"Dr. Danfield, student of crime psychology, has many times provided the police with the solution to a baffling crime. There's an interesting case ahead for the doctor today..."
Danger, Dr. Danfield! was an ABC detective program that ran from August 18, 1946 'til April 13, 1947. It starred Steve Dunne (the other Sam Spade on the Adventures of Sam Spadeunder the alias "Michael Dunne" for some reason) as the titular Dr. Danfield and Joanne Johnson as Rusty Fairfax, his smitten secretary. The show was written by Ralph Wilkinson and produced by Wally Ramsey. A few familiar voices can be heard, particularly Howard McNear, who's in at least three episodes.
The conceit of the series was that Dr. Danfield was a crime-solving psychologist (like Flamond of the Crime Files of Flamond). Sometimes he'd be invited by the police to investigate a case but for the most part, he was like most amateur detectives - a busybody who seemed to find crimes everywhere he went. Although he claimed to be a psychologist his solutions were, if I'm being generous, armchair psychology; really though, they're just educated guesswork, no different than most radio detectives. Secretary Rusty Fairfax would spend each drama swooning over her boss while being perpetually rebuffed by him.
The Old Time Radio Researchers' summary of this series has the harshest criticism I've ever encountered in their listings, writing: "This series consistently featured some of the worst acting and writing of any detective show to reach the airwaves." I won't co-sign that, but I do admit this is not a great detective show. A lot of that falls on Danfield, who is simply far too smarmy to be an acceptable protagonist. He's as puffed-up as Ellery Queen and as conceited as I Deal in Crime's Chuck Morgan.
The Old Time Radio Researchers have a YouTube playlist of 26 episodes of Danger, Dr. Danfield:
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