along a reminder about her Horseathon and so I'm taking the opportunity to write about Stablemates (1938) starring Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney for that event. That article will post live to the site on May 25; subscribers should receive it by no later than the following morning.

Talk to you soon ... planned up next is more from Harrison's Reports.
Happy Friday, Cliff

Based on the Crime Doctor radio series, which premiered in 1940 and enjoyed a largely concurrent run with the movie series through 1949, this initial entry to the series, titled simply Crime Doctor, offered the origin story of its title hero rather than what became its more standard murder mystery story.

Very few episodes of the original Crime Doctor radio series appear to be available through Old Time Radio sources leaving me only OTR authority John Dunning's often repeated summary of the series from On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio as final word on the subject. Based on Dunning's entry for Crime Doctor the first film of Columbia's series appears to summarize the first three years of the successful radio program.

An interesting and completely uncredited potential source of Crime Doctor appears to be Columbia's own 1936 B thriller The Man Who Lived Twice. While nothing beyond the Columbia banner links the earlier film directly to the Crime Doctor movie series the stories are too similar for it to be a total coincidence. In The Man Who Lived Twice Ralph Bellamy plays a ruthless criminal who escapes justice by volunteering for an experimental operation at the hands of a respected doctor played by Thurston Hall. Bellamy emerges from this operation as a man with no recollection of his criminal past but a burning desire to figure out who he once was. Like Baxter's Crime Doctor Bellamy undertakes a decade of medical study fueled by his general interest in the criminal mind and a desire to better understand his own case and perhaps rediscover his past. Other similarities exist between The Man Who Lived Twice and Crime Doctor, some of which are revealed further into this article.

Returning to Crime Doctor, you'll find that this first film packs an early punch in quickly revealing Baxter's path to becoming Dr. Robert Ordway.

A black car races down a road passing a Hoover re-election sign along the way to set our date at 1932. A body is dumped out of the moving vehicle to the roadside where it is left for dead. We see what is later referred to as a claw-like hand, two fingers missing, having a hard time pulling the car door shut as the mysterious black sedan races away. A group of teenagers spot the body, realize the man is alive and take him to the hospital.

A pair of nurses banter over our unconscious patient until Dr. Carey (Ray Collins) arrives to check on him. After one of the nurses refers to the mystery patient as Ordway she explains to the doctor that they all call him that because he's staying in room named for the highly respected late Dr. Robert Ordway. The man they call Ordway wakes up confused with bandages wrapped over his eyes. As luck would have it today is the day the bandages come off. Dr. Carey unwraps him revealing Warner Baxter, makes sure his patient can see, and then asks him who he is. Ordway is frustrated by the question and suddenly declares, "I don't know who I am!"

With that we've made it through the first five minutes of Crime Doctor.

It gets even more intriguing in the next scene when a helpless looking Ordway is seated on his own and visited by what at first seems to be a randomly curious passerby played by John Litel. After throwing Ordway a few friendly questions about his well publicized amnesia difficulties, the man suddenly leans in and calls Ordway by the name of Phil as if he knows him. His demeanor changes as he grabs Ordway by the collar and demands to know, "What did you do with that valise?"

After his release from the hospital Dr. Carey takes Ordway under his wing and tries to help him recover his memory. Despite grilling him with names and places, hoping something will ring a bell, no progress is made and Ordway turns to drink after having given up. On New Year's Eve Dr. Carey has it out with him and goads Ordway into declaring that he's going to become a doctor himself because, "If you can't cure me, I'll cure myself." Carey supports him and just like that ten years pass and the amnesia patient reemerges as Robert Ordway, M.D.

Up until now you're going to have to suspend belief some in order to buy Warner Baxter as young Ordway. Dialogue makes it clear that Baxter's Ordway is supposed to be embarking on his medical school journey at age 30. Baxter is 54 and he looks it. But if you can get over this all too young Warner Baxter for the first twenty minutes of this first Crime Doctor movie, then you should have no trouble enjoying him as the more mature Crime Doctor for the remainder of the movie and the series to come.

John Litel is playing the unlikely named Emilio Caspari, who disappears for ten years himself at the same time as Baxter's Ordway. The passing decade is spent behind bars by Caspari, called Emmie by his friends. Almost immediately after his release Caspari is back to tailing Ordway and soon bumps into gang mates Joe (Harold Huber) and Nick (Don Costello) who had just been startled by the appearance of Ordway on a dance floor with Grace Fielding, a social worker the doctor had met in his office played by Margaret Lindsay.

Caspari, Joe and Nick want to know if Dr. Ordway is actually Phil Morgan, their running mate on the Norton payroll job back during the Hoover administration. Morgan double-crossed the others out of $200,000 from that heist which led to his being taken on that ride in the opening scene. Joe and Nick had presumed Ordway dead since that time while Caspari had been biding his time under lock and key of the state for those ten years and is now hellbent on recovering the money.

What none of the three crooks is sure of is whether Dr. Ordway is bluffing them and actually recalls his past, and thus the location of the money, or whether he's on the level about having absolutely no memory of past misdeeds. Neither scenario bodes well for Ordway.

John Litel is effectively menacing as the three-fingered Caspari, de facto leader of Morgan's old gang. Costello comes off as a little goofy during his first meeting with Ordway but is soon playing Nick as just a cutthroat a character as Litel's Caspari. Harold Huber meanwhile, with so many menacing characters under his belt, is nearly invisible as the disappointingly reasonable and jumpy Joe.

Bad guys: Harold Huber, John Litel and Don Costello

Ray Collins is an interesting choice to play Ordway's doctor and role model, Dr. Carey, because Collins himself was the original Crime Doctor on the radio in 1940. A nice touch. He's a kindly Dr. Carey and especially good in his New Year's Eve confrontation with a drunken Ordway whom he spurs on to medical studies through a high volume argument.

Margaret Lindsay plays Ordway's love interest, Grace Fielding, who like Ida Lupino in Warren William's first Lone Wolf movie disappears forever without a mention in subsequent series entries. Lindsay has a couple of good scenes beginning with her first appearance teasing Ordway who confuses social worker Grace with the paroled patient he expected to confront. In her crystal clear speaking voice and educated tone Lindsay's Grace smirks while explaining to Ordway that she and her gang get sailors drunk at a hole in the wall bar before rolling them for their money. After mentioning Vassar as her origins Ordway catches on and romance is soon in awkward bloom. Lindsay is also very good when she tails Litel's Caspari to a dive bar to confront him over his following Ordway. After Caspari goes too far with Grace, whom he calls Bright Eyes with some menace, she smacks his face and spooks him with threats of the police before storming off.

Leon Ames also has a brief part in Crime Doctor as violent criminal William Wheeler whom Ordway reforms based largely upon Wheeler's past military experience from the Great War. Ordway surmises Wheeler's crime was one committed in a fit of passion and despite his hard outer shell he's no career criminal. His past military service served Wheeler in leading multiple prison break attempts, a trait the unorthodox Ordway sees as significant. In an extremely unlikely scene Wheeler leads his fellow inmates in training exercises so revolutionary that they are picked up by multiple media outlets and broadcast live over the radio as if they were on par with the Olympic Games.

Ordway restrains Wheeler

Ordway's success in reforming Wheeler leads to his being named Chairman of the state parole board and eventually brings him into contact with the final member of the Caspari gang, beaten and bitter Pearl Adams, played well by Dorothy Tree. Her time on screen is limited but extremely important in eventually confirming all of Ordway's own suspicions about his past.

Dr. Ordway later confronts Caspari and company and they reenact the events surrounding their crime of ten years earlier. Baxter has some of his best and most emotional scenes in hammering out the details of the past with Caspari, becoming especially vicious with his tormentor once he realizes that as Phil Morgan he was not only the brains behind their outfit but leader of the gang.

Warner Baxter and John Litel nose to nose with Harold Huber in the background

Ordway solves the mystery of himself and the Norton payroll job and Crime Doctor concludes just as the earlier The Man Man Who Lived Twice had: in a courtroom with our reformed doctor fighting for his freedom while admitting his criminal past. The court must feel free to punish who he was in the past but at the same time they will be punishing the innocent and valuable man he has turned himself into over the passing years.

Given that nine additional Crime Doctor movies follow this one, you can guess the verdict.

Crime Doctor is a 66 minute film from Larry Darmour Productions, who were previously behind the Mickey McGuire shorts featuring a very young Mickey Rooney and of greater relevance to this article the Ellery Queen series of movies produced for Columbia between 1940 and '42. Ralph Bellamy and then William Gargan played the lead in these seven movies with Crime Doctor's own Margaret Lindsay appearing all seven films as Queen's secretary/assistant Nikki Porter. Like the Ellery Queen series the Crime Doctor series was distributed to theaters by Columbia Pictures. This first entry was directed by Michael Gordon and starred Warner Baxter as the Crime Doctor with Margaret Lindsay, Ray Collins, John Litel, Harold Huber, Don Costello and Leon Ames in support.

Margaret Lindsay and Warner Baxter

I don't enjoy Crime Doctor as much as the more traditional mystery tales which follow in the series but it does serve a very interesting link to all of the later movies in revealing how Phil Morgan became Dr. Robert Ordway, the Crime Doctor. You can tune in to any of the Crime Doctor sequels without having seen the first one and, in fact, Crime Doctor may actually be most enjoyable after getting better attached to Baxter's Ordway in watching him solve those later crimes.

US Auctions Australian Auctions Austrian Auctions Belgian Auctions Canadian Auctions French Auctions German Auctions Indian Auctions Irish Auctions Italian Auctions Dutch Auctions Spanish Auctions Swiss Auctions UK Auctions

Best Match Time: ending soonest Time: newly listed Price: lowest first Price: highest first Price + Shipping: lowest first Price + Shipping: highest first

1923 Warner Baxter Silent Film Actor Biography Print - ORIGINAL HISTORIC IMAGE    US $44.95

1938 Margaret Lindsay Actress Henry Major Lithograph - ORIGINAL    US $78.95

1938 Warner Baxter Actor Henry Major Bugs Baer Lithograph    US $73.95

1933 Richard Barthelmess Warner Baxter Actor Film Print Biography Movie Screen    US $49.95

View Page:   1  2  3

Feature eBay Auctions on your site

You'll find the entire audio podcast at The Cinementals site HERE ... the player is just under the big TV at the top of that page.

I made my regular picks for May 2012 TCM viewing earlier this month on Immortal Ephemera HERE; and I also covered Joel McCrea as TCM Star of the Month HERE on the home site.

A couple of weeks ago The Cinementals invited me to make my top individual picks for TCM's May programming on their site which I did HERE.

So if you like what I like, and if you read my very long articles about old movies you probably do, you might find my recommendations helpful.

Or at the very least you'll find out why Jill and I dislike James Dean, discover Doris Day taking a beating from all three of us, and hear Will scold Jill for talking dirty during her selection of Anatomy of a Murder!

Once more it can all be heard HERE on The Cinementals podcast.

Monday morning greetings to you with the 5th Series gallery of BAT Modern Beauties cards. You can find the brand new gallery HERE.

Since I used Kay Francis in the sample on that new page I thought I'd give you a peek at Olivia de Havilland here:

Once more the brand new gallery showing off 1938 BAT Modern Beauties Series 5 is HERE.

If you like these Modern Beauties cards they're available at a song this week along with several other vintage cards and collectibles. eBay ran a free listing week meaning I didn't have to pony up a quarter per listing this past week. So instead of my usual 40-60 weekly auctions I'm running--Over 550! Given the deal I got I've adjusted minimum bids to be much lower than I normally would. Shipping combined as always so there are some fantastic deals to be had.

You can see all of my eBay auctions HERE.

Back soon with something new, talk to you then!
Cliff

The difference between 1943 and today is the evolution from current event to history. I think a little further context would boost the poor reputation of this World War II home front comedy. Perhaps a short about the real government girls should be appended to the front of the movie to give better understanding the the situations shown throughout Government Girl. As of yet it has never had a home video release anyway, but Warner Archive/TCM Vault/etc., are you listening?

A fascinating 1999 Washington Post article by Megan Rosenfeld about her government girl mother reads like background research for our 1943 movie. One area Rosenfeld stresses is housing shortages noting that 10,000 boarding houses sprung up in Washington during this time. She writes that Washington's population grew in the late 1930's and that in 1940 when the Civil Service heavily recruited defense workers over 24,000 women entered government service.

By 1942 the population of Washington had increased by a quarter of a million people. Quite a number considering America was by then at war. A period article from the Hammond Times reveals civil service commission statistics from the fall of 1944 claiming that there were 152,000 government girls in the capital by that date with about 13% of them, or 20,000 young women, being under 21 years of age. That article with its focus on teens noted that approximately 60,000 men and women had left federal service to enter the armed forces since the start of the war.

Think of how chaotic that must have been. 60,000 out. Mostly men. Two and a half times that number in. All women.

Washington was overcrowded and populated by a high ratio of young women. Both of these traits are shown throughout Government Girl and are especially made clear in the opening scene when Ed Browne (Sonny Tufts) arrives in the overbooked town and waits for a room to open up in a hotel lobby. Minding his own business he's quickly surrounded by attention seeking young women. Meanwhile, Smokey (Olivia de Havilland) escorts friends May (Anne Shirley) and Joe (James Dunn) to that same hotel where they had booked a room in advance to be married and stay after for a brief honeymoon.

The hotel has given May and Joe's room to Browne after seeing his face on the cover of a newspaper touting his arrival as an important government appointee. May and Joe are forced to hold their ceremony behind a semi-private screen while their honeymoon plans have been revised to a stay in May and Smokey's room at a girl's boarding house run. There is a bit of a complication to that plan because proprietor Mrs. Harris (Una O'Connor) does not allow men on the premises.

While May and Joe spend much of their too limited time in Government Girl seeking a room to share as man and wife, a real government girl would likely have been very grateful for the rooms Mrs. Harris supplied. In May 1942 Eleanor Roosevelt and the wives of 24 heads of government agencies issued a joint statement declaring housing conditions for government girls "extremely bad" and that "there is profiteering, lack of sanitation, overcrowding." Overcrowded perhaps, but Smokey and May's room at Mrs. Harris' boarding house was certainly clean and seemed an ideal dormitory situation compared to what could have been shown.

The Washington crowds extend beyond hotel lobbies and are shown in throngs around the city including Joe's military post at the Social Security Office and in the pack of women waiting for a bus in front of Smokey and May.

As to the ratio issue, beyond the overwhelming number of female extras in Government Girl the problem is mentioned in dialog by May who thinks pal Smokey should count herself very lucky at having the option of two different male suitors, reporter Branch Owens (Paul Stewart) and ambitious Senate sub-committee member Dana McGuire (Jess Barker). Of course Smokey soon has a third admirer as well in Ed Browne, but it takes over 35 minutes of Government Girl for Browne to discover that Smokey is even available.

Browne likes Smokey from their first chance meeting when Smokey is crawling the floor of the hotel lobby trying to locate May's wedding ring. He helps out but irritably insists that the girl is "making a mistake" and that he "doesn't take marriage lightly." Even with women swooping in to pick up Browne's handkerchief, the no nonsense Washington newcomer seems smitten by Smokey from the start.

And why not, Smokey had just what the men of Washington were looking for. A 1943 newspaper article polled men working in government, outnumbered 3 to 1 by women in the city at that time, to reveal the top three qualities to help a lonely government girl land a date: Cleanliness, sensible clothes, and a natural, well-modulated voice, in that order (Madison). They don't mention zaniness but otherwise that checklist perfectly nails de Havilland's Smokey!

I got on Olivia de Havilland a little bit for her comedic efforts in Princess O'Rourke (1943). She's still a bit awkward in Government Girl, but she's such a charming love interest especially in contrast to her charmless admirers that it doesn't really matter. She was more adept than I would have expected at physical comedy though she struggled at times to deliver humorous lines with proper punch. She has a few moments where here body language is also over the top, recalling her exaggerated tip-toe through Mrs. Harris' hallway as I type that, but despite any awkwardness I found myself chuckling at her motions many times throughout Government Girl.

Government Girl would be de Havilland's last appearance on the screen for over two years. It was the final de Havilland film released prior to her contract dispute and legal challenge to Warner Brothers, though she did work on the later release Devotion (1946) prior to her fight against the studio.

Then still a Warner Brothers employee de Havilland actually wound up with RKO for Government Girl through a slightly more complicated than usual trade. She was originally swapped by Warner to David O. Selznick in return for Ingrid Bergman whom Warner cast in Casablanca (1942). Selznick, who loved having de Havilland in Gone With the Wind (1939) had really looked forward to using her in another film but whether that movie just never came to be or Selznick saw too great a profit potential in de Havilland as a property he instead decided to use his option to sell her services to RKO. RKO then cast de Havilland alongside Tufts in Government Girl. In light of her quest for quality parts one has to chuckle to see how Government Girl is only a couple of studio transactions removed from Casablanca!

Despite the looming legal storm de Havilland comes off as a pro in Government Girl. Even if she's not a talented comedienne she genuinely appears to be having fun in the movie. And she has her moments including what is actually a pretty hilarious drunk scene shared with Anne Shirley. The scene, played with George Givot as Count Bodinsky is completely unnecessary, awkwardly slammed into the story just prior to the Senate hearing finale, but funny enough not to let that bother you too much.

She apparently did her bit in promoting the movie as well talking to reporter Jerry Breitigam about real government girls: "They live in congested quarters, travel in mobs and have no personal privacy. Girls who gave up homes and beaux to go there. Girls who had been infantile paralysis victims, walking with dragging legs. But they know it's women's war as well as men's." Whether she was just doing her job or if perhaps she actually felt she did some good on the home front with Government Girl I can't be sure.

In Government Girl de Havilland plays Smokey, a secretary to newly arrived Ed Browne (Tufts) of the Office of War Management. The Office of War Management appears to be a slightly fictionalized version of President Roosevelt's War Production Board. Smokey explains it in better detail to Browne when attempting to point out where they fit into the American government:

"The Office for War Management. Now, what do you find under the OWM?" she asks Browne.

"A lot of letters," her boss replies, referring to FDR's alphabet soup of agencies.

"Letters!" Smokey declares. Pointing at a chart she elaborates, "You find the WCB, the BRG, the NWLB, the RKF, the OGG, the OTC, the WBD, the HFQ, the RTC, the OMA, the OGQ, the ORC, the OTW, the OPS, the OLK, the OOO," she turns to find she's lost Browne's interest and adds, "Oh."

Browne is a hands-on Washington outsider who seeks to cut through the red tape to get bombers built. A no-BS working class sort out of Detroit's automotive industry, Browne would prefer to be in uniform but has been called to Washington by a character called the Chief (Emory Parnell) to serve "the biggest factory in the world." Frustrated with Washington's rules Browne tells Smokey that the job can't be done, but Smokey fuels him with her optimism and Browne is soon placing calls to Roosevelt himself.

Browne does things his way and bomber production soars. But he steps on too many toes and eventually runs afoul of experienced Washingtonian C.L. Harvester (Paul Stanton) who winds up telling Browne that "In my opinion you're either a fool or you're making yourself rich inside airplane production." Harvester presses the issue setting up a Senate investigation headed by kindly Harry Davenport as Senator MacVickers but with Smokey's ambitious boyfriend Dana McGuire (Barker) pressing the charges on Capitol Hill.

De Havilland biographer Judith M. Kass writes that Government Girl was profitable (73) but echoes many of the period reviews paling it in comparison to earlier titles such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and the even more recent The More the Merrier (1943). Certainly true, though those are pretty good standards to bump up against!

Frank Morriss, a writer for the Winnipeg Free Press slammed Government Girl making mention of overacting from de Havilland, who'd previously scored in the comedy Princess O'Rourke, and a wooden Sonny Tufts, who had just made his successful debut in So Proudly We Hail (1943). He surmises that since "Both these people have shown themselves good troupers, (so) the blame must fall on Mr. Nichols."

At the time of Government Girl Dudley Nichols already had a very long and impressive line of screenplay credits highlighted by his work on several John Ford classics including The Lost Patrol (1934), Judge Priest (1934), The Informer (1935), Stagecoach (1939), and The Long Voyage Home (1940). On Government Girl not only did he handle the screenplay but Nichols also directed and produced the film.

Along with Jean Renoir he had produced one previous film, This Land is Mine (1943), which was directed by Renoir with a script by Nichols, but Government Girl was Dudley Nichols first shot at directing. At a time when most newspaper reviews were little more than publicity puff pieces Morriss absolutely savages Nichols for his efforts: "Sometimes too many cooks don't spoil the film broth," he wrote. "It looks as if he'd better get out while he has his artistic reputation."

Bosley Crowther dulled the edge a little but still came down pretty hard on Government Girl in his January 7, 1944 New York Times review. He opens his review by stating Nichols is a "first-class screen-writer" but of Government Girl Crowther writes that, "In some spots, his film is amusing. In long stretches, it is hopelessly dull." Crowther then makes the usual comparisons to the better recalled Washington war-time films before going for the kill with his conclusion that "the plot takes such sudden twists and sideslips, the pace is so uneven, the styles are so jumbled and the story, by and large, is so topically stale that the film has the look of an effort of a directorial amateur."

Earlier I wrote that yesterday's current events are history by today's view. That still goes whether Government Girl was considered stale or not by 1944. Crowther isn't complaining about the accuracy of Government Girl. The fact that he calls it stale seems to strengthen my case for the movie as a time capsule curiosity.

The Winnipeg writer Morriss thought Nichols goofed in choosing a comedy for his efforts correctly stating that the majority of his previous work had been on dramatic films. He does not mention one glaring exception to that rule however, Nichols work in collaboration with Hagar Wilde on Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby (1938). Nichols would wear all three hats on two additional productions for RKO, Sister Kenny (1946) and Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), with each of those dramatic efforts gaining Oscar nominations and Golden Globe victories for Rosalind Russell. The O'Neill adaptation also brought Michael Redgrave an Oscar nomination.

Despite the artistic acclaim received by his actors Mourning Becomes Electra was a notorious flop and Nichols only posted writing credits thereafter. He'd won an Oscar himself for the screenplay on The Informer, and made Oscar history by becoming the first person to turn down an Academy Award. He still managed another three subsequent writing nominations with the last coming late in his life as one of three writers on the Anthony Mann Western The Tin Star (1957). Nichols died in 1960.

More on de Havilland in a moment. Sonny Tufts is passable as Browne until he gets angry or excited. These and all other emotions are expressed simply by Tufts speaking louder and, if possible, more monotone. Anne Shirley and James Dunn are underutilized and I would have especially liked to have seen more of Shirley with de Havilland. Agnes Moorehead shows up as a Washington socialite in a couple of scenes and doesn't get to do much other than be properly standoffish. Jess Barker was no better than Sonny Tufts, just without the volume switch. Not a lot to do for Harry Davenport, Una O'Connor or especially Sig Ruman, but I got a kick out of each of these pros in action. Warren Hymer shows up in one scene as an MP to harrass Dunn's character and should get a good laugh.

My argument in favor of Government Girl is that it deserves to be remembered. It is worth watching and you might even like it. You may enjoy Olivia de Havilland's performance, though I'd completely understand if you find it to be a little too much. In that case you might even hate what she does as Smokey Allard, but Government Girl is still worth a view for the one area it does manage to keep in sharp focus: Washington D.C., 1943.

De Havilland, like Dudley Nichols' movie as a whole, pushes too hard for comedy. For me they pushed so far that they went past a breaking point and I found myself laughing against my best intentions. Take de Havilland's alphabet speech included above. It's too much. But it's way too much and after a few moments of wishing for it to stop I found myself giggling as it went on. Same for the completely ridiculous motorcycle ride that Tufts takes de Havilland on in an early scene. Way too much, but I was smiling when it was over.

Way too much, but I was smiling when it was over.

Sources:

• Breitigam, Jerry. "Olivia Finds Something Big in Real Government Girls." Salt Lake Tribune. 15 August 1943: 58.
• Crowther, Bosley. "Movie Review: Government Girl." The New York Times. 7 January 1944. Web. 9 May 2012. < http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0CE1D61531E03BBC4F53DFB766838F659EDE >
• Kass, Judith M. Olivia de Havilland. New York: Pyramid Publications, 1976.
• Madison, Janet. "Washington's Government Girls Learn What Pleases Typical Capital Men." Lowell Sun. 9 March 1943: 52.
• Morriss, Frank. "Mr. Nichols Makes a Mistake." Winnipeg Free Press. 23 Jan. 1944: 6.
• "Overcrowding at Washington Investigated." Sheboygan Press. 9 May 1942: 2.
• Rosenfeld, Megan. "'Government Girls': World War II's Army of the Potomac." Washington Post. 10 May 1999: A1. Web. 9 May 2012. < http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/2000/govgirls0510.htm >
• "U.S. Hires 20,000 Under 21 Years." Hammond Times. 29 October 1944:13.

US Auctions Australian Auctions Austrian Auctions Belgian Auctions Canadian Auctions French Auctions German Auctions Indian Auctions Irish Auctions Italian Auctions Dutch Auctions Spanish Auctions Swiss Auctions UK Auctions

Best Match Time: ending soonest Time: newly listed Price: lowest first Price: highest first Price + Shipping: lowest first Price + Shipping: highest first

Olivia DeHAVILLAND, Henry FONDA, Joan LESLIE - 1942 poster - "THE MALE ANIMAL"    US $128.50

1940 Ad Olivia De Havilland Actress 1847 Rogers Bros - ORIGINAL ADVERTISING    US $41.95

Movie Still Photograph of Errol Flynn & Olivia De Havilland in Captain Blood    US $89.99

WELL GROOMED BRIDE 1946 Olivia De Havilland, Ray Milland TRADE ADVERT    US $39.29

View Page:   1  2  3

Feature eBay Auctions on your site

I've taken the rankings for the 1935-36 movies from a series Harrison's ran over four issues dated November 28-December 19, 1936.

These rankings are introduced in Harrison's Reports with the explanation that "more than 500 actual theaters have reported in this check-up." The rankings give a good idea of what films were popular with the audiences ranked not by box office dollars but by reports from actual film exhibitors.

Not as much qualifying information was offered in this report as in the rankings from the previous year. It is still very interesting to see how well certain movies were received. The popularity of Shirley Temple and the Astaire-Rogers pairing is made obvious through these rankings.

Strong reports from Twentieth Century-Fox were qualified based on the recent death of top box office draw Will Rogers. In the December 12 issue covering the Twentieth Century-Fox films Harrison states:

"The exhibitor, however, must bear in mind the following: The void created by the death of Will Rogers has not been filled by another actor of the same drawing power. Robert Taylor is not a Fox star, but was merely borrowed for this picture [Private Number], and it is doubtful whether MGM would let him appear in another picture of some other company--the same is true of Freddie Bartholomew [Professional Soldier]; the Dionne babies are placed in the first star rank, because they drew well in their first picture [The Country Doctor], but they do not deserve either such or a second-rank classification for future pictures. Shirley Temple's last picture, Dimples, is not going over very big."

An issue of Harrison's Reports from earlier in 1936 notes a misguided attempt to replace Will Rogers with Irvin S. Cobb.

Reports of the lowest possible ranking (Poor) are surprising for movies better received today including The Murder Man, Woman Wanted and, especially, The Princess Comes Across. Harrison's nationwide poll was wide enough to confirm to each of those three titles as among the poorest box office performers of the season by any studio.

Another interesting facet of the rankings is the sheer volume of movies ranked Poor versus those ranked Excellent. But as I explained in the previous ranking report post, anything above Poor, or at least above Fair, is actually a movie which performed well. Excellent is a rank for the biggest hits of them all; a report of Good still means the movie did quite well.

Following are the rankings for all non-Western films from Columbia, First National, Twentieth Century-Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, RKO (Radio Pictures), United Artists, Universal, and Warner Bros. studios for the year 1935-36.

Clicking on any linked title will bring you to an article or review I've written about that specific movie elsewhere on Immortal Ephemera (or in a couple of cases at WarrenWilliam.com).

Unlike our previous reports I've illustrated the 1935-36 rankings with cards and collectibles from various sets and issues. Most have Gallery/Photo ID Pages. Clicking on any image that does have a Gallery page will bring you there.

Excellent Performers:

Columbia - Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.
First National - Shipmates Forever, The Story of Louis Pasteur.
Twentieth Century-Fox - Steamboat Round the Bend, Thanks a Million, In Old Kentucky, The Littlest Rebel, King of Burlesque, The Prisoner of Shark Island, The Country Doctor, Captain January, Under Two Flags, Poor Little Rich Girl.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - China Seas, Broadway Melody, A Tale of Two Cities, Rose Marie, San Francisco, Libeled Lady.
Paramount - Trail of the Lonesome Pine.
RKO (Radio Pictures) - Top Hat, Follow the Fleet, The Ex-Mrs. Bradford.
Warner Bros. Pictures - The Charge of the Light Brigade.

Excellent to Very Good Performers:

Paramount - Rhythm on the Range.
RKO (Radio Pictures) - Swing Time.

Very Good Performers:

Columbia - If I Could Only Cook.
First National - I Found Stella Parish, Ceiling Zero.
Twentieth Century-Fox - Show 'Em No Mercy, Private Number.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - A Night at the Opera, Wife Versus Secretary, Small Town Girl, The Gorgeous Hussy.
Paramount - Desire.
United Artists - The Dark Angel, These Three.
Universal - Three Kids and a Queen.
Warner Bros. Pictures - Frisco Kid.

Very Good to Good Performers:

Twentieth Century-Fox - Professional Soldier, A Message to Garcia.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Ah, Wilderness!, His Brother's Wife, The Devil Is a Sissy.
Paramount - The Bride Comes Home, The Milky Way, The Moon's Our Home, Poppy.
United Artists - Strike Me Pink, The Ghost Goes West, Modern Times, Little Lord Fauntleroy.
Universal - Diamond Jim, Love Before Breakfast.

Good Performers:

Columbia - The King Steps Out.
First National - The White Angel, Earthworm Tractors, China Clipper.
Twentieth Century-Fox - The Farmer Takes a Wife, The Gay Deception, Here's to Romance, The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, Paddy O'Day, Every Saturday Night, It Had to Happen, Everybody's Old Man, Gentle Julia, Little Miss Nobody.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Anna Karenina, Exclusive Story, Petticoat Fever, The Unguarded Hour, Fury, Piccadilly Jim, Old Hutch.
Paramount - The Big Broadcast of 1936, Hands Across the Table, The Crusades, Collegiate, Anything Goes, Thirteen Hours in the Air.
RKO (Radio Pictures) - Annie Oakley, In Person, The Lady Consents, Let's Sing Again, The Bride Walks Out.
United Artists - Barbary Coast.
Warner Bros. Pictures - Special Agent, Dr. Socrates, Dangerous, The Petrified Forest, I Married a Doctor, Green Pastures.

Good to Fair Performers:

Columbia - Meet Nero Wolfe.
First National - The Goose and the Gander, The Singing Kid, Brides Are Like That, The Golden Arrow.
Twentieth Century-Fox - Charlie Chan in Shanghai, This Is the Life, Way Down East, Navy Wife, Charlie Chan's Secret, Charlie Chan at the Circus, 36 Hours to Kill.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - The Robin Hood of El Dorado, The Devil Doll.
Paramount - Accent on Youth, Two for Tonight, Mary Burns, Fugitive, So Red the Rose, Early to Bed, Yours for the Asking.
RKO (Radio Pictures) - I Dream Too Much, Mary of Scotland
United Artists - Things to Come.
Warner Bros. Pictures - Little Big Shot, Page Miss Glory, Miss Pacific Fleet, Colleen, Sons o' Guns, Public Enemy's Wife.

Fair Performers:

Columbia - She Couldn't Take It, The Music Goes Round, The Devil's Squadron, And So They Were Married, The Mine With the Iron Door, Counterfeit, Blackmailer, Shakedown, Two Fisted Gentleman, They Met in a Taxi, Alibi for Murder, Killer at Large, Tugboat Princess.
First National - The Case of the Lucky Legs, Broadway Hostess, The Murder of Dr. Carrigan, Road Gang, Snowed Under, The Law in Her Hands, Hearts Divided, Love Begins at Twenty.
Twentieth Century-Fox - Welcome Home, Dante's Inferno, Metropolitan, Your Uncle Dudley, Here Comes Trouble, The Song and Dance Man, The Country Beyond, Champagne Charlie, Sins of Man, The Crime of Dr. Forbes, White Fang, Educating Father.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - Here Comes the Band, Speed, Trouble for Two, We Went to College.
Paramount - Every Night at Eight, The Last Outpost, Rose of the Rancho, Big Brown Eyes, Florida Special, The Case Against Mrs. Ames, Palm Springs, And Sudden Death, The Return of Sophie Lang, Spendthrift, Three Cheers for Love.
RKO (Radio Pictures) - Seven Keys to Baldpate, Sylvia Scarlett, Love On a Bet, The Witness Chair, Special Investigator, The Last Outlaw, Walking On Air, Don't Turn 'Em Loose, A Woman Rebels.
United Artists - Red Salute, Splendor, One Rainy Afternoon.
Universal - His Night Out, Stormy, The Great Impersonation, Don't Get Personal, Nobody's Fool, Parole, Crash Donovan, Postal Inspector.
Warner Bros. Pictures - Personal Maid, Stars Over Broadway, The Widow From Monte Carlo, Boulder Dam, Times Square Playboy.

Fair to Poor Performers:

Columbia - The Lone Wolf Returns, Panic on the Air, The Roaming Lady, Trapped by Television, The Final Hour, The End of the Trail.
First National - Two Against the World, The Case of the Velvet Claws.
Twentieth Century-Fox - Bad Boy, Music Is Magic, The First Baby, Half Angel, Human Cargo, High Tension.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - The Bishop Misbehaves, It's in the Air, A Perfect Gentleman, Tough Guy, The Voice of Bugle Ann.
Paramount - Here Comes Cookie, The Virginia Judge, Peter Ibbetson, Too Many Parents, Till We Meet Again, Forgotten Faces, Border Flight, Girl of the Ozarks, A Son Comes Home.
RKO (Radio Pictures) - The Return of Peter Grimm, We're Only Human, Farmer in the Dell, Murder on the Bridle Path, Bunker Bean, M'Liss, Grand Jury.
United Artists - Melody Lingers On, I Stand Condemned.
Universal - Storm Over the Andes, King Solomon of Broadway, The Affairs of Susan, The Invisible Ray, Dangerous Waters, Dracula's Daughter, Yellowstone.
Warner Bros. Pictures - I Live for Love, Freshman Love, Man Hunt, The Walking Dead, The Big Noise, Hot Money, Jail Break, Satan Met a Lady.

Poor Performers:

Columbia - Guard That Girl, The Case of the Missing Man, Grand Exit, Escape from Devil's Island, Too Tough to Kill, One Way Ticket, The Calling of Dan Matthews, Crime and Punishment, Dangerous Intrigue, Lady of Secrets, You May Be Next, Hell Ship Morgan, Don't Gamble with Love, Pride of the Marines.
First National - The Payoff, Man of Iron.
Twentieth Century-Fox - Dressed to Thrill, Redheads on Parade, Thunder in the Night, My Marriage.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - The Murder Man, Woman Wanted, Pursuit, Kind Lady, Last of the Pagans, Three Live Ghosts, The Garden Murder Case, Three Godfathers, Moonlight Murder, Absolute Quiet, Three Wise Guys.
Paramount - This Woman Is Mine, Without Regrets, Annapolis Farewell, Two Fisted, Ship Cafe, Coronado, Millions in the Air, Scrooge, It's a Great Life, Her Master's Voice, Soak the Rich, Timothy's Quest, Woman Trap, Klondike Annie, The Preview Murder Case, Give Us the Night, F-Men, Sky Parade, Fatal Lady, The Princess Comes Across.
RKO (Radio Pictures) - His Family Tree, Hi Gaucho, The Rainmakers, To Beat the Band, Another Face, Two in the Dark, Chatterbox, Muss 'Em Up, Yellow Dust, Silly Billies, Two in Revolt, The Dancing Pirate, Second Wife.
United Artists - An Amateur Gentleman.
Universal - Fighting Youth, Remember Last Night, Sweet Surrender, East of Java.

eBay is holding a sale this week on auction listings which means two things: 1) More new articles and posts in this space as it frees up time for me to write and work on the site; and, 2) Some pretty good deals in my eBay listings because I'm relisting formerly Fixed Price inventory at auction prices.

I began last night by listing a couple of hundred cards, including about 150 various BAT Modern Beauties with minimum bids ranging from just 99¢ to $2.49. Shipping combines on those as well. Tonight I will likely be relaunching the Films in Review issues I have remaining with bargain minimum bids.

I'm also hoping to list my remaining years of Harrison's Reviews (minimum bids start at $99.99 on those, though a bit higher for 1939) which means there should be some more Harrison's Reviews based articles coming to the site as I go through them and unearth any interesting nuggets.

For now though here's that LINK to the new Series 4 gallery once more with a gorgeous sample image below in card #33, Paulette Goddard: