utgard14 The police are investigating a series of murders where victims have been cut up by scalpel and cannibalized. The murders always take place on a night with a full moon. They trace the scalpels to a nearby surgical academy. The head of the academy, Dr. Xavier (Lionel Atwill), doesn't believe someone at the academy is the killer and asks police for a chance to prove this using his own scientific methods. Also on the trail of the killer is reporter Lee Taylor (Lee Tracy). Taylor is suspicious of Doctor Xavier but when he meets the doctor's daughter (Fay Wray) he becomes smitten. Allowed only 48 hours to prove his case, Xavier gathers all the suspects at his mansion to perform his experiment. But things don't go as planned and another murder is committed.Doctor X is a classic horror-mystery that has many points of interest for film fans. For starters, the two-color Technicolor process it was filmed in was new for the time. It also has great Max Factor makeup that looks especially nice in the early Technicolor. Another thing, it's a pre-Code film. Cannibalism, a major part of the plot, wouldn't have been allowed just a short time later. Lastly it's the horror debut of one of the greats of the genre, Lionel Atwill. Atwill would go on to a great career making many horror films, including two more with Wray the following year. He always brought class and dignity to his usually villainous roles. He's great here as well.The major complaint about the film seems to be directed at Lee Tracy's comic character. He is probably the worst part of the movie, but not because his performance is bad. He does fine with what he's supposed to do. It's just that comedy in horror films is usually best left to minor supporting roles not for the male lead in the film. However, I personally feel he's not obnoxious enough to hurt the film significantly. It's still very fun and very interesting, both from a film history perspective as well as sheer entertainment value. I would recommend all fans of classic horror films check it out.

McQualude Doctor X isn't the story of just one but five mad scientists, all complete with mad scientist laboratories: simmering flasks, bubbling beakers, sizzling Jacob's Ladders, popping power breakers & crazy theories. Director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, Captain Blood, Yankee Doodle Dandee) uses shadow effectively to throw us red herrings, cast menace and provide a rich atmosphere. Lionel Atwill is Doctor X (Xavier), owner of a seaside mansion that is home to four more great scientists happily working away until a series of murders throws suspicion on the gaggle of geeks. Lee Tracy is a newspaper reporter with a fondness for practical jokes (hand buzzer, exploding cigars) looking for a scoop and determined to do anything to get it. Fay Ray is Joanne Xavier, Doctor X's daughter. Here she is strong, determined, confident and independent; although still gets some opportunities to exercise her exquisite screams. Fay Ray could display an unmatched sensuous vulnerability that played so well in King Kong and which we get to see for a few seconds near the end of Doctor X. The downside is that the story is preposterous, sometimes goofy and has trouble deciding if it wants to be a comedy or suspenseful thriller. Doctor X, determined to prevent bad press, rigs a silly experiment to find the killer himself and when the experiment goes fatally wrong, decides to up the ante and do it again. What I found implausible is that the other scientists would risk their lives, again, and that Doctor X would risk his daughter's life without adequate precautions but that is what happens. In a dark comedy this would work but here it just seems silly. Lee Tracy's many scenes of practical jokes not only drags the pace but seem out of place against the otherwise dark and serious tone.

Prichards12345 Dr. X is the film that made a horror star out of Lionel Atwill, and where would the genre be without him? Here he stars as the titular Dr. (Xavier)convinced that a member of the medical academy he runs is the mysterious moon-killer, a cannibal that strangles his victims and then tears out the left deltoid muscle. Maybe they taste like chicken? Meanwhile our intrepid reporter-hero-comic relief-annoying little git is out to get the inside story. The latter trait is much to the for, as Lee Tracey, who plays him, is about as funny as finding out Hannibal Lecter was your chef for the evening. Even fairly early in the proceedings, when he clings to a gutter to listen in to Xavier's plans, I was willing him to fall.Luckily as well as the ever reliable Atwill we have Fay Wray on hand to concentrate on. In the excellently restored DVD I watched Miss Wray looks strikingly beautiful and gives a natural and likable performance as Xavier's daughter Joanna. This being a Warner Bros film, it's fast-paced, yet retains a creepy atmosphere. Legendary director Michael Curtiz, responsible for such classics as Casablanca and Angels With Dirty Faces, never lets the action stop and gives us a marvellous experiment scene, with Xavier trying to uncover the murderer's identity by having the chief suspects watch a re-enactment of the killer's crimes.Of course the solution to the mystery is absurd, but this is a fantasy-horror and it works well within the context of the film. The two-tone colour (Red and Green) looks fantastic in the now fully remastered DVD; and Dr. X will hold your interest to the very end. Wray and Atwill were soon to reunite in The Vampire Bat and Mystery of The Wax Museum, the latter another excellent two-tone horror from Warners.

Robert J. Maxwell This is old-fashioned fun.Lionel Atwill is Dr. Xavier who runs the experimental "Academy for Surgical Research" on a cliff top on the Long Island shore. His three colleagues, each a physically impaired, troglodytic drone, are hard at work on their searches for new discoveries. The three weirdos include a one-eyed man, a cripple, and Preston Foster, who has only one hand. Atwill's daughter runs around breathlessly, as only Fay Wray can be breathless. A spooky servant named Otto lurches around in the background. Lee Tracy is one of those scurrying reporters from "The Front Page." The Madam in the cat house is played by the ever popular Mae Busch.A couple of murdered bodies show up and are taken to the Academy for examination. Atwill concludes that they were subject to cannibalistic gnawing after being strangled. The police determine that all signs point to the murderer's being a member of the Academy. Only Foster is exempt from suspicion because the killer used two hands. ("Note the deep depressions on the sternocleidomastoid.") Fortunately, Atwill has a device -- I forget what he calls this sublimely typical piece of 1930s-movies electronic junk -- that will uncover the identity of the murderer by reenacting the last murder, the killing of a young woman, using his daughter as the victim. At a critical moment during the demonstration the lights go out. There is a shriek, a scuffle, furniture tumbles over, and when the lights come back on nobody has been exposed, not even Fay Wray.With the cops pressing him, Atwill goes through the routine a second time but the protocol has been changed. Otto will lock the laboratory door from the outside, so no one can get in. Atwill himself will participate in the experiment. He and the two other suspects will be handcuffed to their bolted chairs. Only Preston Foster will be loose to manage things.Medical ethics prevent any further plot revelations except maybe for one hint. Letting Foster and Fay Wray be the only two people not handcuffed to their chairs? That was a big mistake.It's short, recklessly headlong in its pace. Director Michael Curtiz was never known for slow slogs through metaphysical swamps. The two-strip technicolor images are not bad for their time. You have your choice of tints -- ghoul green or cadaver mauve. The set borrows heavily from German expressionism. There's hardly a right angle in the joint, so to speak. And you must admire the way every wall looks shabby, dirty, like that of a tenement kitchen.Your final paragraph, Buckie, is here. I recommend the movie. I mean, what the hell. We've all spent less pleasant hours than we'd spend watching this. Why, I remember once, the dentist asking me to "Turn this way a little." What an hour THAT was.