The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938)

"The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse" was a welcome change of pace for Edward G. Robinson. Here, he is cast as a character of great learning and high intelligence. Humphrey Bogart was on his way to becoming a star by the time this film was released in 1938. Once again, this film comes down to a final confrontation between Robinson and Bogart and it is exciting. Out of all the collaborations between Robinson and Bogart, this film and "Key Largo" are their best. Dr. Clitterhouse is a professor and medical practitioner who is involved in the study of crime and of the criminal mind. He decides to get in close upon the workings of a local criminal gang by joining their ranks. Naturally, Bogart doesn't take too kindly to the good doctors intrusion and seeks revenge. I won't give away any plot details but this "Warner Bros." film can claim to being quite original. It is played for laughs but in a more dark and subtle manner. It works well for the film. Edward G. Robinson takes the acting honours in a role he was born for. Being a cultured and well read man in real life served the actor well. His command of English and his diction are impeccable. The film is an adaptation of a successful stage play, where noted theatre actor Cedric Hardwicke took the leading role. The script is well above average, with the emphasis being on character.

This is certainly one of a kind. Edward G. Robinson is the only character to do what this guy does. For purposes of research into the criminal mind, he becomes a jewel thief. First he studies himself (of course that has limited value as research), so he needs to get into a gang to study them. Of course, he is a criminal himself because others are being victimized by him. Humphrey Bogart is a sociopath and Robinson makes him his guinea pig. It leads to a study of the most serious of crimes and a trip to court and the risk of execution. Robinson's cool Dr. Clitterhouse is a remarkably original, underplayed character. HIs motivations are pure; his methods are severe.

. . . on the title AN AMER1CAN TRAGEDY, surely these three words would be a far more apt name for this film than THE AMAZING DR. CLITTERHOUSE. This title character, a Park Avenue nut-job quack, gets off "Scot Free" for assassinating a far more valuable member of Society, Rocks Valentine (Humphrey Bogart). Edward G. Robinson's portrayal of the sadistic Sociopath Dr. C. is the most chilling screen villain since James Cagney's PUBLIC ENEMY came out seven years earlier. Rocks is a self-taught inventor. His pencil lead phone trace innovation is worth more than all of Dr. C.'s High-Falluting theories about Criminology put together. But Dr. C. is too consumed by his psychotic monomania to even notice this, poisoning and then toying with the dying Rocks like a kid pulling wings off butterflies. That's why Dr. C. SHOULD have been sent to the Middle East for his execution. Every historic Constitutionally-legal American method of ending his crime spree would be way too Comfy for this amoral cancer on Humanity.

As was pointed out in another review, THE AMAZING DR. CLITTERHOUSE was a play, originally , starring Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the polished society doctor who is writing a book on the criminal mind, and needs to become a criminal to get his research. I would have liked to have seen the film with Hardwicke, who probably was a better fit in the part. Screen audiences knew Eddie Robinson could be a brutal, thuggish gangster, like Enrico Bandello in LITTLE CAESAR. He could be funny, like Arthur Jones and Killer Mannion in THE WHOLE TOWN IS TALKING or as Remy Marko in A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER. But they had little idea of the polished intellectual that Robinson, the art collector, was in real life. He would not really reveal this part of his personality until the 1950s, when he occasionally appeared on game shows and talk shows discussing art. But Hardwicke looked the part of the learned doctor, and had enough restrained threat to look like he could plan and carry out real crimes as well.But Warner Brothers starred him in THE AMAZING DR. CLITTERHOUSE, presumably to give him a chance to play another comic role, and also to let him stretch his acting abilities. He does well with the role, but he seems less natural in the part (as Hardwicke would have been) than slightly mannered. I think, having seen Sir Cedric on stage, Robinson was trying to overcompensate - and it does not quite work.As the doctor Robinson was convincing as a lucky dilettante, but not as a serious researcher. It is really the performances of the supporting cast, particularly Humphrey Bogart as "Rocks Valentine", Claire Trevor, and Maxie Rosenbloom. They give real color to the story, particularly Bogie as a vicious type who hates seeing how effortlessly the brilliant Clitterhouse takes leadership of his gang away from him. Bogie's Rocks keeps looking for his opportunities, and even tries to freeze the doctor to death (leading to a powerful moment on the film when a furious Rosenbloom almost pounds him in retaliation). And his attempts to get the goods on Clitterhouse, inevitably, lead to an unexpected tragedy.Robinson was less than happy with the film - he was right to be. Bogart considered this one of a series (with BULLETS AND BALLOTS, KID GALLAHAD, and BROTHER ORCHID where he and Robinson were rival criminals, and in two of which they killed each other at the conclusion). He had made THE PETRIFIED FOREST two years before, and DEAD END the year before, and should have been on the way to stardom, but found himself second banana to Robinson or to Cagney, and he was getting fed up. He felt that CLITTERHOUSE was an absolute waste of time, and referred to it by another name, THE AMAZING DR. CLITORIS. It would still be three more years before Bogie would make HIGH SIERRA and THE MALTESE FALCON, and find the stardom that had eluded him in the 1930s.