SYNTHETIC FLESH!

There it is, right on the cover of MONSTER WORLD #8 (May 1966), a full color portrait of the mad fiend to be found in DR. X (1932). MONSTER WORLD, for those who came in late, was a spin-off sister (brother?) publication of the legendary FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. In the mid 1960s, FM was enjoying unprecedented success, so much so that publisher James Warren and editor Forrest J Ackerman decided to launch a companion magazine. MONSTER WORLD was published in between issues of FM, had a lower cover price and fewer pages but it was filled with great articles and photos. Sadly, the magazine only lasted ten issues. 

I know for a fact that it was in the pages of the issue featured above that I first learned of such a film as DR.X. Of course, for years, until I actually saw the film, I was under the mistaken impression that the monster on the cover was Dr. X himself, but that's not the case. 

No, the misshapen monstrosity of a mug depicted on the cover belongs to Preston Foster but to say any more about how he got that way would be to spoil the delights to be found in this early two-color Technicolor, pre-Code horror film. Early Technicolor film certainly had it's limitations but the cinematography here works to the films' advantage with most scenes cast in various shades and hues of orange and green. The lurid, lush green color is particularly atmospheric in this story of the "Moon Killer", a maniac who strikes when the moon is full. 

DR. X has a lot of things going for it in addition to the primitive Technicolor palette. Lionel Atwill is superb in the title role as Dr. Xavier (surely Stan Lee and Jack Kirby saw this film when they were young), the lovely Fay Wray (here sporting her natural brunette hair color),  impressive sets and art direction (some of the sets are towering), nimble camera work by Ray Rennahan that includes several striking high angle shots, mixed with compositions in laboratories that foreground arcane scientific equipment. Preston Foster is good as the monster who craves "synthetic flesh" and the whole thing moves at a good clip under the command of Michael Curtiz. In fact, Curtiz, Atwill and Wray would team up again the following year for THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933), another early Technicolor horror film that served as the inspiration for HOUSE OF WAX (1953).

But a couple of things work against DR. X and they are things that are hard to ignore. First is the screenplay by Robert Tasker and Earl Baldwin. Based on the play THE TERROR (1931) by Howard W. Comstock and Allen C. Miller, DR. X can never quite escape it's origin on the stage. Even though much credit should be given to Curtiz and the crew to try and open up the action, there are several extremely stagy sequences that consist of people standing around talking. 

I could overlook that to some extent because a lot of early '30s films are stagy (see Tod Browning's DRACULA (1931)). But what really grates on me is the performance by Lee Tracy as happy-go-lucky newspaper reporter Lee Taylor. Tracy strains mightily to be funny and perhaps audiences of the time enjoyed his antics and found them a good way to leaven the tension of the rather gruesome goings-on. But from a 2020 perspective, Tracy's schtick comes off as inept and annoying. What's worse, he's the hero of the story, destroying the monster and getting the girl.

Still, DR, X has it's moments of pure pulp horror and for that I commend it and recommend it to all horror aficionados and all of those little boys who stared in wonder at the cover of MOSNTER WORLD #8 and wondered if they'd ever have the chance to see this landmark film.