The title is a misnomer. Edward Anholt's ingenious plot has nothing to do with a diary, but it's an excellent screenplay anyway with a very fast-moving and difficult to spot the murderer plot. Terse dialogue and some very interesting characters provide plenty of great moments for a fine array of players. Whit Bissel has a particularly meaty role – and he takes full advantage of all his opportunities. There's also am amusing little cameo by Sid Tomack as an unregenerate pickpocket. My old favorite, Fred F. Sears (who later became a director), can be fleetingly glimpsed as a detective. Adele Jergens plays the femme fatale with all her usual dash. Lois Maxwell too does well as the drab heroine. Baxter fills out the title role with more ease here than he displayed in many of his "A" pictures. Director Seymour Friedman keeps the movie moving at a fast clip. There are also some appealing lighting effects by photography Vincent Farrar. There is no sign of stinting on the art director's part either. The sets look convincingly real and there are plenty of scene changes. Film editing is nice and smooth. Music score is attractive. Altogether a first-class "B" entry, And yes, the writer is none other than Academy Award winner (for Panic in the Streets) Edward Anhalt.

Warner Baxter, (Dr. Robert Ordway) gave his final appearance in this role and I found this film had improved over all the other Crime Doctor Series. In this film, Dr. Ordway is called by the warden of a prison to visit him as he was going to parole a man called Steve Carter,(Stephen Dunne) who was a former patient of Dr. Ordway's. Steve Carter was sentenced to prison as an arsonist who burned a music recording studio. Dr. Ordway tells the Warden he really does not believe that Steve Carter committed this crime and is going to help him prove his innocence. Jane Darrin,(Lois Maxwell) meets Steve Carter as he gets out of prison and drives him home and talks about him going back to work with the music recording company. It is not very long before a murder is committed and Steve has become a likely suspect for another crime. Jane Darrin and Doctor Ordway come to Steve's assistance and a very strange recording is discovered that solves the crime. Lois Maxwell who played Jane Darrin was also "Miss Moneypenny" in most of the older James Bond Films. Great film Enjoy

Last of ten in the series with Warner Baxter playing the part of Dr. Robert Ordway, former criminal turned psychiatrist. The series ran from 1943-1949 and always involved the outsider specialist trusting and then helping hapless victims of the criminal justice system.This entry opens with Dr. Ordway talking about the impending parole of inmate 9815, Stephen Carter (Stephen Dunne), after serving three years for a crime of arson that he did not commit. The plot thickens when the accused is implicated in the murder of the man who took his job when in prison. The solution should not be a surprise.Lois Maxwell is not nearly as good looking or glib as she will become years later as Miss Moneypenny in seventeen James Bond movies. She plays the same role as a gate keeper for the head of the firm.Prolific character actor Whit Bissell plays Pete Bellem who records and keeps playing a song that seems to be central to the strange comings and goings on at the Bellem Music Company…"In the house where I was born" …"When I was just a boy. A recording of Pete's song becomes a critical part of the plot.Robert Armstrong looks a bit tired as gangster George 'Goldie' Harrigan. His new girlfriend Inez Gray, played by Adele Jergens, is best featured in a revealing negligee.Interesting introduction to the new technology of piping recorded music over phone lines to paying customers rather than having them order selected records at a juke box.The police are incredibly poor shots until the end. The writing is above average in this entry with such lines as, following an incomplete response to the police asking an alternate way out of an apartment building, "Did they ask if it was open?" Recommended.

In his final case Dr. Ordway (Warner Baxter) attempts to solve a murder in a highly interesting place: a sort of call-in jukebox where bar customers may request a particular record to be played. (The same gimmick, incidentally, used in the 1945 Republic serial "Federal Operator 99.") Although Baxter looks near exhausted (the veteran actor died less than 2 years later), the whodunit zips along nicely and the solution to the puzzle is not telegraphed too far in advance. Acting honors this time go to Whit Bissell as a slightly demented song-writer and, especially, future Miss Moneypenny of 007 fame, Lois Maxwell, as the decidedly active ingénue. Based on a popular radio show by Max Marcin, the 1943-1949 "Crime Doctor" thrillers were typical of series-happy Columbia, produced with economy but generally well-written and peopled by the studio's great (and very busy) stock company.