Doctor X

(1932)

Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by Robert Tasker, Earl Baldwin from a play by Howard W. Comstock
Starring Lionel Atwill, Fay Wran, Lee Tracy.
IMDB Entry

It's rare that a sequel is better known than its original.  Doctor X  is usually overlooked for its sequel (though it's not really one), The Return of Doctor X because it shows up in Humphrey Bogart's filmography as the only horror movie he made. But the original is worth seeking for several reason.

Women are being murdered in New York City every month, when there's a full moon. The victims are strangled and then cannibalized.  Police are baffled, but reporter Lee Taylor (Lee Tracy) and the police see Dr. Xavier (Lionel Atwill) as suspicious, and that the killer might be connected with his Academy of Surgical Research. He asks the cops to have him investigate first at his estate on Long Island. Taylor -- a practical joker as well as a reporter -- sneaks in and meets Joanne Xavier (Fay Wray), Dr. Xavier's daughter.* Xavier devises an experiment to find the killer, but when someone is murdered, the mystery deepens.

The interesting thing is that the movie was originally in color, using one of the two-strip technicolor processes.** Warner Brother/First  National, who had struck it big with sound pictures three years earlier, hoped that technicolor would give it an equivalent boost. But that didn't happen. The extra expense didn't improve the box office enough to make it worthwhile, though it was successful.

The appearance is different from later versions of technicolor. The two-strip process was decent at showing flesh tones, but everything had an orange cast and it was overall quite dark. Certainly nothing to make the colors pop.

Lee Tracy seemed to specialize in breezy reporter types.*** Atwill is once again a sinister presence, and it's fun to see Fay Wray without a giant ape.

The movie does set up a nice red herring to obscure the identity of the killer, but one that does not come out of nowhere.

Director Michael Curtiz soon became a top director at Warner Brothers, notably for White Christmas, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and Casablanca.

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*It's interesting that at her very first entrance, she screams, reminiscent of her most iconic role, where she screams nonstop.

**When I first watched it, it struck me as a bad example of colorizing a film.

***He played Hildy Johnson in the original Broadway production of The Front Page.