Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . in the context of Sam Spade's office or Rick's American Cafe, but it matches Bogie's pasty face and the white shoe polish in his hair for this spoof of FRANKENSTEIN, 1939's THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X. Warner Bros. bravely asks the question, "Why go to all the trouble to winch up an overloaded gurney through a lightning rod-covered castle turret, when the government will electrocute your prospective monster for you, free of charge?" Dr. Francis Flegg feels great sympathy toward Bogart's "Dr. X," who runs afoul of the law simply because his research involves starving random Under Class kids to death at an isolated duck hunters' clubhouse. After all, it's not as if Dr. X murdered the Lindbergh Baby. But since Bogart never was as cute as Casey Anthony, he gets fried. Dr. Flegg revives this monster with "synthetic blood," ignoring the fact that the first syllable of his concoction sounds a lot like "sin." Naturally, Flegg-Enstein's Monster tries to do in his Creator (perhaps because of the Mark of Cain in his hair, which looks just as bad when you spell Cain "Q-U-E-S-N-E"). After viewing 1930s Hollywood flicks such as THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X, it's not hard to see where the Nazi "research doctors" came up with most of their Weird Science ideas.

Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki An actress is murdered in her hotel room, and the body discovered by a news reporter. However, when the body disappears, and the "murder victim" comes back to life, newspaper reporter who covered the murder must find out exactly what is going on. Something having to do with blood-type groupings, but it was difficult to pay full attention to this yawner. Not a horror film at all, but an unsuccessful mix of 1940s glitz and glamour and bad comedy. It is mostly just a chore to sit through, despite some well done cinematography and lighting, probably the only real draw to this film. Well, that, and the opportunity to see mis-cast Bogart with a white stripe through his hair, looking like a zombie skunk.

MikeMagi According to legend, in the late 1930s, studio chief Jack Warner was outraged that Humphrey Bogart was bad-mouthing him at every opportunity. He supposedly called his casting director and said "What's the worst role on the lot for a star?" The answer was the zombie in "The Return of Dr. X." Is the story apocryphal? Who knows? But under contract to Warner Bros., Bogart was forced to play a doctor brought back from the dead. And there has never been a more entertaining revivified corpse. From the moment he appears, stroking an albino rabbit, offering to "discuss hemoglobin" with another medico, he's a pleasure to watch. It's as if he is saying, "Take this, Jack. And thanks for a fun role." The score I've given "The Return of Dr. X" hardly signifies high cinematic art. But simply the enjoyment of watching one of the screen's most charismatic performers turn a routine B horror story into a camp classic.

calvinnme ...and I almost can never say that about post-code sequels to precode movies. This really isn't a horror film - it's more of a mystery. A doctor has a mysterious ashen-faced assistant with a Bride-of-Frankenstein like streak of gray in his hair. The assistant seems to always be lurking about, and even though the doctor would obviously like to get rid of this guy for some reason he does not. On top of that, a young woman turns up on the doctor's doorstep one night with this same ashen appearance. She passes out and the doctor instantly knows what to do to restore her to health. Whatever is going on here? Wise-cracking reporter Walter Barnett is on the trail of the mystery, and although he is no Lee Tracy (Lee Tracy was the reporter in the original) he does a good job. Do note that this is not at all a sequel to the original Dr. X from 1933. In fact I think it's better. I thought the original was slow and somewhat creaky and I've seen far better showcases for the wonderful Lee Tracy than Dr. X. Of course, the real reason to watch this film is that the ashen-faced assistant is played by Humphrey Bogart in one of the many roles he was ordered into by Jack Warner while he watched James Cagney get meatier showcases. I've always liked this one and it's not just because of Bogey.