DOCTOR X (1932). Colorized.

Doctor X is a 1932 American pre-Code mystery horror film produced jointly by First National and Warner Bros. Based on the 1931 play originally titled The Terror by Howard W. Comstock and Allen C. Miller, it was directed by Michael Curtiz and stars Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray and Lee Tracy.

Doctor X was produced before the Motion Picture Production Code was enforced. Themes such as murder, rape, cannibalism and prostitution are interwoven into the story. The film was one of the last produced, along with Warner Bros.' subsequent Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), in the early two-color Technicolor process. Separate black-and-white prints were shipped to small towns and foreign markets, while color prints were reserved for major cities.

In the film, there are a series of murders in New York City. Each murder takes place under the full moon, and each body has been cannibalized post-mortem. Dr. Xavier is asked to provide his medical insight into the crimes, though the police actually suspect him and other people in Xavier's medical academy. The Moon Killer is conducting his own experiments, in an attempt to collect samples from his victims.

PLOT:
Daily World newshawk Lee Taylor is investigating a series of pathological murders that have taken place over a series of months in New York City. The murders always take place at night, under the glow of a full moon, and each body has been cannibalized after the murder. Witnesses describe a horribly disfigured "monster" as the killer.

Doctor Xavier is called in for his medical opinion, but the police have an ulterior motive. They want to investigate Xavier's medical academy, as the brain scalpel used to cannibalize the bodies of the victims is exclusive to that institution. Aside from Xavier, the other suspects are: Wells, an amputee who has made a study of cannibalism; Haines, who displays a sexual perversion with voyeurism; Duke, a grouchy paralytic; and Rowitz, who is conducting studies of the psychological effects of the moon.

The police give Xavier 48 hours to apprehend the killer in his own way. During this time, reporter Taylor investigates the doctor's intentions and in the process, meets Joanne Xavier, the doctor's daughter. Joanne is exceedingly cold to Taylor, particularly after finding out that it was his story that pointed a finger at her father and ruined his first attempt at locating the killer. Taylor takes a romantic interest in Joanne, despite her hostility.

At Dr. Xavier's beach-side estate, all of the suspects gather for an unorthodox experiment. Each member is being investigated except Wells, because the killer has two hands and Wells has but one. Each man is connected to an electrical system that records his heart rate. When a re-enactment of the murder of the cleaning woman appears before them, the detector will expose the guilty man. Dr. Xavier's butler and maid, Otto and Mamie, carry out the reenactment.

During the experiment, a blackout occurs. When power is regained, it is discovered that Rowitz, whose monitor supposedly revealed him as the guilty party just before the blackout, has been murdered by use of a scalpel to the brain. Later that night, it is discovered that Rowitz's body has been cannibalized.

The following evening, Xavier asks Otto and Mamie to re-enact another of the murders. Mamie is too frightened to play her part, so Joanne takes her place. All of the men, save for Wells, are this time handcuffed to their seats, and the doors locked to keep Wells at the recording cabinet.

During the experiment, Wells sneaks into a secret laboratory where he transforms himself with "synthetic flesh" into the monstrous Moon Killer. After strangling Otto, Wells reveals to his horrified colleagues that he has been committing the murders to collect living samples of human flesh for his experiments. He declares his intention to collect Joanne as his victim.

As Wells is about to strangle Joanne, Taylor – concealed among a series of wax figures representing the killer's victims – jumps Wells. After an extended fight, Taylor hurls a kerosene lamp at Wells, setting him on fire. Wells crashes through a window and falls down a cliff in flames to the ocean shore below. Reporting his story into the paper, Taylor tells his editor to make space in the marriage section for Joanne and himself.

CAST:
Lionel Atwill as Dr. Jerry Xavier, a "Mad Scientist"
Fay Wray as Joanne Xavier, Dr. Xavier's Daughter
Lee Tracy as Lee Taylor, Daily World reporter
Preston Foster as Dr. Wells, Academy of Surgical Research
John Wray as Dr. Haines, Academy of Surgical Research
Harry Beresford as Dr. Duke, Academy of Surgical Research
Arthur Edmund Carewe as Dr. Rowitz, Academy of Surgical Research
Leila Bennett as Mamie, Dr. Xavier's maid
Robert Warwick as Police Commissioner Stevens
George Rosener as Otto, Dr. X's butler
Willard Robertson as Detective O'Halloran
Thomas Jackson as Daily World editor
Harry Holman as Mike, waterfront policeman
Mae Busch as Madam
Tom Dugan as Sheriff
Selmer Jackson as Willard Keefe, Daily World night editor (uncredited)
Plot
In Britain in the early 1900s,[a] recently widowed Mrs. Lucy Muir moves to the seaside village of Whitecliff despite the disapproval of her in-laws. She rents a house there named Gull Cottage, although it has a reputation for being haunted by the former owner, who committed suicide.

On the first night after moving in with her young daughter, Anna, and her loyal maid, Martha, Lucy is disturbed by apparitions, but she stands resolute and demands the ghost show himself. The ghost, a roguish sea captain named Daniel Gregg, manifests. He tells Lucy that his death four years ago was not a suicide, but the result of accidentally kicking the valve on a gas-fired room heater in his sleep. Daniel explains that he wants to turn Gull Cottage into a home for retired seamen, thus why he has been frightening away tenants. However, due to Lucy's headstrong attitude, as well as her appreciation of the house, Daniel reluctantly agrees to allow her to live in Gull Cottage and promises to make himself visible only to her.

Lucy's investment — her only source of income — has dried up, and her in-laws say she has no choice but to move back to London. However, Daniel has warmed up to her and asks her to stay. They decide to write a book, a dictation of his memoirs from his time at sea, from which she will profit. During the course of writing the book, they fall in love. Both realize it is a hopeless situation, and Daniel tells Lucy that she should find a living man to be with. In London, Lucy goes to meet a publisher and encounters Miles Fairley, a suave author who writes children's books under the pen name Uncle Neddy. The publisher agrees to publish Daniel's lurid and sensational recollections, titled Blood and Swash, providing Lucy with an advance which she uses to buy Gull Cottage.

Fairley follows her back to Whitecliff and they begin a whirlwind courtship. Though initially jealous of their relationship, Daniel decides to leave, as he considers himself an obstacle to Lucy's chance at happiness. While she is asleep, he places in her mind the suggestion that she alone wrote the book and his presence was merely a dream. He fades away after declaring his regret that he never had a life with her.

Fairley cancels a planned visit to Gull Cottage, saying he will be in London for a few days. Lucy visits London to sign a contract, and obtains Fairley's address in the city from the office clerk to pay a surprise visit. She discovers that Fairley is already married with two children, and Mrs. Fairley tells her she has caught him in extramarital affairs before. Heartbroken, Lucy returns to Whitecliff to spend the rest of her life as a recluse, with Martha looking after her.

Anna goes to university and returns with a Royal Navy lieutenant she plans to marry. Mrs. Fairley grows fed up with her husband's philandering, divorces him, and takes full custody of their children. Anna reveals to her mother that she too saw Daniel, whom she regarded as a childhood crush, meaning Daniel broke his promise to Lucy not to show himself. Anna argues that Daniel must be real since they both saw him, but Lucy reasons it is more logical to conclude that she transmitted her delusion to Anna through her stories than to believe in ghosts.

Many years later, Lucy is now ailing and under a doctor's care, and Anna's daughter (also named Lucy) is engaged to a plane captain. Anna believes that affection for captains runs in their family. Lucy rejects the glass of hot milk Martha has brought for her with a complaint that she is tired. After Martha leaves the room, Lucy dies. Daniel returns and approaches her, whispering that she will never be tired again. Taking his hands, her young spirit leaves her aged body and greets him with a loving smile. Unnoticed by Martha, the couple leave the house and walk arm-in-arm into an ethereal mist.