30 THEATRICAL TERRORS: Doctor X (Day 1)

Ah, there you are…

Welcome back to The Goods annual

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN!

The first of our 30 films is a fun oldie that features film’s original scream queen. It is also one of your classic pre-code “Mad Scientist” flicks, but this one is special—it was the second Warner Bros. movie to be filmed in the improved Technicolor process that cleaned up the look of film.

DOCTOR X (1932) is the kind of black comedy thriller that reveals itself to the viewer slowly, unwinding it’s suspensful plot and gruesome horrors with the witty observations of it’s star Lee Tracy as he investigates a series of murders that take place under the light of a full moon in the dark canyons of New York City.

I can draw a short and straight line from this movie to one of my favorite shows of all time, KOLCHAK, The Night Stalker. Lee Tracy’s character and Carl Kolchak may as well be the same guy. Playing off the horrors he encounters with gallows humor and goofy bravery, it's the kind of trait that endears one to the viewer.

Before she screeched her way to her position as the original SCREAM QUEEN in the legendary KING KONG, Fay Wray appears here as, Joan Xavier, the daughter of the lead suspect and damsel in distress. She is given the usual moxie as were many lady characters of the day. An attractive lead to challenge the notions and beliefs of the leading man, while representing all that is good in the world.

Now, the last thing you must know about this picture is the villain’s use of a strange scientific development called (and it is the line you’ll be repeating like a mantra for months afterword, gleefully and derangedly shouting it in your head and out loud to strangers passing by):

SYNTHETIC FLESH!!!

Trust me.

When you hear it, you will FEEL it in your bones!

TIME magazine’s review of the film reads, in part: “Doctor X is a routine nightmare […] and is intended for avid patrons of synthetic horror rather than for normal cinemaddicts.”

“There have been weird mysteries before and there will be weird mysteries again, but here is a thriller that will be remembered for years! A new note in exciting entertainment… An afternoon or evening in another world… An adventure in the realms of mystic romance with lovers fascinatingly differet from any you’ve ever kbnown!… A picture guaranteed to be the outstanding love-mystery of all time… portrayed by a remarkable cast that is worth the price of admission alone!”

And, what do you know, here it is for free…

DOCTOR X

in TWO-TONE TECHNICOLOR!