Doctor X (1932)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Excellent but underrated film

A Disappointing Continuation

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

From that idiot reporter to the scheme they tried to catch the murderer, this is so off the wall that it utterly fails. I know it was made in 1932, but there were lots of very good movies made that year. I always enjoy Lionel Atwill, but to see him as some sort of hero after all the trouble he's caused is ludicrous. And those scientists he surrounds himself with are equally silly. Of course, we have the romance. There's the pretty young daughter who must not have much of a social life, hanging around with all those ghouls, who falls for a guy who has no redeeming qualities. He represents that anything-for-a-story mentality that pervades so many movies of that era. I was surprised how attractive the film was. That must have been somewhat enticing to early movie goers, but, it's not enough. Don't bother. Oh, all those guys handcuffed to their chairs. If that isn't as bad as it gets, I don't know what is.

Entertaining pre-code chiller that was the first color [2 strip technicolor], talking horror film. Eerie, atmospheric, with some well timed humor as well. Ray Rannahan was behind the camera and Fred Jackman Jr produced the special effects. Both were outstanding. Michael Curtiz was Warner's top director and he came through Lionel Atwill played Doctor X and was his sinister self. Fay Wray was the damsel in distress and invents the "scream queen" role. Its Lee Tracy who is the star. Playing the anything to get the story newspaper reporter he strikes the right cord , of brass, sarcastic humor, and quick witted bravery in his portrayal of Lee Taylor. He really foreshadows Bob Hope' Larry Lawrence in 1941's "Ghostbreakers". The scene where he wants to use the pay phone in the 'cat house" is a hoot.After Universal released Dracula and Frankenstein in 1931 and made a bundle and the other studio's jumped on the bandwagon. Doctor X was based on a play Howard W Comstock and was Warner Brother's first attempt to jump into the horror genera.

After a rash of murders in New York, a reporter's quest for the truth leads to the seaside mansion of a famed scientist are conducting a series of illegal experiments on the nature of evil, forcing him and his still-alive captors to stop their experiments before he can finish.This here was a pitiful and absolutely wretched effort. What makes this one so terrible is the fact that there's just no possible way the story to this one can mean anything when the large portion of what's going on here tends to fall into the rather ridiculous and lame comedy that's supposed to be down-right hilarious but truly isn't. Not only is the lead's constant bungling around his clothes for different objects at a given time or his thousand-words-a-minute smooth-talking to get out of sticky situations unbearably unfunny, but the film has the gall to believe that not just one or two but three separate scenes of him being trapped in a room with skeletons that manipulate themselves on their own are gut-busting hilarious enough to warrant that many repeat returns to that gag that this is a great example of the purposeful horror/comedy that's not funny. That each of these scenes last as long as they do not only makes this one a staggering chore to get into in the first half but also drowns out the horror to a bare minimum in these parts which is really only in the fact that the rampage is on-going and we get detailed explanations of the victims' remains in such a state that the technical jargon for these sequences is almost as bad as the boredom from the supposed laughs to come along. What tends to keep this one remaining as a horror film is the films' final half which is where this one really gets going with some admittedly decent and suspenseful times in their experiment chamber where the different attempts to provide the search for their mission manages to get pretty enjoyable by holding out the killer's identity quite well here in the first sequence as the chaos makes it quite chilling, while the second attempt is even better with the identity switch putting the killer with her while the others are helpless to watch culminating in a great brawl that ends this on a high note. Still, the massive flaws with this one really hold it down the most.Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

Doctor X isn't the story of just one but five mad scientists, all complete with mad scientist laboratories: simmering flasks, bubbling beakers, sizzling Jacob's Ladders, popping power breakers & crazy theories. Director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, Captain Blood, Yankee Doodle Dandee) uses shadow effectively to throw us red herrings, cast menace and provide a rich atmosphere. Lionel Atwill is Doctor X (Xavier), owner of a seaside mansion that is home to four more great scientists happily working away until a series of murders throws suspicion on the gaggle of geeks. Lee Tracy is a newspaper reporter with a fondness for practical jokes (hand buzzer, exploding cigars) looking for a scoop and determined to do anything to get it. Fay Ray is Joanne Xavier, Doctor X's daughter. Here she is strong, determined, confident and independent; although still gets some opportunities to exercise her exquisite screams. Fay Ray could display an unmatched sensuous vulnerability that played so well in King Kong and which we get to see for a few seconds near the end of Doctor X. The downside is that the story is preposterous, sometimes goofy and has trouble deciding if it wants to be a comedy or suspenseful thriller. Doctor X, determined to prevent bad press, rigs a silly experiment to find the killer himself and when the experiment goes fatally wrong, decides to up the ante and do it again. What I found implausible is that the other scientists would risk their lives, again, and that Doctor X would risk his daughter's life without adequate precautions but that is what happens. In a dark comedy this would work but here it just seems silly. Lee Tracy's many scenes of practical jokes not only drags the pace but seem out of place against the otherwise dark and serious tone.