IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM SHELF!

Last year, the Warner Archive Collection released a Blu-ray of the new restoration of Michael Curtiz’s two-strip Technicolor horror Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). That disc made my “Picks of the Year” list. Now, the same team from the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation have worked their restoration magic on Michael Curtiz’s earlier foray into the realm of the macabre, Doctor X (1932). Like Mystery of the Wax Museum, Doctor X was shot using the early two-strip Technicolor process. Unlike three-strip Technicolor and later full-color processes, two-strip Technicolor could not represent a full spectrum of hues. The early process mixed red and green dyes to represent a limited range of colors. The resulting images were a bit weird but eerily beautiful, which made them quite fitting for the horror genre.

As previously stated, Mystery of the Wax Museum was one of my favorite Blu-rays of last year, but the Warner Archive Collection have surpassed that fantastic release with Doctor X. The restoration is just as impressive (if not more so), even though the surviving elements were arguably in worse condition. In addition, the disc includes the complete Black & White version of the film, which was shot simultaneously using different camera angles (and sometimes incorporating alternative takes). The other extras are just as robust as the Wax Museum disc — including two audio commentaries, a documentary, and a restoration “before & after” featurette. There’s more on the disc itself in the “Video” section below, but first, let’s take a look at the actual movie.

The storyline of Doctor X is absolutely wackadoodle, incorporating murder, lunacy (in its “moonstruck” definition), cannibalism, synthetic flesh, and copious amounts of pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo. A series of murders have occurred in consecutive months, aligned with the appearance of the full moon, and hotshot reporter Lee Taylor (Lee Tracy) has been tasked with getting the story. He follows the police to the Academy of Surgical Research run by Dr. Xavier (Lionel Atwill). The good doctor has been assisting the police in examining the victims, all of whom were partially eaten. However, the police aren’t just eliciting the doctor’s help. They also believe that the “Moon Killer” is one of the research scientists at the academy, due to the fact that all of the victims were murdered in the vicinity using a rare surgical scalpel. Doctor Xavier convinces the police to give him 48 hours to conduct his own investigation of his staff. To do so, he gathers Dr. Wells (Preston Foster), Dr. Haines (John Wray), Dr. Duke (Harry Beresford), and Dr. Rowitz (Arthur Edmund Carewe), all of whom seem to be kooks, to his beachside estate to conduct a bizarro psychological experiment. For some reason, Doctor Xavier thinks it’s a good idea to bring his daughter (Fay Wray) along for the outing with the potential murders. Of course, there is one unexpected attendee at the doctor’s estate, reporter Lee Taylor.

While Mystery of the Wax Museum undoubtedly has a stronger story and more accomplished staging (more moving camera and spectacular fire set-pieces), I personally found Doctor X to be the more enjoyable film. The story of a cannibalistic killer is giddily gruesome, and the movie also has an “old dark house” esthetic that I prefer to the more refined look of Wax Museum. The staging by director Michael Curtiz and the German Expressionist-inspired art direction by Anton Grot are spectacular. I especially loved all of the Pre-code touches, from the blood splatters on the doctors’ coats, to the brothel that Lee Tracy’s character visits briefly, to the hideous “synthetic flesh” make-up design on the killer.

Doctor X is notable not only for the early use of color photography. It also features the horror debuts of two icons of the genre, Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray. Doctor Xavier is the type of authority figure that Atwill specialized in (when not playing outright villains), and as expected, he is excellent in this outing. Unfortunately, Fay Wray is given little to do but scream, but she does that often and very effectively. Her lungs would get even more of a workout a year later, when she starred opposite King Kong.

Lee Tracy, who is less known today, was famous at the time for playing fast-talking reporters (after having starred as the original Hildy Johnson in the Broadway production of The Front Page). Some modern audiences find Lee Tracy’s comedy relief a bit too much to take in Doctor X. This is understandable, because the script doesn’t give him much to work with in terms of humorous dialogue. Consequently, his character comes across as the type of wise guy who thinks he’s funnier than he is. Still, Tracy does as good as any actor could with the material he is given. I personally enjoyed him as the audience surrogate. His character is a bit of a prototype for the type of character Bob Hope would play in The Cat and the Canary (1939) and The Ghost Breakers (1940). Of course, Hope had better dialogue.

Doctor X is absolutely bughouse crazy for the entirety of its 76 minutes, and horror-hounds should absolutely love it. Just as importantly, the novelty and beauty of the two-strip Technicolor presentation should not be missed. While black & white is the palette of choice for horror, the unnatural look of two-strip Technicolor, with its sickening green shadows and ghastly red highlights, provides an effective, disquieting feel. Both the movie and the Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray are unusually compelling creatures. They receive my very highest recommendation.

US/C-76m./Dir: Michael Curtiz/Wr: Robert Tasker & Earl Baldwin (based on a play by Howard W. Comstock & Allen C. Miller)/Cast: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy, Preston Foster, John Wray, Harry Beresford, Arthur Edmund Carewe

For Fans of: Lovers of classic horror films will definitely want to add this new Warner Archive Blu-ray to their collections. Doctor X (1932) deserves the same classic status as the better known Universal horrors. It is every bit as bizarre as The Black Cat (1934) and every bit as beautiful as The Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

Video: The UCLA Film & Television Archive, The Film Foundation, and The Warner Archive Collection deserve major kudos for the restoration and Blu-ray release of Doctor X. The disc rescues as horror classic from a 4K scan of its single surviving nitrate Technicolor print. In fact, the color version of the film was thought lost until this print, cobbled together from multiple release prints, was discovered in the early 1980s. A few frames and a couple of lines of dialogue were missing from this near-complete print, but the restoration team was able to reinstate the missing dialogue from the Black & White version that was filmed concurrently. In addition, a few newly-discovered fragments of a second color print helped fill in a few frame jumps. Scratches, speckles, audio pops, and other damage has been digitally removed, and color fluctuations between footage taken from different source prints were balanced to appear seamless.

Balancing the color of two-strip Technicolor prints is tricky, and a lot of care was taken to get the colors just right. As a result, the presentation of Doctor X likely looks better on the Warner Archive Blu-ray than it ever did in theatrical release. All together, the restoration is stunning, and the Warner Archive Blu-ray will almost certainly be mentioned again when I revisit the best discs of the year.

The disc also has an impressive group of special features, including two full-length audio commentaries.  Here’s the full list of extras:

• Alternate B&W version of feature — This was filmed simultaneously with a separate crew with cameras set up at different camera angles. Occasionally, completely different takes are used, most notably in the scenes with Lee Tracy in the skeleton closet. It may be that the closet set was too small to accommodate two film crews at once. It’s nice to have the B&W version included, but the two-strip Technicolor version is the true star of the disc.
• UCLA Before & After Restoration featurette — This is my favorite of the supplements. The before and after film clips really demonstrate how much love and care was put into the restoration of the two-strip Technicolor version of the film.
• New documentary: “Monsters and Mayhem: The Horror Films of Michael Curtiz” — This 28-minute documentary argues effectively that Michael Curtiz was a master of the horror genre, based on his output of Doctor X (1932), Mystery of the Wax Musuem (1933), and The Walking Dead (1936).
• New feature commentary by author/film historian Alan K. Rode
• Archival feature commentary by Scott MacQueen, head of preservation, UCLA Film and Television Archive
• Original B&W Theatrical Trailer
• Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature

Streaming: The new two-strip Technicolor restoration of Doctor X cannot be streamed at this time. A standard definition, unrestored version can be rented or purchased digitally on Amazon and Vudu. I’m guessing that is the Black & White version.

More to Explore: If you haven’t yet checked out the Warner Archive Collection’s Blu-ray release of Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), it is also highly recommended. I’d also suggest pairing Doctor X with another synthetic flesh flick, Sam Raimi’s Darkman (1990).

Trivia: Doctor X is the first feature-length horror film shot in color.

For More Info: Alan K. Rode, who provides one of the audio commentaries on the disc, wrote the definitive book on the director — Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film. For info on legendary scream queen Fay Wray, I recommend, Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir by Victoria Riskin.  Finally, Lionel Atwill: The Exquisite Villain by Neil Pettigrew is the best book on the actor.