Rare Classic
Added 10/3/2006
While definitely not in the same league as the other classic horror films from this era, Doctor X comes close. While some reviewers have rightly complained about the story and the acting of the lead (Lee Tracy) as a wisecracking newspaper reporter on the trail of a strange killer, if you read about this film on paper it's quite startling - murder, dissection, AND cannibalism! Say, why does that sound familiar to me? A wise cracking reporter on the trail of a derranged supernatural killer? Could it be that this film, with its themes of dissection, sythetic flesh, and cannibalism was not only an infleunce on The Night Stalker, but The X Files as well?
You simply cannot demand the same level of believability out of a film this old as you might for something made yesterday. Not that films made today are any more believable or better acted. In fact, I'd say we're about the same. You have to watch films like this with one eye of a film historian and cultural spelunker and the other eye, or part of the other eye, on things like story and acting and technical issues, otherwise you only reveal yourself to be a dolt.
Definitely worth watching, but buy the new boxed set instead.
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A moody and scary horror film
Added 11/1/2005
Michael Curtiz' two-color Technicolor DOCTOR X (1932) is a companion piece to his even more scary and ghoulish MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933), which has now officially been remade twice. The movies seem on moratorium, selling through third parties, but show up on Turner Classics. I am reviewing an old videocassette from the UCLA Film and Television Archives.
We have Lee Tracy as a reporter investigating a series of "Moon Killings", killings that take place under a full moon in Depression era Manhattan. The killings all seem to originate in doctor Lionel Atwill's (a good guy for a change) crime institute. Fay Wray, who played the unfortunate victim in WAX MUSEUM (also with Atwill) plays Atwill's likeable daughter and Tracy's love interest this time. Tracy's wisecracking humor and talking to himself helps murderous chills blend with welcome comedy for at least me. The police want to shut Atwill's institute down, but Atwill wants 48 hours to conduct his own investigation. He does that at a truly spooky lab on the edge of a Long Island cliff. The institute members are all bolted to chairs which are bolted to floors as the crimes are reinacted to find out who the killer is, assuming it is an institute member. The movie has a happy ending.
DOCTOR X was filmed in very eerie and effective two-color Technicolor, with lots of pinks and greens. Most prints today are B&W, but Turner Classics shows the movie in color. And prehistoric 1980's videocassette editions are also in color. It is worth seeking out in color, and the Max Factor makeup is really something on the killer in color. ("Synthetic flesh!") Michael Curtiz was one of Hollywood's most neglected directors, working in very possible genre. This and MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM, filmed back to back with Atwill and Wray, are two of his best horror films, and two of the best of the 1930's for me.
Beg Warner Home Video to bring out both of these early 1930's horror gems on DVD so that people do not have to seek out second and third party sources, or Turner Classics, at Halloween time. The effort is worth it.
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Technicolor is the real star
Added 10/6/2005
I watched this on Turner Classic Movies a few nights ago. I found it an average horror movie with some surprisingly grisly elements in the plot, probably due to the fact that the Production Code didn't have any teeth until the mid-30s. The use of two-color Technicolor was probably what "made" the film. Although most of the film was in the shadows, the Technicolor bathed it in shades of orange and green, giving an unnaturally eerie look, especially in the lab scenes. I thought actor Lee Tracy's physical comedy stuck out like a sore thumb, as did Fay Wray's shrieks. All the scientist suspects looked appropriate spooky, and when the killer was revealed, the acting was ghoulishly hammy. God bless.
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Doctor X a fun classic you may not have seen.
Added 9/9/2005
I just had the very rare (these days) pleasure last night of discovering a classic movie gem that I had never heard of before. I had to watch it on VHS, because it's not available on DVD yet.
It has Fay Wray screaming (before King Kong) and Lionel Atwill sinistering. It's got the old, dark Cliff Manor at Blackstone Sholes, Long Island, complete with secret panels and a closet (literally) full of skeletons. It's got the weirdest looking half dozen collection of scientists ever captured on film and all the psuedo-scientific babble and enormous equipment to fill a 50's ci-Fi matinee.
It also features some weird 1932 version of Technicolor that seems to insert colored items randomly in various scenes (heavy on the blues and greens). The one scene where the color really works is a beach scene with Fay Wray in a suggestive swimsuit. This looks like it could have come from one of the Beach Party movies. If Fay Wray cheesecake is interesting to you, there's a later scene where she lies helpless in a flimsy nightgown on a bed while being threatened by the killer.
It's got a silly plot about a "moon killer" and the moon is completely full for about 5 straight nights. It's got a romantic lead/comic relief newspaper reporter that plays one of the noisiest hiding in the closet scenes ever, even though he is able to hear the conversation of the scientists through the closet door well enough to take notes.
The camera here is extremely stationary. The sets are somewhat impressionistic which makes them a little more interesting, but it still cannot be considered a great movie. But boy is it fun.
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Striking Style But Disappointing Story
Added 5/4/2003
Looks like I'm going to swim against the tide and give the film a negative review. Lee Tracy stars as a fast-talking, wisecracking newspaper reporter trying to solve the case of a maniac killer who murders people on nights with full moons. The police have narrowed the chase to Doctor Xavier's (Lionel Atwill) labs, convinced that someone working there is responsible. Atwill devises a series of experiments to determine which of his fellow scientists might be the lunatic. There is a very effective creepy feeling established in the film. The early Technicolor glows, giving everything an eerie quality. The sets are vintage horror film staples, and everybody seems weird. The make-up is extremely well done as well. The actors do as well as you can with this material. Scream queen Fay Wray, as the doctor's daughter, does her thing, shreiking needlessly a few times. But despite the impressive look, the film failed to engage me. I found it slow moving, with a lot of holes in the script. It's stylish and unique, but without a script to match it, I found it disappointing and long. Horror film fans will definitely want to check it out, but others will probably find it tough going.
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