Last night I watched the first Crime Doctor movie, entitled "Crime Doctor"(1943). I figured it was time to stop viewing them in random order and go back to the beginning, and in doing so I learned a few things, such as how the Crime Doctor became the Crime Doctor in the first place. Would you believe he might have a criminal past? Keep in mind I said might. We won't know for sure until later in the movie, because when it opens he has amnesia, after waking up the hospital following an assault.
He has no idea how he got there. We do, however, having seen him get pushed from a moving car. He doesn't know his name, either. The nurses in his ward have taken to calling him "Ordway", after the man his hospital wing was named for. "It's better than calling him 'John Doe' ", says one. Upon leaving the hospital, he chooses that name for himself, being still unaware of his own.
He decides to go to medical school. After graduating, he is now "Dr. Robert Ordway" and continues his education to become a psychiatrist. In helping others to heal their minds, he hopes to heal his own by uncovering his past. Eventually he works with prisoners and is named head of the state parole board.
But a trio of hoodlums is following him. They believe they know exactly who he is, their former crime boss "Phil Morgan", who masterminded a bank job that netted 200 grand. They think Dr. Ordway is faking his amnesia, using it as an excuse to escape his past. I must take an aside here to mention that we saw this same theme presented recently in "Man in the Dark", where Edmond O'Brien was a prisoner who had a brain operation. It removed memory of his criminal past, but he was subsequently tracked by the hoodlums in his gang who thought he was faking it also, so the two films use an identical device.
Back to the story : in the course of his duties, Dr. Ordway meets a social worker (Margaret Lindsay). They fall in love and plan to marry. She wants him to give up his quest to recall the past : "It's not important, Bob. All that matters is us, and the future". But then he reveals that it is important, not just for his own sake but for hers as well. "I was going to have to tell you this sooner or later Grace. There are three men following me who say they know my name. They tell me I am 'Phil Morgan', the leader of a crime gang - their gang. They say I have two hundred thousand dollars hidden away from a bank robbery. They think I'm hiding it from them and they are dangerous. So even though I have no idea what they're talking about, I have to continue to investigate it. You have to be aware of this, I don't want you getting caught in the middle".
So that's how he became The Crime Doctor! He was already a Doctor, then these mugs who are following him told him he was a Criminal as well. To get to the bottom of it, he had to investigate the Crime.
Crime + Doctor = Crime Doctor! (Pretty impressive, eh?)
The plot will come to a head when Dr. Ordway is brought to trial for his alleged crime. I shant reveal the outcome, but I can tell you that it leads to personal closure for Dr. Ordway, who can now get on with the business of Crime Doctoring for the remaining nine films in the series. Of the three we've now seen, this one plays most like a traditional noir. I give it Two Big Thumbs Up and recommend you start with it, if you've not already jumped in at random like I did. ///////
The previous night we had quite a find : "Street Scene"(1931), a riveting pre-Code drama set in a tenement in New York City. It opens on a sweltering Summer evening. Several residents share gossip from their stoops and windows. Nothing else is going on, might as well talk bad about the neighbors. Leading the innuendo is "Mrs. Jones", a scrawny middle aged woman who won't declare her prejudice outright, but who's choice of words gives her away. She more or less thinks any non-Anglo Saxon is scum, and yet because it's not polite to say so, she tries to present herself as sympathetic. Mrs. Jones is played by the great Beulah Bondi, one of the most legendary of all character actresses.
One floor down from her is a Jewish couple. The husband spouts communist philosophy and says things would be alright if only "the people" would rise up in revolt. His wife is a teacher who ignores him and dotes on their college-age son. She's a bigot, too. When her son develops a crush on the story's protagonist, she tells him not to get involved with "that Irish girl. She'll only bring you trouble".
In contrast to these folks is an Italian couple who hate no one. They're presented as the ultimate American Immigrants : joyous, full of life and just glad to be here. There's a Capote-ish drunk and rascally kids, and then there's Estelle Taylor as the Irish girl's mother. She's a peaceful soul who doesn't have a bad word for anyone. Under her breath, she voices the opinion that people should try to get along and be kind. Taylor is married to an unpleasant and vaguely threatening man (David Landau) with a blue-collar mindset. He doesn't want any ethnics making plays for his daughter, and he suspects his wife is cheating on him. He has the classic excuse of the "good provider" : "I work hard for her. She has everything she needs". Yeah, she has food on the table and clothes on her back, but she lives in a hovel and is trapped in a loveless marriage. Her hubby makes thinly veiled threats, saying "there will be trouble" if his daughter isn't home on time, or if dinner isn't on the table when he wants it.
In the midst of all this maliciousness, a romance does develop between the Jewish boy (William Collier Jr.) and the Irish girl (Sylvia Sidney). He ignores his mother's insults towards her, and also tries to protect her from the major topic of gossip that's developing : Beulah Bondi has spotted her mother following the milkman down the block. She immediately spreads the rumor of an affair. Taylor claims she was only chasing after him to pay her bill. But when the milkman is seen repeatedly showing up at her apartment, when her husband is at work, her excuse doesn't seem to hold water.
All of this negativity from the neighbors will have some consequences when the rumor gets back to Taylor's husband. Meanwhile, Sam (the Jewish boy) wants Rose (the Irish girl) to run away with him, to escape the neighborhood entirely. But she won't desert her mother. She's also got a boss who's trying to put the make on her, offering her an apartment in a nice part of the city if she'll just...........well, you know.
The movie was based on a play and is staged as such by director King Vidor, who gets exceptional performances from his actors. The drama is brutally frank for 1931, but again we're pre-Code. Though adult subjects weren't completely out in the open, they at least were dealt with head on, in honest language. It's interesting to read the viewer's comments on Youtube; many say the film is as topical now as it was ninety years ago when it was made. The consensus seems to be that nothing has changed : "Human nature has always been the same".
"Street Scene" does have a modern feel, even if the look is Depression-era America. It has above average camera work at a time when most shots were stationary, and the tenement and street are actually part of a two-block long set. A lot went into the making of this movie, I'm surprised never to have heard of it before last night. It plays like a heavy human drama from the 1950s, when Method Acting became the rage. I give it Two Big Thumbs Up and a strong recommendation, especially for the performances of Beulah Bondi, Estelle Taylor and Sylvia Sidney. The Youtube print is crisp, don't miss this one! ////
That's all for now. Hope you're enjoying the re-opening of everything. Have a great evening and tons of love as always! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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