Amazing and Tormented

The Amazing Mr. X (1948) is amazing. There is, however, no real Mr. X.

It stars Linda Bari, a wealthy widow living in a mansion by the sea. She is just about ready to move on from her husband, and possibly accept the attentions of her neighbor, Richard Carlson. She walks across the beach, the same beach her wonderful impetuous husband used to run down to with her. There, in the crashing waves, she hears her calling her name. Then she runs into Turhan Bey.

Bey is a spiritualist who knows who she is, who her husband was, and all the little irritating habits her neighbor has. Then he vanishes, but not before he gives her his card, identifying him only as Alexis, spiritualist.

She begins to feel haunted by apparitions (just like in The Awakening!). Her sister, Cathy O'Donnell, tries to explain it away. Finally. she goes to visit Bey in his haunted mansion, where the doors open spookily - which he laughs off as an effect to impress the rubes. He offers to help, but you have to wonder: Is he real or phony?

SPOILER - he is phony. Bari's maid is his confederate, and it's all a ruse. But then, at a seance, Bari's husband really does appear, playing Chopin on the piano like he always has. I won't spoiler the rest, but it's a doozy.

But for us, the most amazing thing is the parallels between this movie and the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Bert I. Gordon classic, Tormented. First, there's Richard Carlson, the neighbor, playing the milquetoast "second husband" role. He was the famous "Tom Stewart killed me!" in Tormented. Who was a pianist, just like Bari's husband. Of course, both movies are ghost stories, and both feature lots of crashing waves. What a treat, after seeing Winky, to get to see Tom Stewart!

For non-MST3K fans, the big draw for this will be the mysterious and exotic Turhan Bey. It's easy to see how Bari's sister would fall in love with him, even after he's exposed as a fraud. Bari is good as well, very classy. Altogether, a superior B-movie.