Produced before the Motion Picture Production Code was enforced, Doctor X includes
- murder
- rape
- cannibalism
- prostitution
- surprise
- fear
- ruthless efficiency
- lots of strange green lighting.
Doctor X has an odd eerie emerald hue.
All of which make a smashing film that's fun for the whole family.
New York City is in the grip of fear of a murderer most foul!
A murderer who strikes during a full moon, leaving behind a cannibalized body. The killer is described as a horribly disfigured monster.
Who is... the Moon Killer?!?!?
Daily World reporter Lee Taylor is on the job, investigating this series of gruesome murders. And the police are on the case as well. Their attention has turned to a strange medical academy run by Doctor Xavier.
It seems that the killer is using a type of scalpel that is unique to Xavier's medical school.
Xavier acts a bit squirrelly. Could be he's just worried about his school's reputation. Or is he a killer with something to hide?
Besides Xavier, the other suspects at the academy include:
- Wells, an amputee who has made a study of cannibalism
- Haines, who displays a sexual perversion with voyeurism
- Duke, a grouchy paralytic
- Rowitz, who is conducting studies of the psychological effects of the moon.
Xavier wants a chance to expose and apprehend the killer.
Despite being one of the suspects of being the killer, the police are all, "oh what the hell, do our jobs for us." They give him 48 hours to hide the evidence skip town find the killer.
Xavier's daughter Joanne is worried about this. She thinks this could put dear ol' daddy in danger.
She's also put off by that reporter, Lee Taylor poking around. She doesn't like him or trust him and will never ever ever have sex with him. Or whatever.
Lee of course has the hots for Joanne.
Ain't love grand.
Dr. Xavier eliminates Wells as a suspect. The killer has two hands and Wells only has one arm. To determine the killer from the rest of the suspects, Xavier conducts an unorthodox experiment.
Each suspect is connected to an electrical system that records his heart rate. Dr. Xavier's butler and maid, Otto and Mamie, perform a reenactment of one of the murders while Wells monitors the results of the electrical impulses.
The experiment exposes Rowitz as the guilty party! Zoinks!
Then there is a blackout. Double zoinks!!
Where did the green lighting go?
When power is restored, Rowitz is found.... murdered by use of a scalpel to the brain. And his body has been cannibalized. Triple zoinks!!!
So there's... that.
Xavier decides to do the experiment again.
What the.... Really?!?!
Mamie is too frightened to do the reenactment again so Joanne takes her place on stage with Otto.
The doors are locked to keep Wells with the recording equipment while the other men (including Xavier himself) are handcuffed to their chairs.
During the experiment, Wells sneaks into his secret lab where he transforms himself with "synthetic flesh" into the Moon Killer.
He strangles Otto (Bye, Otto!) and declares to Xavier and the other men chained to their chairs his intention to collect Joanne as his next victim.
Bwa! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Oh, if only there was someone else in this movie, a heretofore mostly comic relief person who possibly could be a hero and save poor helpless Joan from the Moon Killer!
Ta-da! Enter Daily World reporter Lee Taylor!
During the fight, Wells catches on fire (Why the hell is the fire green?) and falls out a window, down a cliff into the (green) ocean.
Taylor submits his story to the editor and makes a request for some space in the marriage announcement section for Joanne and himself.
Awwwww!!
OK.
What the fuck was that?
Whatever it was, it was in color, employing an an early two-color Technicolor process. There's a lot of scenes with green lighting. And other weird color distortions.
Let's deal with the worst offense. How can someone call a movie Doctor X and make the title character...
- NOT the nefarious villian.
- NOT the admirable hero.
- But mostly totally useless.
All Xavier accomplishes is to eliminate the actual murderer as a suspect. I mean, I get it. The Moon Killer has two hands and Wells only has one arm. But that's a fairly obvious call. But Xavier is supposed to be some kind of genius so who needs a genius for the obvious call?
I would've been more impressed if Doctor X ponders that the Moon Killer is a cannibal and Wells has studied cannibalism so he uses his intellect to dope how a one armed man did the murderous work of a two handed killer.
This would never have flummoxed Columbo.
And then there's the dumb ass experiment to expose the real murderer that requires the cooperation of the real murderer to sit there with electrodes attached to his head? Really?
Doctor X has a seriously moody and sinister look it and the off putting color process actually adds to the macabre nature of the story.
Director Michael Curtiz does the best he can with what he's got, elevating a schlock thriller to look better than it is. Curtiz would go on to bigger and better things such as directing Casablanca.
And that is Fay Wray of King Kong fame as Joanne.
Next week's Cinema Sunday takes us into April which begins with "A" and so does Alfred. Over 4 weeks, I will post in Cinema Sunday about 4 features from the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock that I have seen.
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