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Review by E.C. McMullen Jr. |
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USA Release: AUG! 27, 1932 A First National-Vitaphone Picture, Warner Bros. Rating: N/A |
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Awright youse mugs, lissen up.
I'm gonna spill the beans, see? Yeah, see? About this here rash of murders. Gruesome murders. Murders that took place on a cold night during a full moon. And if that ain't enough to chill your blood, then get this: It's also a tale of cannibalism!
We start with some shady mug, hiding by the docks, see? Sketchy kinda reed, almost squirrely. I'd never trust him, not even with your sister.
A couple of cars pass by and he shirks as the headlights fall on him. Then, after they pass, he follows, see?
The cars stop at the Mott St. Morgue and some serious looking guys get out. As it turns out, two of them are police detectives and one of them is the famous Doctor X (Lionel Atwill: THE VAMPIRE BAT, MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM, MURDERS IN THE ZOO, THE SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM, MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE HOUND OF BASKERVILLES, MAN MADE MONSTER, THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET, THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE STRANGE CASE OF DOCTOR RX, NIGHT MONSTER, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, FOG ISLAND, HOUSE OF DRACULA).
That's right, X. For Xavier!
Anyway, squirrely guy tries to smooth right past the Police Sargent standing guard, but the copper (Tom Dugan: THE HOUSE OF FEAR, THE GHOST BREAKERS, THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL) ain't having any of it, see?
Squirrel boy turns out to be reporter Lee Taylor (Lee Tracy), and if he can't waltz right through the front door, why he'll just break in some other way, nice and easy, like.
Nothing is ever easy for superstitious Lee though, who makes so much damn noise breaking into places where he doesn't belong and noisily clattering about once inside, it beggars belief that no one hears him.
Meanwhile Doctor X is having problems of his own. After helping the police ascertain that the victim was indeed killed in the same manner as the Moonlight Killer, Police Commissioner Stevens (Robert Warwick: THE DRAGON MURDER CASE, A SHOT IN THE DARK) reveals that they suspect the killer is from none other than Doctor Xavier's own Academy of Surgical Research. Doctor X is outraged but the police evidence is compelling.
To buy time and allay suspicion, Doctor Xavier agrees to cooperate with the investigation. The students are all gone between semesters, so he can only introduce the officers to the research scientists still at the school. Though late at night they are there busy at their experiments.
They agree to meet in a few minutes at Doctor X's academy.
On edge that his life's work and reputation is about to come crashing down all around him, Xavier's nervousness when he gets home startles his daughter, Joanne (Fay Wray: THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, THE VAMPIRE BAT, THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM, KING KONG, THE CLAIRVOYANT).
Meeting up at the academy with the police, what follows is the craziest run of Mad Doctor introductions I've ever seen. Doctor Xavier grows ever more jittery as one by one he introduces each of his research scientists, each creep delighted to show off the kind of gruesome experiments that would get them thrown in a looney bin if Xavier was not there assuring the police that, despite how damning everything looks and their sinister behavior, his research colleagues are all gentle as lambs.
Well, yes, that one was involved in a questionable incident suspected of cannibalism, but on the other hand, he writes such lovely poetry.
If the detectives and police commissioner's suspicions were heightened over their thin evidence on Xavier's Academy, they're shot over the freaking moon by the time they've finished their tour.
Even the nervous maid Mamie (Lila Bennet: TERROR ABOARD, A STUDY IN SCARLET, MARK OF THE VAMPIRE) and the leering, scowling butler Otto (George Rosener: THE CASE OF THE BLACK CAT, THE HOUSE OF SECRETS, SH! THE OCTOPUS) put the police on edge!
Which one is the murderer?
Hell, what if they're all in on it?
The Police Commissioner and his colleagues, more convinced than ever that they're on the right track, are ready to act. Xavier begs them to give him time, 48 hours. He has his own experiments, you see, and is convinced that, left alone to his devices, he can scientifically ascertain which - if any of his research staff - is guilty or complicit in the murders.
Well, Doctor Xavier is a pillar of this community from way back. He has the most to lose if this all goes sideways, so for now we'll play along.
Okay. We'll give you 48 hours and we won't tell the press anything. But after 48 hours we do things our way and everyone is going to know!
Of course, Lee the reporter is willing to spy and trespass to get a story before that time limit and, though he's buddy, buddy with the beat cops, the detectives don't know him and as a beat reporter, Lee will commit any crime to turn a dime.
TRIVIA Science Fiction Double Feature. |
Actor Lionel Atwill began a long career playing mad scientists, or authority characters opposing them, starting with the madly successful DOCTOR X.
Fay Wray was already on top of her game with a string of box office hits and would soon smash all expectations in the following year, 1933, by starring in three smash Horror movies that would culminate with her role in KING KONG.
Lee Tracy was cementing his place in cinema as the wise-cracking, unethical, anything for a buck, stereotypical newspaper reporter. More than anyone else, Lee created the oddball argot that Hollywood began to imitate and cartoons from Bugs Bunny to Family Guy have spent entire episodes riffing on.
Michael Curtiz's direction lingers on shadows, buildings, and signs that are Gothic art deco. The city these people dwell in is visually lonely and dark, but the sound of life and industry - autos, bells, train whistles, foghorns, endlessly blares all around them in the background.
A First National-Vitaphone Picture and Warner Bros. spared no expense with DOCTOR X. It was shot in black and white using an additional two-tone, red and green system, an overall hue that intensifies the creep factor for this movie. Master Cinematographer Ray Rennahan (MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM) was doing his own experimental research in color film cinema, having worked on 1923's Hollywood extravaganza, The Ten Commandments, which was originally shot in color.
No other film used color this way before or after (as the technique of color filmmaking was advancing every time it was tried), making the dread inducing ambience of DOCTOR X unique to itself. This unique look has found a home in digital movie making as a few music videos from the band, GHOST (FROM THE PINNACLE TO THE PIT, SQUARE HAMMER), attempt to imitate it.
Billed as a Mystery, Love Story, Comedy, DOCTOR X (based on the play by Howard Warren Comstock and Allen C. Miller) lunges on its leash to be luridly wild and mind blowing, but it's hampered in the script by a romantic subplot (every damn movie had them back then) so awkward that the romance winds up being the least believable thing of all.
That said DOCTOR X remains an entertaining and mysterious entry into Horror and cinema itself. One that nearly a century of Horror, Thriller, and Mystery movie making has built upon. This is why it was plucked out of near obscurity and consumed a small fortune to repair and preserve it.
As of this writing, Warner Bros. offers it on Blu-ray.
Three Shriek Girls.
This review copyright 2022 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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