It's certainly wonderful to see this hitherto lost work of director Michael Curtiz. True, it has been available in black-and-white, but who in their right senses would want to look at Doctor X without color? I agree the picture might still deliver a few odd thrills, but its obsessive mood, its genuinely spooky atmosphere — not to mention all its splendidly Gothic pictorial effects — are utterly lost. In monochrome, maybe a passable chiller. In color, a minor yet fascinating masterpiece of almost unbearably tingling horror.Take the cast. Thanks to her appearances in this one and "The Mystery of the Wax Museum", plus "The Most Dangerous Game" and "King Kong", Fay Wray is the only female film star of the early 1930s who has a greater reputation today than way back then. She looks lovely. And most attractively dressed too. The imperiled heroine par perfection.Lee Tracy is hardly our first choice for the role of comic newspaperman, but he handles that assignment with such skill that he ingratiatingly delivers thrills, laughs and romance in liberal yet almost equal measure. The ever-reliable Lionel Atwill is handed a made-to-order part as the suspicious doctor-in-charge. Few actors can deliver lines with such commendable speed and authority. Robert Warwick makes a game try here, but comes nowhere close. As for Preston Foster, his startling performance will have audiences cheering. Leila Bennett is also effective as a scared-witless maid. And A.E. Carewe has a small but vivid role to play.For me, however, there are two actors in "Doctor X" who truly excel way, way beyond the call of duty. The other is George Rosener. Admittedly, he's handed a colorful role as a sadistically servile Otto-of-all-work, but Rosener plays it with an edge that is absolutely riveting.It's a bit mean to single out a few players when Curtiz has drawn such vividly convincing portraits from the whole cast. Notice how he adds to the realism by sometimes causing one player to break in on someone else's dialogue, or cues a number of actors to all speak at once.Curtiz has also made fine use of Grot's magnificently atmospheric sets and — assisted by Amy's smoothly sharp editing — paced the picture to a really palm-sweating climax. Ray Rennahan's superb camera-work adds immeasurably to the bizarrely enthralling atmosphere of ultra- chilling suspense.Finally, I will mention that Atwill, Foster and company all rejoice in titles of both "doctors" and "professors"; that Miss Wray is usually called "Joanne" but that she is twice addressed as "Joan"; that Mae Busch is obviously the madam of a brothel, not a speak- easy; that Tom Dugan is best described as a plainclothesman outside the Mott Street Morgue; that Harry Holman of the exploding cigar (which plays a neat part in the cleverly menacing plot) is indeed Patrolman Mike; and yes, it is Selmer Jackson in the not-credited bit part as the Globe's night editor.The play opened on Broadway at the Hudson on 9 February 1931, running 80 performances. Howard Lang starred.

"Warner Bros" proved they could certainly deliver the goods when it came to horror films - "Dr. X" and "Mystery of the Wax Museum" are easily on a par with the best of "Universal" horror films.Based upon a popular play, "Dr. X" is about a series of so-called "Moonlight" killings. The police are baffled but they still suspect a group of scientists who indulge in rather unusual, secretive research and experiments.Lionel Atwill - in his first major film after years as a theatre actor - turns in a fine performance as the scientist who oversees the said research. Lee Tracy as the customary wise- cracking journalist is good and better than I expected. Fay Wray does her usual but adds a good deal to the proceedings. Some of the films content is quite graphic for 1930s audiences and I wouldn't be surprised if the film ran into censorship trouble upon its general release in 1932.The direction by Michael Curtiz is both assured and imaginative. He gives the film an expressionistic feel in the way of shadows and arched camera angles.A classic of its kind and it is worthy of repeated viewings.

On the whole, this film is an agreeable and interesting waste of time, yet doesn't pack nearly the punch of its peers, which include Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, King Kong, Mystery in the Wax Museum, etc.The major flaw is that there is an excess of comic relief. Being adapted from a stage play, this is understandable. Live theater usually requires more laughs, even in mostly serious productions, than does film. Filmmakers were still relatively new to talkies, and talking horror movies were definitely a novelty when this was made.Fright films do need some comic relief, so as to avoid the problem of having the audience laugh at the monsters. James Whale took this concept as far as possible with Bride of Frankenstein; but Dr. X goes a little farther than it should, and so you have this uneven feel, with one foot in the world of comedy, and one foot in the world of horror.On the plus side, there is Lionel Atwill, one of the greatest villains of the classic period of the movies, and you have Fay Wray, who was always a pleasure to watch. And you have a fairly original plot and a whodunit, and you have weird mad scientists, and a bizarre lab. And you have a truly creative and macabre make-up job by the legendary Max Factor: I don't know if he did any other horror make-up besides this film.So far as I know, this is the earliest film to have 'X' prominently in the title, referring to Dr. Xavier and to the unknown villain both. There were later scifi/horror films with the titles 'X: the Unknown' and 'X: the Man with the X-Ray Eyes', and in 1963 Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the now famous comic book 'X-Men', led by Dr. Charles Xavier. Of course, in the 1990's, the 'X-Files' became a hit on TV and at the cinema.Overall, this film is interesting, but flawed. I'd recommend it only after you've had a chance to see the other films mentioned in paragraph 1 of this review.

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.