Michael Curtiz’s Doctor
X is a more technically extravagant version of the original stage
production of playwrights Howard Warren Comstock and Allen C. Miller.The play was first tested at the Fox Theater
in Great Neck, Long Island, for a single night’s performance on January 10,
1931.It was immediately followed by a
brief run at Brandt’s Carlton Theatre in Jamaica, Queens, where newspaper adverts
suggested theatergoers “Bring Your Shock Absorber†along.The production then moved to Brandt’s Boulevard
Theatre in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, for several performances, only to
be followed by a week-long preview and fine-tuning at Brandt’s Flatbush Theater
in Brooklyn beginning January 26.
The three-act “mystery melodrama†would finally make its Broadway
debut at the Hudson Theater, off W. 44th Street, on February 9,
1931.The stage play featured actor Howard
Lang in the role of the sinister Dr. Xavier, but the mystery wouldn’t enjoy a
terribly long run on the Great White Way.The Hudson would eventually shutter the doors on the production in
mid-April 1931.
It’s no coincidence that four Brandt-owned theatres were successively
engaged to showcase the early previews of Doctor
X.The play had been intentionally co-produced
for the stage by the theatre owners William and Harry Brandt.Billboard
would note in December of 1930 that the two brothers had chosen to enter the
field of theatrical production as a potential remedy to offset the “slack
business conditions on the subway circuit.â€
The early reviews of the Brandt’s showcase were mainly
positive, especially when considering the decidedly grim fare offered.The critic from Brooklyn’s Times-Union thought Doctor X a “swell show.†The paper reported that the gruesome
goings-on of Jackson Height’s preview had not only caused a woman in the
balcony to scream in fright but that other patrons nervously called “for the
lights to be turned on†midway through the program.Whether such outbursts of fright were genuine
or simply publicity ballyhoo stunts may never be known.But likely more of the latter than the
former.
Not everyone was impressed. Brooklyn’s Standard-Union newspaper took a
contrarian view of the stage show’s ability to curdle the blood of attendees.In the paper’s review of February 10, 1931,
their critic would grieve that Doctor X
was a mostly undistinguished effort, “Freighted with all the dismal baggage of
those lamentable pastimes known as mystery thrillers.â€â€œEven though the authors, no pikers, have
arranged almost an endless procession of synthetic horrors,†the review
mercilessly continued, “spectators are no longer hoodwinked by such drowsy
tidbits.No longer can an actor with an
anaemic makeup or panels that slide open terrify theatergoers into submission.â€
Nonetheless, and though the play opened to mixed reviews,
some of the New York dailies were impressed.There were enough good notices to allow the Brandt’s to run
advertisements suggesting Doctor X as
“New York’s Only Mystery Hit: Electrifies Press and Public Alike!†The critic of the New York Herald Tribune thought it a grand affair, trumpeting, “’Doctor X’ holds the best claim for some
time to the grand heritage of such creepy works as ‘The Bat,’ ‘The Cat and the
Canary’ and ‘The Spider.’â€These
references to past and successful mystery-melodramas of the stage were not only
interesting but prescient: all three of these theatrical properties were
subsequently licensed by Hollywood studios to be brought to neighborhood movie
screens. Such transitioning of
properties from Broadway to Hollywood was, as referenced by the above review,
not unusual.
Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood’s The Bat had made its Broadway debut at
the Morosco Theatre on August 22, 1921.That play would be belatedly adapted for the screen as a vehicle for
Vincent Price in 1959.John Willard’s The Cat and the Canary would debut on
the boards of the Majestic Theatre on June 14, 1937, and enjoy no fewer than three
film treatments: there was Paul Leni’s celebrated silent film version of 1927,
a popular Bob Hope mystery-comedy of 1939, and a late-arriving 1978 British
production featuring Honor Blackman, Michael Callan and Edward Fox.Fulton Oursler and Lowell Brentano’s The Spider would make two appearances on
Broadway with an initial staging at Chanin’s 46th Street Theater in
March of 1927 and, again, at the Century Theater in February of 1928.That play would be brought to the big screen
twice, first in 1931 as a straightforward murder mystery, then reconfigured in
1945 as a film noir-style mystery picture.
Interestingly, Lionel Atwill was working on a different
Broadway stage at the same time Doctor X
was concurrently running at the Hudson.Atwill was working one block north at Broadway’s Morosco Theatre, the
featured player in Lee Shubert’s production of The Silent Witness (opening date 3/23/31).The
Silent Witness too was quickly picked up by Fox and following that show’s
Broadway run, Atwill traveled out to Hollywood to star in the play’s film
version, co-directed by Marcel Varnel and R.L. Hough.Though there were reports that Lionel Atwill
was to return to the New York stage directly following that film’s wrap, in early
March 1932 newssheets reported that Warner Bros. had asked him to remain in
Hollywood for a spell.He had been
offered the title role in their recently optioned property Doctor X.
There’s a lot to like about this film.With the release of Doctor X, Warner Bros. was most likely hoping to siphon off some of
the public interest and box office that Universal was enjoying with such
macabre fare as Dracula and Frankenstein.Though the studio fell short of producing an
iconic film, they nevertheless produced a pretty decent B-picture that offered
a modicum of thrills and chills.One of
the true highlight’s of the film version of Doctor
X, is the art deco “mad scientist†laboratory sets of designer Anton
Grot.The sets were so elaborate and
grand that the New York Herald Tribune
would run a fifteen paragraph long - and impressively detailed - tribute on
Grot and his designs.That article, “Built-in Menace Hangs Over All in Anton
Grot’s House of Doomâ€), includes an unusual for the period in-depth
interview with the designer.The article
also notes that no fewer than “192 sketches and blueprints†of imaginative and
elaborate design had been drafted in preparation for shooting.
Having only been born some three-decades following the
brief Broadway run of Doctor X, I
can’t say with any certainty how the adapted screenplay of Earl Baldwin and
Robert Tasker differs or alters the work of the original playwrights.Contemporary reviews suggest the body count
referenced in the stage play registers more than twenty, far more victims than
offered in the film.But if there are
fewer bodies in the Curtiz film, there are still plenty of similarities.Both stage and screen versions share the
usual tropes of numerous red herrings, mysterious sliding panels and clutching
hands.The one shared shortcoming of
both is that neither the stage nor film version offers much in terms of genuine
mystery.You needn’t have finely honed
detective skills to figure out early on who the true protagonist is.
That said, the scenarios of both play and film are
certainly invitingly lurid.Lee Taylor (Lee
Tracy), a fast-talking reporter from New York’s tabloid Daily World newspaper (film version), has been wandering the gloomy
waterfront near the Mott Street morgue.He’s following the sensational story of the recent string of “Moon
Killer†murders.A scrub woman was most recently
found dead, a presumed sixth victim of the serial killer.These are no “ordinary†murders.Police Commissioner Stevens (Robert Warwick) and
Detective O’ Halloran (Willard Robertson), a pair of old-school hard-boiled
detectives, are aware of a particularly squeamish nugget of information they
wish to keep from the public and nosy newsmen alike.The scrub woman’s deltoid muscle was
shredded, suggesting a bit of cannibalism was involved.
The police have no concrete leads to follow.But they suspect the mysterious goings-on at
the Academy of Surgical Research, under the administration of the otherwise
redoubtable Dr. Xavier (Atwill), might have something to do with the unsolved
string of murders.This is not an
unreasonable suspicion since the killer is apparently using a specialized
surgical instrument only used by academy members.And there are certainly any number of
suspicious scientists working at the academy who are of interest.
Professor Wells (Preston Foster) is one.Not the least because he is, as described by
Atwill, “a student of cannibalism,†having even published an authoritative book
on the subject.But Wells has only one
arm, so the suspicions against him are dismissed as all six victims have
clearly been strangled by a fiend with two hands.Dr. Haines (John Wray), who studies coral reefs
and keeps odd late night hours, is a survivor of a shipwreck near Tahiti.Stranded, Haines somehow survived the hostile
environment where any food supply was practically non-existent.What was it that he feasted on while marooned
that allowed him to survive?
Equally suspicious is the black monocle-wearing Dr.
Rowitz (Arthur Edmund Carewe), a student of the effects of lunar rays on all
things earthbound.With a “Moon Killerâ€
at large, can this interest be coincidental?The wheelchair bound Professor Duke (Harry Beresford), a collaborator of
Dr. Rowitz, is equally gruff and eccentric - but as he is non-mobile he could
hardly be considered a suspect in the Moon killings.
The scenario takes an improbable turn when Atwill,
fearing for the reputation of the Academy, asks the detectives to give him forty-eight
hours to solve the crime himself.They
agree, and after their departure, Atwill – in true Scooby Doo fashion – berates both policemen as “meddling fools.â€True to his word, Atwill summons the team of
scientists to his ghostly laboratory on Long Island.As a side note, I’ve got to mention while
I’ve spent some time on New York’s Long Island, I can safely say that I’ve
never visited any beachside location there that resembles the one portrayed in
the film.Dr. Xavier’s spooky manor
house and laboratory is located on the Blackstone Shoals, moodily perched on a
rocky Cliffside bluff.
It’s at his manor where the doctor claims to study
“phobias†in a resplendent setting. Grot’s elongated Art Deco-era glass bulbs descend
from the ceilings in his laboratory, the workplace brimming with thermal tubes,
plate glass condensers, “electro-magnetic†turbines and machinery.All of which provide the wattage for an eerie
incandescent green glow.The manor house
provides the film with its secondary most prominent setting, complete with winding
and dimly lit corridors, shadowy rooms and Otto, the estate’s creepy
housekeeper.
Curtiz under-lights actor George Rosener’s Otto, making
the servant appear positively ghoulish, all stoop-shouldered with dark slits
acting as eyes.The manor house also – literally - has skeletons in its closet,
as our nervous reporter – and comedy relief support player - Taylor soon
learns.There’s a genuine monster
lurking about the manor, a pretty gruesome figure constructed from manufactured
synthetic flesh.The monster is only
seen in restrained short bursts which adds a satisfying element of mystery and
horror to its occasional on-screen appearances.
Fay Wray appears as Dr. Xavier’s doting daughter
Joanne.The actress is, as always, very
photogenic and a very good in her relatively small supporting role.Though she had already racked up an
impressive number of film credits, she was typecast – if only briefly – in the
years 1932-1933 as a genuine heroine of the horror-mystery genre film.She would appear in no fewer than five such
pictures during this period, all of which – to one degree or another – are
thought of as early classics of the genre.It was certainly this run of films that would garner the actress the
honor of being the big screen’s most enduring “Scream Queen.â€The
Most Dangerous Game (1932) was first,, but she soon was teamed with Atwill for
Doctor X, The Vampire Bat and Mystery
of the Wax Museum, before achieving iconic screen immortality as the
beleaguered Anne Darrow in King Kong
(RKO, 1933).
Any horror film from Hollywood’s Golden Age is worth a
look, and this film – the two-strip Technicolor version once thought lost – is
a cracker. This region-free Blu-ray edition of Doctor
X is part of the Warner Archive Collection and is presented here in 1080 p
High Definition 16x9 1.37.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio.The set is also packed with extras, including
the separately filmed B&W version (“originally intended for small U.S.
markets and international distributionâ€) in addition to the original
Technicolor release. There’s also a featurette that visits “The Horror Films of
Michael Curtiz,†the theatrical trailer, a UCLA before/after restoration reel.The set also includes commentaries offered by
author and film historian Alan K. Rode as well as Scott MacQueen, the head
preservationist of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
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