THE RETURN
OF DOCTOR X

		Review by E.C. McMullen Jr.
THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X - 1939 USA Release: Dec. 2, 1939 First National Pictures, Warner Bros. Rating: N/A

It was only a few years after the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

So the NAZIs wouldn't be Offended, various countries agreed not to let their Jewish athletes compete.

The benefit to the NAZIs is that they came in first place with the most medals won, followed distantly by the U.S.A. Of the medals won by U.S. athletes, no one individual won more than the four by track star Jesse Owens: a black American who, as he took his victory lap and extended his hand to the host nation, as was tradition, found Adolf Hitler wouldn't so much as look at him.

The U.S. came in second in 1936 and a black man won the most medals!

This had an enormous effect on Hollywood. Heroes who were conniving fast talking half-starved twerps, like the kind an economic depression will produce, were out of style in Hollywood. Audiences demanded All-American beefy looking, square-jawed white jocks.

Like those Germans who kicked our ass!

Whiny wise-mouthed doofs physically built like Adolph, the kind of physical stature actor Lee Tracy created and worked in DOCTOR X, had no place in 1939.

By God we needed White He-Men!

Warner Bros. needed a movie that could cash in on the title without bringing back Lionel Atwill. Lionel achieved leading man superstar status after DOCTOR X and was making one hit after the next for Paramount, Universal, MGM, and numerous other studios which all were decidedly not Warner Bros. Atwill was a money-making machine in an era where studios practically owned actors yet no one owned Lionel.

Why wasn't Lionel under iron-clad contract?

Because he was long in the tooth! The guy hit his stride while in his mid 40s! How on earth does that old fart hold his own and best against our finest stable of handsome young actors?

Warner wasn't going to have fogies leading their movie this time!

... they thought...

THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X opens with the handsome reporter, Walter Garret (Wayne Morris: THE SMILING GHOST). Square shouldered, square-jawed, and with an unremarkable face that presents a boy-next-door look to the world, Walter is nailing down an interview with the famous stage actress, Angela Morova (Lya Lys). Angela is eager to have Walter nail her in an interview and invites him to come over right away.

Sailing out to his rendezvous like the confident, cocky kid he is, the broke but affable and slightly clumsy Walter arrives at Angela's hotel room, falls in through the door, steals a handful of cigarettes from a holder, and discovers her dead body.

Not the way he was hoping things would go.

Instead of calling the cops, he calls his Editor (Joseph Crehan: MYSTERY BROADCAST, BLACK MAGIC, THE BRUTE MAN, DANGEROUS MONEY, DICK TRACEY VS. CUEBALL, DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME) at the newspaper.

After all, this is a Scoop!

Angela's murder makes the morning front page headline. Happy to have found a silver lining to his cloudy day, Walter waits outside of Angela's hotel room the next morning for the cops to arrive (slovenly cops!). Gotta get that follow up story, after all.

Cops aren't happy that Walter is there and soon neither cops or Walter are happy that Angela's body is missing. Did Walter turn in a false report just to grab headlines?

When Walter gets back to work his boss, the editor, wants to see him right away. The editor is infuriated to be sitting in his office with a still living Angela Morova. Not only did he headline a cooked story, but Angela is there with her lawyer suing for defamation of character, and (adjusting for inflation in 2022) she wants over three million dollars.

So Walter's out of a job and just can't figure out how karma could be so cruel and confusing.

He goes to the hospital to seek out his pal, Doctor Michael Rhodes (Dennis Morgan). Because there's just no way Angela could be alive. No Way!

No matter how Walter explains it, Dr. Rhodes insists that he has to be wrong. Obviously. A human can't completely bleed out and be alive the next day. It just isn't happening.

Meanwhile, Dr. Rhodes has to participate in a surgery involving a patient with a rare blood type. The exceedingly rare Type 1.

The hospital has a man on standby who makes his living selling his expensive blood for cases such as this: a patient who shares the same rare blood type.

However, that guy is running too late. As blind luck would have it, the new nurse at the nurse's station, Joan Vance (Rosemary Lane) has Type 1 blood and she would be happy to donate some if it means saving a life.

Insanely lucky considering how extraordinarily rare this blood type is purported to be.

So the transfusion begins and in walks the hospital's blood expert, Dr. Francis Flegg (John Litel: INVISIBLE AGENT, MURDER IN THE BLUE ROOM, FLIGHT TO MARS). He's surprised as anyone that their usual blood donor is not there and even more that they found someone else on the staff that has the rare blood type.

Now so far the movie is entertaining, but not until we're into the 20 minute mark do we reach the star of the show, Kane (Humphrey Bogart).

The switch in gears from an entertaining but curious mystery to a suddenly creepy thriller with Horror clawing on the edge of sanity is entirely due to Humphrey Bogart's quietly threatening demeanor as Kane. He practically shivers with barely contained violence and the thinly disguised malevolence he portrays is unsettling.

At this point, the rest of the movie should have been in Kane's corner, but no. Unemployed reporter, Walter Garrett has a mystery to solve, gang!

The rest of the flick largely deals with Walter and his bud, Dr. Rhodes driving all over town and chasing down clues, yo!

In the plot point freezing cold winter!

In a convertible!

You wait outside in the convertible doll, while we run into the warm building looking for clues. We'll be back in a flash!

Wait, What?

Yes, tagging along with them to wait alone in the car while they run into this, that, or the other place, is none other than nurse Joan - she of the rare type 1 blood - so we can all see where that is going.

As directed by first timer, Vincent Sherman, what RETURN OF DOCTOR X lost in fascinating atmosphere and Mad Scientist Gothic ethos, it makes up for in breezy entertainment value. Even more, Humphrey Bogart (who was forced to take the role and hated it), completely owns his part of Kane (everybody pronounces the name "Kane" or "Caine" but whenever we see it written down it's spelled "Quesne". Who the F knows why?), stealing the show whenever he makes an appearance.

And who, finally, IS Doctor X? Believe it or not, to tell you would be a spoiler.

Three Shriek Girls.

This review copyright 2022 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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