The Crime of the Century is a weird, dusty little puzzle

Is it worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for 1930s noir-adjacent nonsense, then yes, absolutely. If you need your plots to be ironclad and logical, stay far away from this one. You will hate it. It's the kind of movie that feels like it was written on a napkin during a very long lunch.

The whole premise of a mentalist doctor predicting a murder—or causing it?—is honestly a great hook. But then the movie gets distracted. It starts throwing characters at the wall to see what sticks.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Crime of the Century (1933) through its definitive frames.

Jean Hersholt carries most of the heavy lifting here. He’s got that weary, I’ve-seen-it-all face that makes you wonder if he’s actually the smartest guy in the room or just the most tired.

The reporter subplot is... a choice.

The way the reporter just wanders into crime scenes is so brazenly unrealistic it’s almost charming. No police tape here. Just a guy with a notepad and a lot of confidence.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Crime of the Century (1933) through its definitive frames.

There is a moment about halfway through where the pacing just hits a wall. It’s like the editor decided to take a nap for three minutes while the reels kept spinning. The dialogue gets super repetitive, and suddenly everyone is talking about the weather or something equally irrelevant while there’s a dead body in the next room.

Oddly specific details I can't shake:

• The lighting in the police station is weirdly moody for a building that probably has fluorescent bulbs.
• Someone keeps adjusting their hat in the background of a tense scene and it’s super distracting.
• The way they handle the "mentalist" angle is so vague it’s hilarious. It’s basically just code for "he knows things he shouldn't."

It’s not as tightly wound as The Scar of Shame, which feels like a different universe entirely. This one is way more concerned with being a spooky mystery than actually building a world.

It’s messy. It’s definitely a bit of a relic. But there’s a genuine sincerity to the acting that kept me watching, even when the plot was clearly running on fumes. Sometimes, that’s enough. 🕵️‍♂️

Also, I’m pretty sure one of the extras in the mob scene is just doing a crossword puzzle. Look closely at the back left when the doctor enters. Classic.