The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse

United States

1938

87 Min

Black and White

1.37:1

English

Currently 3.2/5 Stars.
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EXEC Hal B. Wallis, Jack Warner

PROD Anatole Litvak, Gilbert Miller

SCR John Huston, John Wexley, Barré Lyndon

CAST Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor, Allen Jenkins, Donald Crisp, Gale Page, Henry O'Neill, Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom, Ward Bond, Vladimir Sokoloff

Dr. Clitterhouse, a successful and respected Park Ave. doctor, decides the best way to study the criminal mind is to become a criminal. He begins by robbing the safes of his wealthy friends, but soon wants to observe the underworld more closely and test his theory that criminal activity changes the personality. He seeks out Jo Keller, a well-known fence, and is surprised to discover that Keller is a beautiful woman. While the doctor’s devoted nurse, Randolph, covers for him, Clitterhouse joins the gang of criminals run by Keller and Rocks Valentine. Jo falls in love with Clitterhouse, now nicknamed “the Professor,” but Rocks is distrustful of the doctor’s motives and, one night during a fur heist, tries to kill him by trapping him in a cold storage locker. Once the doctor has concluded his experiments on the gang, he goes back to his practice. Rocks trails him, discovers his notebooks, and threatens blackmail. Clitterhouse, who has now completely lost perspective on his own behavior, murders Rocks and with Jo’s help hides the body. When Inspector Lane closes in on Clitterhouse, the doctor confesses his crime to a prominent attorney named Grant. Clitterhouse is tried for murder, but is ultimately aquitted on the grounds of insanity, not because of his criminal actions, but because when he is put on the witness stand he undermines his own defense. —TCM

Director

Anatole Litvak

Born in Kiev, Michael Anatole Litwak was a stage actor and assistant director as a teenager. He entered Soviet cinema in 1923, working in Nordkino studios as a set decorator and assistant director. He directed his first film, the 1925 release Tatiana (Hearts and Dollars), but left the Soviet Union that year for Germany, where he edited G.W. Pabst’s Die Freudlose Gasse (The Joyless Street, 1925), assistant directed, and helmed the early ‘30s features Dolly Macht Karriere (1931), Nie Wieder Liebe (1932), and Das Lied Einer Nacht (1933). Fleeing the Nazis, Litvak directed films in England and France, among them the international hit Mayerling (1936). He came to Hollywood in 1937, where he helmed many handsome and polished features, specializing in crime films (The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Castle on the Hudson, Out of the Fog) and romantic dramas (The Sisters, All This and Heaven Too). He worked on several Army documentaries during World War II, and co-directed… read more

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Spencer Draper

29Jan13

Two, three, maybe four stories rolled into one. This is a morbid delight to watch Bogie and Robinson go at it over a ridiculously silly premise. It doesn't claim to be any more than what it is. The ending however goes on and on and ends in a conclusion that does not fit.