Warner Bros./First National Pictures' DOCTOR X (1932) starring Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray and Lee Tracy is a horror film although it was also promoted as a romantic comedy. Made during the pre-Code Hollywood years, elements such as murder, rape, cannibalism and prostitution are included in the story that the Hays Code would have surely wanted excised. Wray would of course star as Ann Darrow in KING KONG the following year.
Movie heralds were handouts that were an inexpensive way to draw customers to theaters:
Fay Wray studio portrait for DOCTOR X:
DOCTOR X trailer:
DOCTOR X adaptation from BOY'S CINEMA (February 25, 1933):
DOCTOR X filmbook from MONSTER WORLD #8 (May 1966):
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| Cover painting from DOCTOR X by Ron Cobb. |
See my post of THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X HERE.
This is a lurid yet fascinating film to watch. It's pot-boiler that got out of hand and became more than the sum of its parts.
ReplyDeleteLurid is a good term. They threw a kitchen-sink full of unsavory topics into this one.
ReplyDeleteSomewhat downplayed in that trailer, which promises giggles and smiles after the more shocking sequences.
DeleteI'm probably not the first person to wonder if the scene where the other suspects are manacled was an influence upon the rather similar scene in John Carpenter's version of The Thing.
ReplyDelete