Amateur Crook (1937) Poster

(1937)

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6/10
Comedy-Drama
boblipton3 May 2008
This comedy-drama from the mind of Sam Katzman -- besides producing this quickie, he also directed -- is a fairly amusing story about how starving artist Bruce Bennett (still credited as Herman Brix) helps ditzy Joan Barclay whose father has pawned a fabulous diamond -- well, it's too long to explain here and for a Sam Katzman production it's a darned fine one. But neither Bennett nor Barclay are capable of reading their lines very well. Some good photography manages to survive the current muddy prints, but most of the fun is provided, as so often in the case, by supporting actors, including Vivienne Oakland as Bennett's landlady and Jimmy Aubrey as a junk dealer.

Bennett became a better actor as time went on, but never got the real break he needed -- or perhaps he was never really good enough. Miss Barclay disappeared soon enough and Katzman kept on chunking them out.
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3/10
Why would a guy risk his freedom for a woman he just met and who is wanted by the police?!
planktonrules17 August 2019
"Amateur Crook" is a bad movie...cheap, very badly written and not especially memorable. Aside from a chance to see an Olympian (the shotputter Herman Brix), there isn't a lot to recommend this one.

When the story begins, Mary barges in to Jimmy's room (Herman Brix). She tells him she's being chased by the police. So what would he logically do...with a strange woman running from the law? Yep...he hides her and becomes her accomplice in crime! He has no idea if she's innocent or a serial killer...he just helps her no questions asked! Then, as a consequence, they spend the rest of the movie running from the law and two jerks...until a magical ending occurs and everything is right with the world!!

Does ANY of this make sense?! Nope. The only thing I appreciated was seeing Fuzzy Knight in a supporting role where he was pretty good AND didn't use his annoying stuttering schtick. Overall, a nonsensical film with little to recommend it.
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3/10
The amateur crook was the screenwriter who thought the audience would buy this bunk.
mark.waltz22 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Yep, I'm always willing to go to jail and lose my apartment for a woman who storms in asking for protection from the police, especially when she's obviously guilty of something. Herman Brix, aka Bruce Bennett, aka Mr. Mildred Pierce, plays an artist who is working on his latest painting when Joan Barclay comes in to ask him to hide her. She poses as a dummy when his landlady Vivien Oakland and the police come in, and they are fooled into believing Brix's claim. Oakland, giving a great performance as the ogling landlady with her eye romantically focused on her tenant, is furious when she discovers Barclay is a real live girl, and calls the police back, but by this time they have escaped.

Barclay is desperate to get back the diamond she had in a real dummy which results in an encounter at the junk shop between some detectives and the two fugitives, with the junk dealer justifiably objecting in between them. A hilarious battle of objects being thrown ensues, but the unbelievable plotline is further damaged by the romance that grows between Brix (who is now homeless and wanted by the police) and Barclay, with a bunch of idiot law enforcement officers on their trail.

The film, produced and directed by the king of B movie crap (Sam Katzman) also features Monte Blue and Jack Mulhall, and in spite of having some very funny moments is just absolutely ridiculous. But at under an hour, I suffered through all those absurdities, wishing that Oakland would pop up once again because she definitely helps raise my rating for this poverty row stinker.
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