Welcome to Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. For me, DOCTOR X is the ultimate thirties horror flick, this is the restored 2-color color version from the UCLA archives that plays on TCM a few times a year. It makes a perfect bookend with Warner Bros. other color feature from 1933, THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM. Both star Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray. The story's about a series of nighttime murders in New York in which the victims are strangled and cannibalized with the use of surgical tools. Newspaperman Lee Taylor investigates one of the murders and the trail leads to the cliffside mansion of Dr. Xavier. There, he witnesses the doctor and his colleagues conducting very strange experiments...
Eegah!! sent over a creepy lil' soundclip for our inspection, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located directly under the atomic stairwell, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our synthetic audio offering for... DOCTOR X!
At the morgue, the police are baffled by the recent series of gruesome murders executed with the precision of a master surgeon! 
That leads detectives to this place, where Dr. Xavier and four of his colleagues are working on the latest advances in medical super science. They are all under suspicion for the murders. 
Fay Wray plays Dr. Xavier's daughter, Joanne. Fay and Lionel were together again a year later in THE VAMPIRE BAT. Lionel lived to the age of 61, Canadian born Fay lived to be 96! 
I'd be a dummkoph swinehund if I didn't show this classic French Art magazine cover, the detectives found it in a doctor's lab! 
Preston Foster plays colleague, Dr. Wells, since his left hand was amputated, the police assume he's incapable of carrying out any of the crimes. 
John Wray plays weirdo, Dr. Haines. 
Arthur Edmund Carewe plays the creepy scarface, Dr. Rowitz. He enjoys his work. 
Harry Beresford is wheelchair bound, Dr. Duke
Lee Tracy plays hard-nosed wise-cracking reporter, Lee Taylor. He sneaks into Dr. Xavier's mansion and starts snooping around and finds a room full of skeletons! 
Dr. Xavier tries to help the police out, using super science to solve the crime! 
We finally learn the horrible truth, Dr. Wells replaces his prostetic hand with one from a nightmare!! What's going on around here?! 
Using this electro magnetic generator, he grafts the hand onto his body! Seriously, this kind of perverted science had to blow a few minds back in 1932. But wait, there's much more!!..
As you can hear in the soundclip, Dr. Wells is totally insane as he relishes using his synthetic flesh to make himself into a terrifying horror from Hell!! 
This suspense filled scene where everyone is helpless to save Joanne from the hideous monster is a real nail biter, talk about good writing and directing, it just doesn't get any better! 
But, just as great is how pugnacious reporter Lee Taylor attacks and has to fight off the super strong Dr. Wells, in order to save Joanne from being strangled. Lee gets pummeled from pillar to post before he charges the monster, knocking it back through a window! He watches as Dr. Wells plummets, burning in flames, to the distant beach below! Lee is one Hell of a man, and, he gets the girl! My last post ended with a similar shot.
2 comments:
fuck yeah I'm so glad you guys are still doing your blogs! halloween is around corner and I overdose on your mp3s around then! keep it up, I can't live without it!
I find Dr. X very re-watchable. The colors and compositions from it seemed to have influenced a lot of horror pulp covers (and early Looney Tunes).
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