Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

bensonmum2 Working out of his Park Avenue office, Dr. Clitterhouse (Edward G. Robinson) is a well-respected doctor who handles society's elite. But his real passion is the study of the criminal mind and what makes them tick. He decides the best way to study criminals is to become one himself. After a series of successful robberies, he decides to expand his study and finds a fence for his merchandise. In no time at all, Dr. Clitterhouse is leading a band of thieves on one successful robbery after the next. But not everyone in the gang is happy about taking orders from Dr. Clitterhouse. A real hoodlum named Rocks Valentine (Humphrey Bogart) would like to see Clitterhouse out of the way.The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse is one amazing movie! I love "discovering" a wonderfully entertaining film that I've never seen before. The Amazing Dr. Clitterhosue is just a lot of fun. My opinion of Robinson as an actor has softened over the years. As blasphemous as this may sound, there was a time when I really didn't care for him. The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse has finally brought me all the way around on Robinson. Here, he gives a fantastic performance. His portrayal of Clitterhouse is a real joy to behold. The scenes where he meets the gang, especially his handling of the police officer, are as entertaining as anything I've seen him do. The writing here is superb. Robinson is given some of the best dialogue imaginable. And he delivers. What a performance!The rest of the cast is just as strong. Bogart plays the tough-talking thug to perfection. Clare Trevor is Bogart's equal as the fence, Jo Keller. It's interesting to watch her character's transformation from the tough as nails fence to a woman who falls in love. It's just as interesting to watch Robinson's Clitterhouse totally unaware of Keller's feelings as he's blinded by science. The rest of the supporting cast is incredibly strong and enjoyable with Allen Jenkins, Maxie Rosenbloom, and Gale Page giving especially wonderful performances. I've read a few complaints regarding the film's ending. While I would have loved to see more, the finale was more than satisfying for me. It's quite a Catch 22 – Clitterhouse on trial, his attorney using an insanity defense, and Clitterhouse reluctant to be labeled insane as it will negatively affect his scientific work. It's an interesting set- up. It may be a bit rushed, but it plays out nicely.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . 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.

zzippy-2 Great 30's flick, there's nothing quite like it, which is why this film is a true must-see.I think some reviewers tried to take this one a bit TOO seriously - obviously that wasn't the intention.Suspenseful, intriguing, and very wry.There are just SO many top-notch actors in this one, and they each play the part convincingly. A LOT of eye-candy here, and VERY familiar faces.I just found this to be such a treat on an otherwise gloomy day.If this one doesn't make you grin, you totally missed something.I'm still surprised at how serious and confused some reviewers here are on this one. Come on ! The name of the flick is The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse !Wake-up, people !

Robert J. Maxwell The renowned Dr. Clitterhouse (Edward G. Robinson), interested in the criminal personality, joins a gang of thieves anonymously. He finds himself strangely thrilled in their presence. He carries out research, pupilary dilation and whatnot, and eventually plans their big heist. (He gives his part of the proceeds to charity.) Then, his work accomplished, he bids the gang adieu.Alas, one of the more obnoxious of the gangsters, Rocks (Humphrey Bogart), unravels Robinson's professional identity, tracks him down in his office, and tries to blackmail him into coming up with more master plans. Robinson coolly poisons Bogart and dumps his body in the river, believing that the police will attribute the death to accidental drowning.Some doctor! He neglects to put Bogart's body in the bathtub and fill his lungs with water, so the cops find a stomach full of paraldehyde chloride and a homicide. It doesn't take them long to find that Dr. Clitterhouse is responsible.The trial is a mockery (co-written by John Huston). Robinson's lawyer put on a psychiatrist who befogs the air with psychiatric gibberish. Catch-22 applies, the jury concludes. Robinson, the defendant, has only one chance of getting off without being fried -- he must be insane. However, Robinson takes the stand and declares repeatedly and emphatically that he's perfectly sane. Therefore, if he's so convinced he's sane, he must be insane. He gets off with a trip to a psychiatric hospital. "Remarkable," comments Robinson.Humphrey Bogart was making a slew of movies around this time, usually in the same roles -- secondary and villainous. He always made fun of his performance in this film, and of the film itself, lending its title a vulgar change. But, although Bogart's part is stereotyped, the film isn't that bad. The protagonist, Robinson, does a fine job of projecting professional cool. He's believable as a supercilious doctor. He did a much different job of showing a professional man's anxiety in Fritz Lang's superior "The Woman in the Window".Litvak hurries the film along. The motto of the later gangster films was abbreviated to ODTAA -- one damned thing after another. Characters whiz in and out of door. When they speak on the phone, it sounds like this: "Hello, gimme Leftie -- Leftie? Take the envelope and get rid of it -- What? -- No, don't do that -- Yeah, just what I told you -- No, don't come here -- Right." (Hangs up.) The pauses between these snapped-out comments don't last long enough for anyone on the other end of the call to take a deep breath, let alone make a comment or ask a question. Not a second is wasted. Nobody even says good-bye.I kind of like it.