Doctor X [Blu-ray]

Director: Michael Curtiz Michael Curtiz

Overview

Fay Wray screams when she first lays eyes on Lionel Atwill in Doctor X, but don't let that fool you. Atwill plays Fay's father this time around, and he may very well not be the diabolical "Moon Murderer" whom the police are seeking. Dr. Xavier (Atwill) maintains a research lab in a remote Long Island estate. The police suspect that one of Xavier's assistants -- all "second-chancers" whose previous misdemeanors range from botched experiments to cannibalism! -- is the mysterious murderer who strikes only when the moon is full. Newspaper reporter Lee Tracy sneaks into the estate to get a swell scoop, whereupon he falls in love with Fay. In trying to help the authorities, Xavier stages an elaborate trap for the Moon Murderer, with his daughter as the willing bait. The killer (we won't tell you who it is, but you'll figure it out anyway) reveals himself by coating his body with "synthetic flesh," which gives him supernatural powers. Directed by Michael Curtiz and based on a play by Howard C. Comstock and Allen C. Miner, Doctor X was originally filmed in two-color Technicolor; available for years only in black and white, the film was restored to its full tinted state in the 1970s.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/13/2021
UPC:	0883929738342
Original Release:	1932
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Language:	English
Time:	1:16:00
Sales rank:	15,729

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Lee Tracy	Lee Taylor
Lionel Atwill	Dr. Xavier
Fay Wray	Joanne Xavier,Dr. Haines
Preston Foster	Dr. Wells,Dr. Welles
Arthur Edmund Carewe	Dr. Rowitz
Harry Beresford	Dr. Duke
George Rosener	Otto, Dr. X's Butler
Leila Bennett	Mamie, Dr. X's Housekeeper
Robert Warwick	Police Commissioner Stevens
Willard Robertson	O'Halloran, Stevens' Assistant
Thomas Jackson	Editor,Editor,Detective O'Halloran
Harry Holman	Policeman
Tom Dugan	Sheriff
Mae Busch	The Madame
Leo Forbstein	Composer

Technical Credits

Robert Tasker

Earl Baldwin

Michael Curtiz	Director
Darryl F. Zanuck	Producer
Hal B. Wallis	Producer
Robert Tasker	Screenwriter
Earl Baldwin	Screenwriter,Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Michael Curtis's Doctor X is a strange movie by any definition, both in its content and its execution. Based on a mystery/melodrama by Howard Warren Comstock and Allen C. Miller, which ran for 80 performances (a marginally respectable, if not profitable run, in those days) on Broadway in the winter/spring of 1931, the play was mostly set in the offices of a New York newspaper and in East Orange, New Jersey -- screenwriter Earl W. Baldwin moved the action entirely to New York and Long Island, effectively creating an old dark house mystery; and Curtiz transposed it all into an eerily stylized mode, shot in two-color Technicolor that gives the whole movie a strangely mixed look of not-quite-verisimilitude and unearthly eeriness. Actually, the main element of New York verisimilitude resides in the presence and performance of Lee Tracy's fast-talking reporter, who propels a lot of the action forward in what is otherwise a surprisingly talkie script; Tracy makes an unconventional but likable hero, and is well matched to Fay Wray as the daughter of Dr. Xavier (Lionel Atwill), the pathologist called in on the case of the "Moon Killer." His casting, and the deliberately overstated performances by his colleagues at the Academy of Surgical Research, fill the movie with potential suspects (some of whom are obvious red herrings). The resolution, such as it is, and the logic of the story, coupled with the talkie nature of the picture, make Doctor X more of a curio than a truly great, or even very good movie. For decades the movie was only available in murky black-and-white prints, which further reduced its value, apart from the eeriness of the plot and resolution, but the renewed availability of Technicolor prints has restored much of its original value. (The movie was successful enough in its time to justify the creation of a low-budget (black-and-white) faux sequel, The Return of Dr. X, seven years later, with a pre-stardom Humphrey Bogart in the title role).

All Movie Guide - Bruce Eder