Product Details

• Actors: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy, Preston Foster, John Wray
• Directors: Michael Curtiz
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Warner)
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301966287
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,100 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely the Best!, January 21, 2000

By	"tvrepairman" (USA) - See all my reviews

I must say that this is just amazing. The sets, dialog, atmosphere, and more... This movie is just about the best i have ever seen. Lionel Atwill and the others are fabulous. I love old horror and murder mysteries and this movie does it all. The only thing is, please try to get your copy of this movie in its orig technicolor as it is much better to see than in black and white. It makes the sets and feel of the movie much better. Thanks Norm, it was your review that led me to this movie ! P.S. I agree, Night Monster is another great movie! I love it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A moody and scary horror film, November 1, 2005

By	Stephen H. Wood "Film scholar and vintage mov... (South San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Michael Curtiz' two-color Technicolor DOCTOR X (1932) is a companion piece to his even more scary and ghoulish MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933), which has now officially been remade twice. The movies seem on moratorium, selling through third parties, but show up on Turner Classics. I am reviewing an old videocassette from the UCLA Film and Television Archives.

We have Lee Tracy as a reporter investigating a series of "Moon Killings", killings that take place under a full moon in Depression era Manhattan. The killings all seem to originate in doctor Lionel Atwill's (a good guy for a change) crime institute. Fay Wray, who played the unfortunate victim in WAX MUSEUM (also with Atwill) plays Atwill's likeable daughter and Tracy's love interest this time. Tracy's wisecracking humor and talking to himself helps murderous chills blend with welcome comedy for at least me. The police want to shut Atwill's institute down, but Atwill wants 48 hours to conduct his own investigation. He does that at a truly spooky lab on the edge of a Long Island cliff. The institute members are all bolted to chairs which are bolted to floors as the crimes are reinacted to find out who the killer is, assuming it is an institute member. The movie has a happy ending.

DOCTOR X was filmed in very eerie and effective two-color Technicolor, with lots of pinks and greens. Most prints today are B&W, but Turner Classics shows the movie in color. And prehistoric 1980's videocassette editions are also in color. It is worth seeking out in color, and the Max Factor makeup is really something on the killer in color. ("Synthetic flesh!") Michael Curtiz was one of Hollywood's most neglected directors, working in very possible genre. This and MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM, filmed back to back with Atwill and Wray, are two of his best horror films, and two of the best of the 1930's for me.

Beg Warner Home Video to bring out both of these early 1930's horror gems on DVD so that people do not have to seek out second and third party sources, or Turner Classics, at Halloween time. The effort is worth it.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moo-hoo-hoo-hah-hah-hah!!!, December 14, 2002

By	Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

A delightfully campy MGM horror film, featuring Lee Tracy as a fast-talking news reporter on the trails a moonlight serial killer to a special research academy headed by the lofty Dr. Xavier (Lionel Atwill). An interesting, if uneven, mix of horror and comedy, balancing over-the-top scenery chewing by a truly bizarre collection of mad scientists with Tracy's slapstick interludes. (By the way, is it just me, or does he remind anyone else of Edward Norton?) Fay Wray is completely dishy as Dr. Xavier's sassy, wise-cracking daughter. Best of all, though, is the pioneering early version of Technicolor, which perfectly accentuates the beautiful German-influenced impressionistic cinematography. A fun film, and a total hoot.