BOGART'S BOGEY MAN

When it comes to horror films, the name Humphrey Bogart rarely -- if ever -- comes to mind. Instead, when you hear his name, characters like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe and films like THE MALTESE FALCON and THE BIG SLEEP are more likely to be imagined.

But before Bogie came to legendary status, he starred in a rather obscure 1939 horror film by Warner Bros. called THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X, directed by Vincent Sherman. Bogie was in six other films that year, but this is the one he said that audiences should just as well forget.

“This is one of the pictures that made me want to march to Jack Warner and ask for more money again,” he said. “You can’t believe what this one was like. I had a part that somebody like Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff should have played.”

Bogart was intended to be the name draw for this film, but he took third billing in the credits after Wayne Morris and Rosemary Lane! As Maurice Xavier, Bogart plays a murderous mad doctor who kills his victims with his blood type to keep himself alive

Bogie did maintain a bit of humor when he said about his character, “The only thing that nourished this poor bastard was blood,” he quipped. “If it had been Jack Warner’s blood, maybe I wouldn’t have minded as much. The trouble was, they were drinking mine, and I was making this rotten movie.”

Mexican lobby card.

One sheet release poster.

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