The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse 1938

In New York City, Dr. Clitterhouse Edward G. Robinson, a wealthy society physician, decides to study the biology of crime by becoming one of the thieves himself. He launches a series of audacious jewel heists, meticulously recording his vital signs before, during, and after each robbery, hoping to collect a robust data set for his groundbreaking book.

From a patient, he learns the name of the city’s biggest fence, Joe Keller, only to discover that the fence is actually Jo Keller Claire Trevor. The doctor’s daring feats impress Jo and her gang, led by the charismatic “‘Rocks’ Valentine” Humphrey Bogart, and he is invited to join their operation.

Clitterhouse pretends to take a six-week European vacation as “The Professor.” Under that guise, he wrests leadership of the gang away from Rocks, stirring resentment and tension. During a fur warehouse robbery, Rocks traps him in a cold-storage vault, but Jo assigns Butch Maxie Rosenbloom to watch over him, and Butch frees him just in time. Afterward, Clitterhouse announces he will quit, claiming he has gathered enough data for his study, and he returns the gang to Rocks’s control.

Rocks learns the doctor’s true identity and tries to blackmail him into using the office as a safehouse for future robberies. Clitterhouse realizes that Rocks will not permit publication of his findings and also recognizes that he has not yet studied the ultimate crime—murder. He administers a poisoned drink to Rocks and observes his declining symptoms as he dies. Jo helps dispose of the body in the river, but the police recover the corpse and detect the poison.

The doctor is ultimately caught by his friend, Inspector Lane, and placed on trial. He insists that his actions were driven by pure scientific motive and that his book is a “sane book,” even declaring that it is > impossible for an insane man to write a sane book. < The courtroom becomes a battleground over intent, sanity, and the ethics of scientific curiosity.

In the end, his resolve to prove his own sanity during the trial persuades the jury, and he is found not guilty by reason of insanity, revealing a chilling paradox: a man who sought to illuminate crime through study ends up using the law to challenge the boundaries of reason.