Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

meddlecore A down-and-out, practical joking, reporter (who tends to end up the butt of other people's jokes) is on the hunt for the true identity of the cannibalistic Full Moon Killer.The police believe the culprit is working for, or a student of, the local medical research academy. But the doctor in charge seems to be trying to divert their attention elsewhere. However, they agree to let him run an internal investigation, so that the academy doesn't get a bad wrap in the papers.Little did they suspect, they'd reveal the killer in their midst...This film is crazy for a film from the 1930's. Not only is it in colour (well, it was made in both black and white (for rural areas) and colour (for metropolitan areas)...and the colour version was thought to be lost, until it was rediscovered in the personal archives of Jack Warner, after his death in the 1950's).It's apparently also pre-code (meaning it was made before the MPPC moral guidelines- dictating what could be shown by Hollywood- kicked in, in 1930), and was released before the code became rigorously enforced (around 1934).As such, it contains themes of, and references to, cannibalism, drug/alcohol use, mad scientific theories, brain stabbing...and, at one point, even implies suggested necrophilia, though it's really just corpse desecration...The characters are great too! My favourite is the mad doctor who fakes being a cripple, and fears "moonburn". He calls out the one dude for slut-shaming Fay Wray (who is a f*cking babe, by the way)! The journalist provides a comedy vibe, that is carried throughout the film (which is quite funny). And the special effects used during the monster transformation sequence are pretty damn impressive! The set design and mise-en-scene are also cool.Probably one of the best American films from the 1930's I've ever seen!!! 6.5 out of 10.

Antonius Block Oof. Not a good one, even for the camp value. The premise is interesting enough: a "Moon Killer" is on the loose, murdering and surgically cutting off portions of his victims. This leads police to Dr. Xavier and his assistants, all of whom become suspects, and the laboratories these men use have all the requisite special effects circa 1932. The biggest problem with the film is Lee Tracy, who plays a snooping newspaper reporter who clowns around, makes lame jokes, and repeatedly uses an asinine hand buzzer. The film is quite tedious to sit through, and several scenes seem elongated or 'filler' even for a total run time of 77 minutes. Another issue is that despite the use of darkness, shadows, and ominous faces, there really is no tension. The film is predictable and character motivations are absurd, so that even if you suspend disbelief and accept Dr. Xavier's theory about detecting the killer through an elaborate experiment measuring anatomical reaction, you still end up thinking, man, this is so stupid. At least I did anyway. I'm surprised others find it 'creepy' - even the slathering on of "synthetic flesh" does not produce a reaction of horror, as other great films in this genre will. Silly and annoying right up to that last scene at the end.

binapiraeus When Warner Brothers made their first two-color Technicolor talkie in 1932 on a VERY high budget, they took an enormous risk (Douglas Fairbanks had taken that risk already 6 years before with the FIRST - silent - Technicolor movie ever; but it was a great box office hit, of course, since it was one of his great swashbucklers) - especially since they chose the horror genre for their venture. Since Universal's horror movies were great hits at the time, they decided to make their color movie a horror movie as well; but not the good old-fashioned vampire superstition Gothic horror, but a NEW kind of horror in every sense of the word: the 'scientific' horror - and of course, there's a big potential of horror in that field as well...For some time, dreadful "Moon Murders" have been going on, where the victims are all literally being cannibalized and pieces of flesh cut out of their bodies with surgery instruments - and they all happen near the isolated house of Dr. Xavier, who has turned it into a laboratory where he and his colleagues work on various strange experiments... And cheeky (or at least, seemingly cheeky) young reporter Lee Taylor (Lee Tracy, who's setting the standards here for the typical 30s' movie reporters whom we all know and love so well) is determined to investigate in that curious 'lion's den' with skeletons, bubbling chemical substances and a bunch of weird scientists...At the same time, he still finds an opportunity to flirt with Xavier's pretty daughter Joanne (Fay Wray, who would co-star with her 'father' Lionel Atwill in another two very successful horror movies, "The Mystery of the Wax Museum" and "The Vampire Bat") - and eventually, when during a criminological experiment that Doctor X. arranges in order to find the murderer she gets into mortal danger, he gets the chance to prove his 'heroism'; but will he really be able to do so??This 'new' kind of horror proved VERY successful as a movie, highly suspenseful and yet at the same time entertaining, particularly well directed by Michael Curtiz, with a superb cast - and of course those fantastic colors that must have seemed like a miracle to the audience back then. And so it became a smash hit at the box office - and remains one of the very greatest horror classics until this day.

McQualude Doctor X isn't the story of just one but five mad scientists, all complete with mad scientist laboratories: simmering flasks, bubbling beakers, sizzling Jacob's Ladders, popping power breakers & crazy theories. Director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, Captain Blood, Yankee Doodle Dandee) uses shadow effectively to throw us red herrings, cast menace and provide a rich atmosphere. Lionel Atwill is Doctor X (Xavier), owner of a seaside mansion that is home to four more great scientists happily working away until a series of murders throws suspicion on the gaggle of geeks. Lee Tracy is a newspaper reporter with a fondness for practical jokes (hand buzzer, exploding cigars) looking for a scoop and determined to do anything to get it. Fay Ray is Joanne Xavier, Doctor X's daughter. Here she is strong, determined, confident and independent; although still gets some opportunities to exercise her exquisite screams. Fay Ray could display an unmatched sensuous vulnerability that played so well in King Kong and which we get to see for a few seconds near the end of Doctor X. The downside is that the story is preposterous, sometimes goofy and has trouble deciding if it wants to be a comedy or suspenseful thriller. Doctor X, determined to prevent bad press, rigs a silly experiment to find the killer himself and when the experiment goes fatally wrong, decides to up the ante and do it again. What I found implausible is that the other scientists would risk their lives, again, and that Doctor X would risk his daughter's life without adequate precautions but that is what happens. In a dark comedy this would work but here it just seems silly. Lee Tracy's many scenes of practical jokes not only drags the pace but seem out of place against the otherwise dark and serious tone.