6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 3.6 |
The New York newspapers have dubbed him "The Moon Killer". He stalks the streets at night, strangling and cannibalizing men and women. There have been six victims so far, and the police believe that a scientist at the Academy of Surgical Research is responsible. Is it Dr. Wells, Dr. Haines, Dr. Rowitz, Dr. Duke or is it Dr. Xavier ("Dr. X"), who runs the academy? Dr. X's young and lovely daughter will be instrumental in solving the crime, as will the hysterical maid and the sinister butler. Our trip through this morbid tale is guided by the wisecracking reporter who will find himself toe-tagged, gassed, tossed around and generally manhandled before the mystery is solved...
Starring: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy, Preston Foster, John WrayHorror | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Michael Curtiz's Doctor X is the first full-length horror movie shot entirely in color, a two-strip Technicolor oddity that also stood as the director's first of three entries in that genre. Yet while it was entirely supplanted by his own Mystery of the Wax Museum the following year, its importance as an early pre-Code production makes it well worth revisiting. And in wonderful color, no less! Beautifully restored by UCLA Film and Television Archive and The Film Foundation, in association with Warner Bros. Entertainment, it marks yet another outstanding Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray that, in addition to the terrific new 1080p presentation, comes fully loaded with a few brand-new bonus features.
Besides for its borderline ridiculous plot, Doctor X's infusion of comedy does it almost no favors... but it does amp up the terrific production design and a few genuine scares, amplified by the film's two-strip Technicolor visuals. Audiences of the day were no doubt horrified to see its gruesome make-up effects and the occasional blood-spattered lab coat, which led to its box office success and an immediate encore crafted by several of the same cast and crew members, Curtiz's superior The Mystery of the Wax Museum. (Even its title theme is recycled!) Incidentally, both were also made for another very specific reason: to finish the studio's contract for two-strip Technicolor pictures, which audiences had mostly grown tired of by the early 1930s -- after early successes with musicals like On With the Show and Gold Diggers of Broadway -- but was put to good use here. The performances are either solid or deliciously campy, chief among them the first horror showing by future scream queen Fay Wray (just one year away from King Kong), who portrays Dr. X's lovely daughter Joanne and is the unwitting bait in his creepy experiments to catch the murderer.
Doctor X is surprisingly effective during key stretches and truly memorable in others... but during at least half of its brief 76-minute
lifespan, it plays out like the blueprint for Scooby-Doo. It's still a pretty enjoyable time at the movies... and what's more, Warner
Archive's stunning new Blu-ray offers some of the most impressive support for a catalog title that I've seen to date. Much like last year's treatment
of The Mystery of the Wax Museum, it combines a terrific new 4K-sourced restoration of original Technicolor nitrate materials with lossless
audio and a terrific collection of mostly new extras -- this time around, there's even a second version of the film included! This one's
already on the short list for 2021's best home video releases in my book, which makes it an absolute no-brainer for die-hard fans.
Doctor X was meticulously restored from a recent 4K scan of the last surviving Technicolor nitrate print, which was famously discovered in Jack Warner's personal collection during the 1970s. As seen in an accompanying restoration featurette, the raw 4K scan of this source was treated to frame-by-frame cleanup with some missing elements filled in from other sources, including a reel of fragments held at the Library of Congress. Additional color balancing and other corrections were used to smooth out its overall consistency, bestowing a level of vibrancy not unlike the restoration for The Mystery of the Wax Museum. Fine detail and contest levels are more than respectable under the circumstances, but two-strip Technicolor films are defined by their very specific red-and-green dominant color palette, which produces satisfying neutral colors and features a soft, almost powdery appearance. Within those narrow boundaries it's another clear winner, as Doctor X looks better than ever on this outstanding 1080p transfer from Warner Archive. Perhaps the best compliment I can give the new transfer is this: its appearance is so fluid, colorful, and satisfying that the occasional missing frames are really jarring -- films that look this good can't be incomplete, can they?
Warner Archive also recently uploaded a half-dozen short videos showing off the new transfer, including the opening sequence in both color and black-and-white, a second clip in color and black-and-white, a segment from the included restoration featurette with comments by Scott McQueen, plus the black-and-white theatrical trailer. Whew!
The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio has been similarly preserved and, like its new restoration, pieced together from multiple sources including the black-and-white version detailed below. This is a great track with almost no perceivable levels of hiss, popping, or crackle, with very clear dialogue and an original score -- partially recycled from Mystery of the Wax Museum -- that likewise comes through clean and clear. It's another sterling restoration job that, while a little thin on the high and still a victim of age-related wear-and-tear, sounds surprisingly crisp and detailed. While it'll undoubtedly stand in the shadow of its new restoration, this lossless audio track has been treated with just as much care.
Optional English (SDH) subtitles are offered during the main feature and select extras.
This Blu-ray ships in a standard keepcase with original one-sheet poster art and several great new extras.
As an aside, it's unfortunate that no new featurette (or even introduction) was created to shed light on these version differences, although some info is provided on at least two of the extras below. However, a fantastic article by Richard Harland Smith offers lots of history and comparisons; it was originally published in Video Watchdog issue #42 in 1997, still available digitally for only $3.99. A highly recommended read!
Michael Curtiz's Doctor X is an uneven but very influential pre-Code horror production that offers clear nods to German expressionist films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Created as Warner Bros.' response to Universal's one-two punch of Dracula and Frankenstein, it unfortunately favors light comedy over horror but does serve up more than a few effective scares, great atmosphere, and the first on-screen scream of Fay Wray. Warner Archive's sterling Blu-ray is basically a companion piece to their own Mystery of the Wax Museum (one of my best discs of 2020) and every bit as satisfying: sporting a top-tier A/V presentation and a fantastic slate of bonus features, this is an absolute home run.
Warner Archive Collection
1933
Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso
1972
Warner Archive Collection
1981
1956
1940
2017
2014
Gritos en la noche / Screams in the Night
1962
Director's Cut
1963
Sei donne per l'assassino
1964
1978
2003
Limited Edition
1980
The Secret of Marrowbone
2017
2017
2014
Communion / Holy Terror
1976
1982
2016
2016