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The Amazing Mr. X

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The wind howls and waves crash on a dark, sandy shore. The background music swells, underscoring the furiously subdued passion of the beautiful woman, clad in a foaming white gown, who hears her deceased husband call her name from beyond the sea. She is startled when she meets a suave and well-dressed stranger, and his pet raven, on the turbulent beach.
Thanks to the taut direction of Bernard Vorhaus (who would emigrate to England and retire in 1953 after being blacklisted by Hollywood); across the board fine acting (including Cathy O'Donnell, who earlier was blacklisted by Samuel Goldwyn after marrying the brother of William Wyler, with whom he was feuding); and especially the moody cinematography of John Alton (who would win an Academy Award for Color Cinematography for AN AMERICAN IN PARIS,) this low-budget thriller, THE AMAZING MR X, is rather amazing, indeed.
I scribbled "should have been Peter Lorre" during Turhan Bey's first scene. Bey plays the Spiritualist - a vaguely sinister, vaguely continental rogue who, most of the time, shares the frame with his big, black, pet raven. Your typical Lorre role. So it was with some trepidation that I left the very entertaining early scene that chronicled Bey and widow Lynn Bari's initial encounter. These movies almost always stumble somewhere - a `humorous' character who isn't funny, and/or a threatening character who, unfortunately, is.
Bey, who I've never seen before, is perfectly cast. He may not be as skilled an actor, but even someone as prodigiously talented as Lorre would have had a hard time playing a romantic character. With the movie forcing little sister O'Connell to gush some tough puppy love at the Spiritualist, with the handsome Bey in the lead role credibility is maintained. Talented or not, Lorre was severely appearance challenged.
Alton lit and framed it wonderfully - in fact, the whole movie looks great - but there was still that threat posed by the cover art. A turbaned, apple-cheeked Bey grinning mischievously over an illuminated crystal ball. THE AMAZING MR X had `schlock' written all over it. Loud schlock, at that. But this movie is much subtler than its promotional material, or unfortunate title, would lead you to think. It's a fine mystery/thriller, supremely entertaining and even a little thought provoking. This IS that hidden gem fans of old movies are constantly on the lookout for.

THE AMAZING MR X is a virtually flawless movie. Whether flooding blinding light through the Spiritualist's front door or pulling the ceiling into the frame to create a sense of maddening claustrophobia in the young widow's home, the cinematography is brilliant (NB - the transfer print is a little washed out but watchable.) The story is engagingly told and even provides a genuine thrill or two. Overall the acting is competent, Bari is quite good as the haunted widower, and Bey is a real find as the smooth charlatan.

Just as greiving widow Christine Faber (Lynn Bari) is about to put the tragic death of her husband behind her and move on with her life, she starts hearing his voice on the wind... his restless spirit has returned to haunt her! In a fortuitous coincidence, Christine meets Alexis (Turhan Bey), a psychic who offers to help her contact her husband's spirit and perhaps put it to rest.

Christine's younger sister (Cathy O'Donnell) and Christine's would-be new paramour thinks that the meeting with Alexis was too fortuitous, and they suspect that perhaps he is part of a scam to defraud the emotionally frail Christine of her inheritance. They secure the services of a magician turned private eye who specializes in debuniking phoney mediums and set about to expose Alexis for the fraud he is. However, the haunting continues to grow in intensity. Can it be that Christine's departed husband really is reaching out from beyond and attempting to pull her into a watery grave along side him?

This 1948 B-movie is an excellently made thriller. It is well acted, well filmed, moves briskly, and keeps the viewer engaged with clever plot-twists and a couple of nicely done double-reversals of expectations. There are films with perhas ten times the budget of "The Amazing Mr. X" that aren't half as successful at telling the kind of story that this film features--which, I admit, was pretty well-worn even in 1948. That said, modern filmmakers trying their hands at thrillers with supernatural overtones would do well to study this work, as it shows exactly how that kind of film is made.

Don't let the cheesy title fool you. This is a top-notch thriller that's well worth a look by any lover of the genre.

If you enjoy B movies, gothic noirs and second string actors, you might enjoy this gem. I did.

Christine Faber (Lynn Bari), a rich, beautiful widow who lives in a mansion high on a cliff overlooking the Pacific surf, is a widow of two years still grieving over the death of her husband, whose body was never found. Her younger sister (Cathy O'Donnell) is worried about her and her good friend, (Richard Carlson), who wants to be more than a friend, thinks somehow she has to start living her own life. Then Christine learns of a medium, Alexis (Turhan Bey), the mysterious Mr. X, who has moved near by. Alexis is supposed to do wonders in bringing back the dead, and he seems able to bring up the spirit of Christine's husband at seances for her. But Christine also hears strange, familiar music late at night in her mansion. The french doors leading to the cliffs mysteriously open. She begins to hear the voice of her dead husband when she's trying to sleep, speaking lovingly to her and urging her to join him on the cliffs.

This movie may be one of the thousands of B movies Hollywood cranked out during the Forties, but it is competently made and moves ahead briskly. There is a twist about two-thirds of the way through that might surprise you. And the climax, a struggle in the dank, dark cellars of the mansion, is very well handled.

Joan Crawford might have been Hollywood's Queen Bee, but Lynn Bari was undoubtedly the queen of the Bs. She was a classy looking woman with a great, rich voice who could handle comedy or mystery, evil or good, with competence. And while probably few people remember Turhan Bey, for a few years he was Hollywood's favorite exotic leading men. That might not be saying a lot, but he made a reasonably successful career of it for a while.

But be warned; the DVD picture is watchable but nothing more.

This review is for the SONY (Columbia Pictures) 2011 DVD-R release of the film unders its original name, "The Spirtualist", available through Amazon retailers.

"The Spiritualist" is a 1948 thriller-noir film released by Eagle-Lion Films and directed by Bernard Vorhaus, with exquisite cinematography by film and lighting master John Alton. For those unfamiliar with the title, they may recall seeing this little "B" gem under its rerelease title "The Amazing Mr. X". The story tells of a phony spiritualist who preys upon a widow still grieving after two years the loss of her concert pianist husband. The film, Alton's favorite of all his works, is featured prominently in his book on cinematography, "Painting with Light".

The film stars Turhan Bey, Lynn Bari, Cathy O'Donnell, and Richard Carlson. (As other posts under the public domain title "The Amazing Mr. X" reveal, actress Carole Landis was originally hired by producer Benjamin Stoloff and director Vorhous to play the lead female role, but Landis committed suicide a few days before shooting began. The part was eventually given to Bari.)

Unfortunately, this little-known classic has languished in public domain-hell for many years, available only on VHS and DVD from abysmally inferior prints, marring the craftsmanship of cinematographer Alton. My efforts to find the consummate version always failed to live up to my hopes and expectations. This release, by SONY in the DVD-R format and under the film's original title, finally restores this film to its proper status as a true contender among the film noir classics. A deeply atmospheric film, "The Spiritualist" is steeped in dark and brooding effects, and for the first time since its initial release the viewer will be able to enjoy the full range of its cinematic beauty. I am very grateful to SONY for providing us longtime fans of the film such a beautiful print. Mastered from archival 35mm material, I doubt anyone but the harshest of critics will complain about this release. Wonderful quality! I recommend this release to ALL.

The Spiritualist
Make sure you get the release above of The Spiritualist by SPHE (Sony) March 4, 2011. This is the one that
is made from 35mm film elements rather than the washed out, grainy pubic domain copies that
most of the other DVDs for sale as The Amazing Mr. X are. The Amazing Mr. X and The Spiritualist are
the same movie but I want to make sure you get a good copy!
The house by the sea in this movie is one of the most
romantic sets I have ever seen and the lighting and posing superb. It is a great lost noir -lost because
of lack of watchable copies, -finally that has changed! If you can forgive a few of the special effects
during the seance scene, I think you will find this is a treasured addition to your classic collection.
Enjoy!

Here's a really interesting little movie, blending the familiar elements of noir into a supernatural mystery thriller. Lynn Bari and Turhan Bey star in THE AMAZING MR. X. (1948), a fascinating B-chiller that is worth far more than the sum of it's parts.

Widowed Christine Faber (Lynn Bari) is ready to move on from her pianist husband Paul's death and marry Martin Abbott (Richard Carlson), until, during a stroll along the beach, she hears the ghostly voice of Paul calling out to her. By strange coincidence, psychic medium Alexis (Turhan Bey) is also out walking that same night, and urges Christine to visit his house. Pretty soon, Christine is a regular visitor to Alexis' mansion, which is crammed with two-way mirrors, trick lighting and hidden speaker-boxes; so much so that Christine's kid sister Janet (Cathy O'Donnell) and Martin decide to do a little investigating themselves...

Lynn Bari is one of my favourite "B" ladies. She could play anything from a wisecracking reporter in SLEEPERS WEST, a 1920s housewife in HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY GAL?, to the spurned "other woman" in ORCHESTRA WIVES. Here in MR. X., she plays a role that might have easily gone to Joan Crawford had the picture been made by a bigger studio; although the best scenes go to Cathy O'Donnell and Turhan Bey. Heck, even when she was the top-billed star, Lynn Bari still couldn't land a break! Oh well.

THE AMAZING MR. X. is another B-movie that fell into Public Domain oblivion years ago. The best print is the one available from Image Entertainment/Wade Williams, and whilst it's far from perfect, it's probably the best we'll get. Recommended.

I bought this film based on a documentary I saw about cinematographer John Alton. He was described as the godfather of the the film noir cinematography and that made me buy all the John Alton DVD's on Amazon available. His way of filming was so revolutionary that even today his way of filming is the handbook for all students in cinematography. The storyline of this film is simple but the new angles in filming and his superb use of light and dark contrast makes this film very interesting even when it is a film which isn't digitally restored yet !

Once again the good people at Image DVD have brought back to life another forgotten gem in the thriller genre that while being not well known is indeed well worth the time. Starring one of my absolute favourite "B" movie villians in talented actor Turhan Bey, who was wonderful as the evil High Priest in 1942's "The Mummy's Tomb"; "The Amazing Mr. X", weaves an intriguing tale of supernatural deception heightened by Bey's assured playing that is really hard to resist. Apart from the strong central performances this admittedly second string production also boasts amazingly high standard cinematography and special effects which give this film a polished "noir", look to it that greatly increases its appeal.

"The Spiritualist" aka "The Amazing Mr. X" is a film from cinematographer John Alton. This review is strictly a recommendation to purchase the SPHE (Sony) DVD-R version through Amazon at about 3 times the price you would pay for other public domain versions of this title available on DVD. The Sony version must be from an originial print. The DVD-R really is the only disc available that shows Alton's wonderful "painting with light" photography to full advantage. I had previously purchased the VCI version under the title "The Amazing Mr. X". I feel VCI put together a really good package for this film with commentary and liner notes on the movie. However, try as they might, the public domain copy just makes the film hard to watch. I hope Sony will issue a DVD-R of the film that accompanied "The Amazing Mr. X" on VCI disc, "Reign of Terror" aka "The Black Book", also filmed by Alton and directed by Anthony Mann.

First of all, let me tell you that this Image disc is nothing special, quality-wise - there don't seem to be any top-notch prints of this film around - and you might be better off getting Classic Film Noir Double Feature Vol 3: Amazing Mr. X aka: The Spiritualist & Reign of Terror aka: Black Book from VCI, which couples it with Anthony Mann's REIGN OF TERROR, also photographed by the great John Alton, likely the greatest cinematographer to work regularly in film noir and one of the top DPs in the classic Hollywood period, period. Other than that shared credit, and a filming date just months apart, the two have little in common, though both are fascinating examples of the style that really push the limits of what we might want to call "film noir".

THE AMAZING MR. X was directed by the fairly obscure Bernard Vorhaus, an American filmmaker who made just about 3 dozen low-budget features over a 20 year span starting in 1933, before being blacklisted and moving to Wales, where he had secondary behind-the-scenes credits for a few more years, apparently retiring in 1960 though he lived another 40 years after that. The only other film he made that seems to have any following whatsoever is a 1940 John Wayne quickie, THREE FACES WEST, one of Wayne's last b-movies made just as stardom arrived. So I can't say I had any real expectations going into this, which is probably a good thing. Basically we start with Christine (Lynn Bari), a lonely widow being courted by Martin (Richard Carlson), who meets a strange man, Alexis (Turhan Bey), who is apparently a psychic who knows much of her past, on a deserted moonlit California beach. Alexis is accompanied by a huge raven - we know we're in for something weird and spooky here, and this scene is expertly shot and put together, building a sense of unease both about Christine's past - and about the mysterious stranger.

Turns out Christine isn't really over the death of Paul, her husband, and she goes to meet the psychic after a terrifying ghostly apparation in her house which scares her and her sister Janet (Cathy O'Donnell). Janet though is a bit more blasé about the whole thing and wonders if the psychic is too good to be true, even after he tells Christine all kinds of things that he "couldn't possibly know". She enlists the aid of Martin and a PI and former magician (Harry Mendoza) but eventually falls under the spell of the mysterious Alexis, who shows himself before long to in fact be the unscrupulous con artist and crook that Martin and the cop think he is. But soon it turns out that an even greater scam is being perpetrated, and a ghost of the past comes back as the true villain of the piece...

Outstanding, deeply shadowed chiaroscuro photography as always from Mr. Alton, flavorful performances from Bey and Donald Curtis as - well, as the guy who spoilers are made for who shows up late in this 78-minute quickie, and nice stormswept California locations make up for a certain inevitability of the plot; the rather overwrought but fitting music is by Alexander Laszlo. And the raven is very very cool. This is what I think of when I hear the term "California gothic".