Doctor X
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by Robert Tasker and Earl Baldwin from a play by Howard Warren Comstock and Allen C. Miller
1932/US
First National Pictures (Warner Bros.)
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
Dr. Haines, Academy of Surgical Research: If you ask me, I think Dr. Xavier is using very unethical methods.
Dr. Rowitz: Necessity has no ethics, sir.
It’s not easy to make a comedy that is also a horror film and I wish the filmmakers had not attempted it here.
A series of “Moonlight Murders” leave bodies with weird surgical mutilations that tie them to a research laboratory headed by Dr. Xavier (Lionel Atwill). An enterprising reporter (Lee Tracy) interferes with the good doctor’s efforts to keep his investigation of the crimes private. With Fay Wray as the doctor’s daughter.
This film was billed as a horror/romance/comedy and therein lies its problem. The comedy is just not funny enough and is so prominent as to weaken the horror. The last 10 minutes are fairly scary, however. Second of two films at Warner Bros. to be shot in “improved” two-strip Technicolor. The studio then abandoned the process due to its expense and lackluster box office.
Restoration Demo
