Doctor X

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

An early Warner Brothers horror-comedy, released in 1932.

It follows New York newspaperman Lee Taylor as he covers the investigation of a series of full-moon murders in which victims are strangled, cut with a scalpel, and partially cannibalized. Evidence points to the Academy of Surgical Research, where five scientists—including the director, Dr. Xavier—have remained to continue their research while the students are on holiday.

Desperate to protect the reputation of his institution, Xavier strikes a bargain with the police: he will bring the suspects to his Long Island mansion and monitor their vital signs as they watch staged reenactments of the crimes. If he can discover the killer within 48 hours, his name and the Academy's will not be revealed to the newspapers in connection with the murders.

Lee will have nothing of this. He reports the story anyway, and secretly follows the investigation right to the mansion. Too bad Xavier's daughter, Joanne, already recognizes him . . .

Doctor X was shot in both black-and-white and Technicolor; it was one of the last films to use the two-strip Technicolor process. The color version was believed to be lost until 1978, when a print was discovered in Jack Warner's personal collection. This, in its restored form, is now considered the definitive print, and is[1] the only version to be released on home video.

Tropes used in Doctor X include:

Gentlemen, I am now turning on the hundred-milliampere high-frequency coil. Your pulses are connected with the magnetic rotators, and each variation of your heartbeat reaction is amplified four thousand times. The rotor of the electrostatic machine is connected in multiple series with a bank of glass-plate condensors, and the discharge causes irradiations to the thermal tubes, which, in turn, indicate your increased pulse rate and nerve reactions.


A sequel, The Return of Dr. X, was filmed in 1939. Humphrey Bogart was in it.

  1. to this troper's knowledge