There is no way that this horror film from "Warner Bros." can be compared with the 1932 masterpiece. That other film had style, imagination, great acting and direction, plus it was genuinely eerie. This 1939 film is strictly routine fare and at best, is a tolerable programmer. The low budget is in evidence but that has always been the way for most horror films. Humphrey Bogart looks slightly ill at ease in his role of a dead man brought back to life. According to various reports, he slammed his copy of the script across the desk of Jack Warner and demanded more money for having to appear in this particular film. However, at least he is making an effort in being a bit different in his performance and he is the best known actor by far in "The Return of Doctor X." Wayne Morris and Dennis Morgan join forces in order to determine what the mysterious Doctor Xavier has been up to, regarding some of his patients at the local hospital. The actor who plays the evil doctor is rather stiff and dull. No way can he hold a candle to the creepy and effective performance of Lionel Atwill from the 1932 film. The script isn't up to much but the pace of the film keeps everything ticking along agreeably enough. The running time is just over an hour which is a relief.

. . . in the context of Sam Spade's office or Rick's American Cafe, but it matches Bogie's pasty face and the white shoe polish in his hair for this spoof of FRANKENSTEIN, 1939's THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X. Warner Bros. bravely asks the question, "Why go to all the trouble to winch up an overloaded gurney through a lightning rod-covered castle turret, when the government will electrocute your prospective monster for you, free of charge?" Dr. Francis Flegg feels great sympathy toward Bogart's "Dr. X," who runs afoul of the law simply because his research involves starving random Under Class kids to death at an isolated duck hunters' clubhouse. After all, it's not as if Dr. X murdered the Lindbergh Baby. But since Bogart never was as cute as Casey Anthony, he gets fried. Dr. Flegg revives this monster with "synthetic blood," ignoring the fact that the first syllable of his concoction sounds a lot like "sin." Naturally, Flegg-Enstein's Monster tries to do in his Creator (perhaps because of the Mark of Cain in his hair, which looks just as bad when you spell Cain "Q-U-E-S-N-E"). After viewing 1930s Hollywood flicks such as THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X, it's not hard to see where the Nazi "research doctors" came up with most of their Weird Science ideas.

The title character was supposed to be played by Boris Karlof, which would have actually made sense. Instead, they put in Humphrey Bogart, proving the old adage there are no bad actors, just bad casting.THis movie was also hawked as a sequel to 1932's "Doctor X", but really, it wasn't. Totally different character named Doctor Xaiver. But he did return (from the dead) and he was Dr. X, so let's go with that. Hollywood's assumption that we are all stupid didn't start in the modern era.The plot gets rolling when a reporter finds a dead actress in her hotel room, and then she vanishes. Then she turns up again alive. After losing his job, he goes to his doctor friend, and the investigation is afoot.And here's the problem. Bogey was best in character driven film noir. He just doesn't work here, he doesn't create the sense of either menace or sympathy Karlof would have created in the same character.

What's worse than a bad horror movie? A dull one, and this one's both. It tries to be both scary and funny but is neither. If they had decided to go either way it could have been, well probably still pretty bad, but at least they would have failed trying. Now it's seems slow even at just over an hour. Bogie is about as scary as a Halloween pumpkin and he's hardly in the movie at all. Just shows how much regard Jack Warner had for this future screen legend.Instead we're given an annoying wisecracking reporter and a dreamboat doctor, corny dialog and a routine chase sequence that's over before it begins. The only scary thing about this movie is that they decided this was good enough to release, and that it even made a big profit! Lucky for Bogart they didn't go for Son Of Doctor X, Bride of Doctor X or Revenge of Doctor X. Watch it once to see how low Bogie had to go before his rise to stardom and then rinse away the aftertaste with, say a dose of Maltese Falcon or Big Sleep. This movie sent me into a Big Sleep. (Believe me, this is still a better joke than any in this movie.)