The Crime Doctor is a fictional character created by Max Marcin. A crook named Phil Morgan suffers amnesia and becomes criminal psychologist Dr. Ordway. He uses his expertise to solve crimes as well as to help patients.
The character was the hero of a popular CBS radio program titled Crime Doctor on Sunday nights between 1940 and 1947. Dr. Benjamin Ordway was played by Ray Collins, House Jameson, Brian Donlevy, Hugh Marlowe, Everett Sloane and John McIntire.
Columbia Pictures Corporation made a series of 10 low-budget "Crime Doctor" mysteries from 1943 through 1949. In them, Dr. Robert Ordway was played exclusively by Warner Baxter. In the first film, as an in-joke, Collins played the supporting role of Dr. John Carey, the Crime Doctor's doctor. Baxter was in poor health much of the time while working on the series, and two years after making the tenth film, he died of pneumonia.
In March 2014, the "Crime Doctor" film series was shown on GetTV, an American digital multicast television network owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Sony acquired Columbia Pictures Corporation in 1989.