2. Doctor X
1932
While not one of the most original horror films of the early 1930s, Doctor Xwas one of the most visually unique. Using a two-strip Technicolor process that intentionally gave each image a green tint, Doctor X terrified audiences with weird imagery and a frightening villain. Thematically, the film also provided plenty of scares with a screenplay written by Robert Tasker and Earl Baldwin that includes examples of cannibalism and murder.
Set in a gloomy-looking New York, Doctor X details the exploits of the “Moon Killer,” a raving madman who has been leaving half-eaten bodies all across the city for months. Led by the stereotypically hard-boiled news reporter Lee Taylor (played by Lee Tracy), the investigation begins to focus on Dr. Xavier (played by Lionel Atwill), a mysterious doctor who runs a medical academy alongside his beautiful daughter (played by Fay Wray, who would go on to play the female lead in King Kong just one year later). Initially, Dr. Xavier helps the police with their case, but after one of the murder weapons is traced back to his institution, he immediately becomes the prime suspect.
In the end, the real “Moon Killer” is revealed to be yet another mad scientist who is obsessed with pushing the boundaries of acceptable experimentation. In this case, he carries out his murders in order to collect living samples of human skin, tissue, and bone in order to manufacture something he calls “synthetic skin.”
Like other American horror movies during the Pre-Code era, Doctor X washeavily edited by the British Board of Film Censors. Back home, it was treated with lighter gloves because of a lack of overt sexuality in the storyline.
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