The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse

The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse is a 1938 American crime film starring Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor and Humphrey Bogart. It was directed by Anatole Litvak for Warner Bros. and written by John Wexley and John Huston, based on the first play written by shortstory writer Barr Lyndon, which ran for three months on Broadway with Cedric Hardwicke after playing in London.

From one of his patients, Police Inspector Lewis Lane Donald Crisp, he learns the name of the biggest fence in the city, Joe Keller. He goes to meet Keller to sell what he has stolen, only to find out that Joe is actually Jo Claire Trevor. The doctor impresses Jo and a gang of thieves headed by Rocks Valentine Humphrey Bogart with his exploits, so Jo invites him to join them, and he accepts.Dr. Clitterhouse pretends to take a sixweek vacation in Europe. As The Professor, he proceeds to wrest leadership of the gang and the admiration of Jo away from Rocks, making him extremely resentful. When they rob a fur warehouse, Rocks locks his rival in a cold storage room, but Clitterhouse is freed by a gang member Jo had assigned to keep watch on him. Afterwards, Clitterhouse announces he is quitting he has enough data from studying the gang during their robberies, and his vacation time is up. He returns the gang to Rocks control. ........

Source: Wikipedia