Doctor X (1932)

[bigshot]

Screened this last night. Beautiful restoration. The two color Technicolor was used really well. The film is a lot of fun, but it's a really bad script. The dialogue is abysmal and the story is like a goofy melodrama mystery play, with two dimensional characters and ham handed red herrings. They overdubbed the line "Synthetic flesh!" a couple of times to explain why some guy is rubbing mud packs all over his head. Sheesh! Atwell is the only actor with any depth at all. It's interesting how the movie can be so good when the story and acting are bad. It just shows how much a visual director brings to the table. The camera movement and angles are brilliant in this film, and the art direction is great. The visual narrative carries the film completely. Curtiz was a genius.