Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Amazing Mr. X Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 27, 2021

A rather interesting (if kind of peculiarly title-less on the disc menu) supplement included on this disc provides a bit of history with regard to so- called "spiritualism", mentioning how in the wake of wars in particular interest in contacting those "on the other side" tends to increase, especially since calamities of that sort often leave families unsure of what might have happened to relatives who went missing in battle. In that regard, it's perhaps salient to note that The Amazing Mr. X was evidently initially released as The Spiritualist in 1948, a year that may have had some distance from the end of World War II (and with the Korean conflict not yet in full "swing", if that's an appropriate term to use in this context), but which was still temporally close enough to the maelstrom to probably evoke similar sentiments in at least some segments of the general populace. The Amazing Mr. X doesn't make any bones about depicting its focal character, a supposed psychic named Alexis (Turhan Bey), as something of a charlatan, but rather interestingly, Alexis turns out to not be the chief villain in a story that sees a distraught widow named Christine Faber (Lynn Bari) who believes the spirit of her dead husband Paul (Douglas Murphy) is attempting to contact her. A felicitous meeting with Alexis seems to provide Christine with a method of "reaching out" to Paul, but what's actually going on is a bit more sinister. The Amazing Mr. X is an above average programmer from Poverty Row studio Eagle-Lion, one with a general sense of competency in the performance arena and frankly also with regard to the overall shape of the screenplay, but what may really excite viewers is the absolutely lustrous cinematography from the iconic John C. Alton, who offers chiaroscuro in abundance, giving The Amazing Mr. X a kind of noir-ish undertone.

There's a probably undeniably ludicrous conceit underlying The Amazing Mr. X, and so those wanting a viewing experience with an ostensible surprise are advised to look quickly away (or at least down to the technical portions of the review). That said, the mere fact that I included an actor's name above in the role of Christine's putatively deceased husband Paul may have indicated to the more discerning reader that, to paraphrase a certain comedy troupe, Paul isn't "quite dead yet". Now, this particular "twist" comes rather late in the tale, which has already introduced Christine and Alexis, who kind of meet cute after Christine thinks she hears Paul's voice one night. And Christine's younger sister Janet Burke (Cathy O'Donnell) has also been added into the mix, and, in one of The Amazing Mr. X's more interesting plot developments, becomes a romantic interest for Alexis (when one might have initially considered Christine to have been the object of his perhaps nefarious attention). While Paul ultimately kind of blackmails Alexis into collaborating him, it's interesting to note that that in turn makes the initial meeting between Alexis and Christine kind of serendipitous in the way only ardent screenwriters can craft.

One of the provocative subtexts to the screenplay by Muriel Roy Bolton and Ian McLellan Hunter (adapting a novel by Crane Wilbur) is that everyone seems to suspect that Alexis is a fraud, but it ultimately doesn't seem to matter much, since a desperate need to believe a loved one who has passed can be contacted is front and center in Janet's psyche. However, the film may hedge its bets presentationally a bit by offering depictions of Alexis that make him a near Mesmerist in terms of his ability to charm women (something that the commentary by Jason A. Ney suggests was true of the actor as well).

The upshot of all of this drama is that it's actually Paul who's the "real" bad guy of the piece, though the lengths he's going to for an assumed fortune seem patently ridiculous when considered within the context of how he's going to explain his miraculous resurrection after a couple of years of being dead when he comes to pick up his inheritance check. What gives this film a rather peculiar power is the simultaneously unfolding quasi-love story between Alexis and Janet, which may have a certain Svengali-like aspect, at least in its early going, but which has a certain almost Gothic flair as well. The film's special effects are kind of goofily enjoyable, given that this was obviously not a hugely budgeted affair.

The Amazing Mr. X Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Amazing Mr. X is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Film Detective with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. As I mentioned in our recent review of The Film Detective's Frankenstein's Daughter, the label's use of an arguably outmoded codec doesn't necessarily spell disaster, and in fact I found the video presentation of Frankenstein's Daughter to be quite good overall. There's a lot to like about this presentation, but it's decidedly less competent looking, and there are some rather strange anomalies that I'm frankly not sure are due to a faulty encode or some baked in problems with the element. Look at screenshots 1 and 8 and if you examine them closely you can see what almost looks like "ghosting" or some kind of lens refraction where, for example, edges of faces are duplicated slightly outside of the main image (look at the noses of Bari and Marlowe in the first screenshot or around the outside of Bey's face in screenshot 8). A more contemporary compression codec might have helped to ameliorate some issues the accrue with the combination of grain, heavy mist and John C. Alton's chiaroscuro cinematography, which can look noisy at times. There's minor but still noticeable damage on display, including the usual suspects like scratches, nicks and white specks and flecks.

The Amazing Mr. X Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Amazing Mr. X features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that shows some the kind of narrowness and shallowness endemic to the film's production era, but which completely adequately supports the film's dialogue and occasionally strident score by Alexander Laszlo. While the track has a certain aged quality, there's really no real damage to report in the form of distortion or dropouts. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

The Amazing Mr. X Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Jason A. Ney


• Ballyhoo Motion Pictures Documentary (HD; 20:27) is how the Special Features Menu on this disc kind of generically labels this feature, which is actually titled Mysteries Exposed: Inside the Cinematic World of Spiritualism, and which is a really interesting piece featuring an assortment of talking heads discussing how spiritualism has been depicted in films through the years.

Additionally, The Film Detective has included an insert booklet with an interesting essay by Don Stradley which focuses largely on Turhan Bey and how perhaps underappreciated Bey has been. Kind of hilariously in that regard, then, the booklet misidentifies Donald Curtis as Bey in one of the photos.

The Amazing Mr. X Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Amazing Mr. X is really a rather interesting film from a number of angles. It defies certain "genre" expectations (even if some might struggle to define exactly what "genre" this film is), and it's notably cynical about both the need for belief and those who might take advantage of that need. While the film's performances are all well done, it's really the style here that may be most memorable, quite a bit of it courtesy of some really gorgeous cinematography by John C. Alton. The Film Detective might consider upping its compression game (is AVC that much more expensive/difficult than MPEG-2) since video quality here is kind of processed looking, but audio is relatively fine and the spiritualism supplement in particular very interesting, for those who may be considering making a purchase.