News reporter Walter Garrett (Wayne Morris) discovers the dead body of Angela Merrova (Lya Lys), but when she turns up alive, though strangely pale, he is fired. He goes to his friend, Dr. Mike Rhodes (Dennis Morgan), for help, which prompts Rhodes to investigate strange murders where the victims all had “type 1” blood. This leads him to the blood specialist, Dr. Francis Flegg (John Litel), and the bizarre, pale, Dr. Kane (Humphrey Bogart).
Forget plot, theme, or production values. The reason to watch The Return of Doctor X is to see Humphrey Bogart as an effeminate, glasses-wearing, striped-haired, rabbit-petting, blood-stealing, walking dead man. “Odd” is an understatement. Forced by his contract into taking the part, Bogart was not shy in stating his contempt for the picture.
The story is typical Mad Scientist fare, with Dr. Flegg wanting to help humanity with his medical breakthrough, but making insanely bad decisions along the way. Resurrecting Kane is the worst of them. The story has nothing that hasn’t been done better in fifty other films.
While it sounds like it should be a sequel to the 1933 WB Mad Scientist film, Doctor X, the only connection is the basic structure. Both have a comic relief reporter gratuitously tacked on to the horror elements, and both films would be far better for his removal. In this case, it is Walter Garrett (though the character’s name is listed as Barnett in the credits), played in farce style by Wayne Morris, who would later be known for low budget westerns. Garrett is never funny, and his glib lines and wolf glares at every female that passes belong in a Three Stooges short. Morris also looks too much like Dennis Morgan, giving us two tall, slender, generic, white guys chasing the mystery around town.
I have seen many films that contain a feminine psycho quietly petting a furry white animal (think Ernst Blofeld, or several Monty Python Episodes), but I haven’t seen a version that pre-dates this. If there is one, let me know, because I find it disconcerting to think that Bogart created that particular icon.