Distrubutor : First National Pictures Director : Michael Curtiz Writing credits : Earl Baldwin, Howard W. Comstock,
Allen C. Miller,
Robert Tasker
Cast :
Lionel Atwill ......... Doctor Xavier
Fay Wray ......... Joanne Xavier
Lee Tracy ......... Lee Taylor
Preston Foster ......... Dr. Wells
John Wray ......... Dr. Haines
Harry Beresford ......... Dr. Duke
Arthur Edmund Carewe ......... Dr. Rowitz
Leila Bennett ......... Mamie
Robert Warwick ......... Police Commissioner Stevens
George Rosener ......... Otto, Dr. X's butler
Thomas E. Jackson ......... Detective O'Halloran
Mae Busch ......... Cathouse Madam
Tom Dugan ......... Mike
Atwill
gives a skin-crawling performance as Doctor Xavier, the one-armed wacko
who has discovered a synthetic flesh that he uses to create body parts.
Fay Wray is delightfully naive as Joanne Xavier, the lab boss’s
daughter (and the reporter’s heartthrob). Michael Curtiz (Casablanca)
directed this gripping whodunit--based on the play by Howard W.
Comstock and Allen C. Miller--that strikes a thrilling balance between
comedy and horror. Making classic use of high-contrast lighting,
intricate sets, and a pioneering two-color Technicolor process, Doctor
X is packed with atmosphere and visual inventiveness.
Police
investigate the latest of the Full Moon Murders in which victims have
been cut up and cannibalized, always on the night of a full moon. The
knife used in the killings is a special surgical knife which is traced
to the nearby Academy of Surgical Research. The Academy's head Dr
Xavier is certain that the killer is one of the scientists that work
there and that he can trap him using an elaborate device that measures
pulmonary response. Allowed only 48 hours by the police to prove his
case, Xavier gathers the Academy's scientists at his gloomy Long Island
mansion and stages a reenactment of the murders with the scientists
hooked up to his gadgetry. However the murderer strikes in the midst of
the experiment.
VHS
Atwill
gives a skin-crawling performance as Doctor Xavier, the one-armed wacko
who has discovered a synthetic flesh that he uses to create body parts.
Fay Wray is delightfully naive as Joanne Xavier, the lab boss’s
daughter (and the reporter’s heartthrob). Michael Curtiz (Casablanca)
directed this gripping whodunit--based on the play by Howard W.
Comstock and Allen C. Miller--that strikes a thrilling balance between
comedy and horror. Making classic use of high-contrast lighting,
intricate sets, and a pioneering two-color Technicolor process, Doctor
X is packed with atmosphere and visual inventiveness.
Police
investigate the latest of the Full Moon Murders in which victims have
been cut up and cannibalized, always on the night of a full moon. The
knife used in the killings is a special surgical knife which is traced
to the nearby Academy of Surgical Research. The Academy's head Dr
Xavier is certain that the killer is one of the scientists that work
there and that he can trap him using an elaborate device that measures
pulmonary response. Allowed only 48 hours by the police to prove his
case, Xavier gathers the Academy's scientists at his gloomy Long Island
mansion and stages a reenactment of the murders with the scientists
hooked up to his gadgetry. However the murderer strikes in the midst of
the experiment.
