Zeus

Crime Doctor's Man Hunt (1946)

Stars:

Warner Baxter, Ellen Drew, William Frawley

Scripted by Leigh Brackett of The Big Sleep fame and directed by future horrormeister William Castle, Crime Doctor's Manhunt has been singled out by many film buffs as the best of Columbia's "Crime Doctor" series. This time, criminal-turned-sleuth Dr. Robert Ordway (Warner Baxter) befriends amnesiac war veteran Philip Armstrong (Myron Healey), who is morbidly drawn to a small-town carnival. When Armstrong is murdered, Ordway recalls him saying that his death was preordained by sideshow fortune-teller Alfredi (Ivan Triesault). An interested observer to the events is Armstrong's meek fiancee Irene (Ellen Drew) whose cruel twin sister Natalie would seem to be the instigator of the murder. That's a swell theory-except for the fact that Natalie has been dead for two years! The film's best line is delivered by Inspector Manning (William Frawley), but to repeat it here would be giving away the ending.