When the police inform Dr. Xavier (Lionel Atwill) that they suspect someone from his Academy of Surgical Research to be the cannibalistic Full Moon Killer, he requests time to do his own “scientific” inquiry, to avoid adverse publicity. However, investigative reporter Lee Taylor (Lee Tracy) overhears the police, and writes a story, forcing Dr. Xavier to take his four research scientists and his daughter, Joan (Fay Wray), to a forbidding cliff-side mansion where he carries out his peculiar experiment in order to discover the killer.
With the success of the Universal horror films, Dracula and Frankenstein, Warner Bros decided to try their luck with genre films. So, adapting a light stage mystery by adding more frightening elements, they created this early and atypical Mad Scientist picture. An old style “Tales of Terror” type story, Doctor X is a beautifully filmed but highly flawed gem.
On the beautiful side is the 2-strip Technicolor that creates a mysterious mood. Pre-dating full Technicolor, Doctor X is the first horror film in color. Using only red and green, the film looks like a series of illustrations. The sets are impressive, as is the camera work. It was directed by Michael Curtiz (The Walking Dead, Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, Casablanca, We’re No Angels), who gets my vote as the most underrated director. With a German expressionistic style, he could make any scene interesting and was a master of pacing. He also understood actors, and could get the best from them. His touch is in evidence on every frame of this film.
Basically a mystery, it takes five mad scientists (they are all loony, though most aren’t evil, just far too devoted to their work), one cute girl, a reporter, a butler, and a maid, sticks them together in a house, where they can determine the identity of the killer. It was a structure used over and over in the ’30s and ’40s. But instead of the reliable detective figuring it out, it is up to Dr. Xavier and his absurd tests. While his methods lack both scientific integrity and a shred of thought, they do make for great cinematic images. In the final experiment, each scientist is chained to one of the well-spaced, throne-like chairs, facing a stage where Fay Wray lies on a table in her lingerie. Tall thin tubes of red liquid indicate the stress level of each of the scientists, and it is all bathed in green light. Now that’s a cool scene.
While plot holes abound, they do little to take away from the effectiveness of the movie. The same cannot be said of Lee Tracy and his vaudevillian newspaper reporter. His inane antics (he walks around with a hand buzzer) belong in a completely different kind of film (that’s not true, they don’t belong anywhere). Similar, though considerably less annoying, characters pop up in a range of ’30s movies; it is a cultural curiosity that such a man was considered desirable by studio producers. I feel confident that no woman was excited by anyone remotely resembling Lee Taylor in reality.
It was followed by the sequel in name only, The Return of Doctor X.