The Return of Dr. Bogart

Few people realize that Humphrey Bogart was in a horror movie - and only one. Or maybe many people do - what do I know? But he was - and it was a sequel. So we watched both the original and the sequel: Hollywood's Legends of Horror Collection: Dr. X/The Return of Dr. X (1932/1939).

Dr. X stars Lionel Atwill as the head of a research center for mad scientists. There have been a string of murders of women killed under a full moon with scalpel and partially cannibalized. Police detective Lee Tracy goes to Atwill’s lab because they use the kind of scalpel the murderer used. Atwill can’t believe his scientists could have done anything like this. They include some of the following: Preston Forster is a cannabilism specialist with a missing hand. John Wray has a sexual attraction to cannabilism. Arthur Edmund Carewe studies the psychological implications of the phases of the moon. And Harry Beresford is just a guy with a beard and a bad attitude in a wheelchair.

To test if one of them is the murderer, they decide to re-create the murder while the scientists are monitored to see if their heart rate gives them away. Since the victims were strangled by two strong hands, Forster is excluded. But the lights go out and the one of the scientist is murdered. Darn.

They plan to try again, but can’t get a woman to play the part (because they are smart). So the mad scientist’s beautiful daughter, Fay Wray, volunteers. And this time, all the scientists, including Atwill, will be handcuffed to the chair. No spoilers for who the killer is or how Lee Tracy saves the day.

By the way, I was just talking about Lee Tracy, who I always get mixed up with Jack Haley and Jack Oakie. Know what I mean?

In The Return of Dr. X, we get a series of murders where the victims were drained of their rare Type 1 blood (I don’t know why they started numbering types with a rare one, but whatever). Reporter Wayne Morris gets his pal Dr. Dennis Morgan to introduce him to mad scientist John Litel, an expert in blood types. There, they meet his assistant, Humphrey Bogart (!). Bogie has a skunk streak in his hair, big round glasses, and assumes the “sissy” manner he used when he was undercover in the bookstore in The Big Sleep. It’s a look, all right.

I’ve got to admit, I sort of fell asleep after this. This is not a good movie, and other than Bogart, I don’t think it has much to recommend it. At least the original had the whole lab full of mad scientists. This one barely has two. On the other hand, the first was in two-strip Technicolor, while the second was good old black and white. So maybe it’s a wash.