# Doctor X (film)

Doctor X is a 1932 film about a reporter who investigates a series of cannibalistic murders at a medical college.
    Directed by Michael Curtiz. Written by Earl Baldwin and Robert Tasker, based on the play The Terror by Howard W. Comstock and Allen C. Miller.

## Dr. Jerry Xavier

* Now, it is my theory, that one of us in the past, through dire necessity, was driven to cannibalism. The memory of that act was hammered like a nail into the mind of that man. Shrewd and brilliant, he could conceal his madness from the human eye, even from himself... but he can't conceal it from the eyes of the radio sensitivity.

## Dr. Rowitz

* It affects strangely certain neurotic types. Yes, the moon is powerful. Why, twice a day it lifts billions of tons of water at high tide that wash the shores of the world, like an eternal old scrubwoman.

## Dialogue

    Dr. Haine: Professor, since we retired this body has been... It has been...
    Dr. Jerry Xavier: I know, but I don't want her to know.
    Lee Taylor: Are you going swimming with me in the morning?
    Joanne 'Joan' Xavier: No thanks. Good night.
    Lee Taylor: What will you do if I start to sink and yell for help?
    Joanne 'Joan' Xavier: Throw you an anvil. Good night!
    Police Commissioner Stevens: What's your theory of the killer?
    Dr. Jerry Xavier: A neurotic, of course. Some poor devil suffering from a fixation.
    Police Commissioner Stevens: A fixation? What do you mean?
    Dr. Jerry Xavier: A knot or kink tied in the brain by some past experience. A madness that comes only at certain times when the killer is brought in direct contact with some vivid reminder of the past.
    Police Commissioner Stevens: [chuckling] It's hard to believe that.
    Dr. Jerry Xavier: Yes, for a policeman I suppose it is. But I tell you that locked in each human skull is a little world all its own.
    Dr. Jerry Xavier: Good evening, Professor Duke, how are you feeling tonight?
    Dr. Duke: Horrible.
    Dr. Jerry Xavier: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.
    Dr. Duke: Well, if it makes you feel sorry to hear things like that, then don't ask questions!
    Dr. Haines: If you ask me, I think Dr. Xavier is using very unethical methods.
    Dr. Rowitz: Necessity has no ethics, sir.
    Lee Taylor: Listen, I wanna get off this story. Put me back on crossword puzzles, covering woman's clubs, anything, will you?
    Daily World Editor: Say, what's the matter with you?
    Lee Taylor: What's the matter with me? Nothing at all. Only I spent all last night laying next to a bunch of stiffs, looking at a lot of goofy guys. I let a dame poke a gun in my stomach, and then I let a dumb policeman slip me a trick cigar.
    Daily World Editor: Say, you want to draw another paycheck, don't you?
    Lee Taylor: Certainly, that's my aim in life, but I'd like to keep out of the bughouse to enjoy it.
    Police Commissioner Stevens: You're an astronomer, Doctor?
    Dr. Rowitz: Not that, sir. I have an interest in the light qualities of the moon. If you might suffer sunstroke, might you not suffer some similar evil - from the rays of the moon?
    Police Commissioner Stevens: Moonstruck, you mean?
    Dr. Rowitz: Exactly, what we call lunacy, from the word luna, meaning the moon. Latin, you know. However, the luna rays will never affect you or me, sir; because, we are normal people.
    Lee Taylor: The public want to read about it. The more sensational it is, the more the son-of-a-guns love it.
    Joanne Xavier: Is that all you think about? Sensationalism? Don't you ever think about people's feelings?
    Dr. Jerry Xavier: I want every one of you to submit to a psycho-neurological test. An experiment that I have devised, which I hope will prove each one of us innocent.
    Dr. Rowitz: But, if it should prove otherwise?
    Dr. Jerry Xavier: Well then, my dear doctor, surely one's own... "farewell to life"... is preferable to that demanded by the law.
    Dr. Wells: Dr. Xavier is still working on his theory that strong mental repressions, phobias hidden in the darkest corners of the subconscious mind, can be brought to the surface and made to register, through certain reactions of the heart. Am I correct, professor?
    Dr. Jerry Xavier: Precisely. And tonight I hope to prove my theory.

## Taglines

* There have been weird mysteries before and there will be weird mysteries again, but here is a thriller that will be remembered for years! A new note in exciting entertainment... An afternoon or evening in another world... An adventure in the realms of mystic romance with lovers fascinatingly different from any you've ever known!...A picture guaranteed to be the outstanding love-mystery of all time...portrayed by a remarkable cast that is worth the price of admission alone!
* Mightier than words can describe!
* Out-Thrills Them All!

## Cast

* Lionel Atwill — Dr. Jerry Xavier
* Fay Wray — Joanne Xavier
* Lee Tracy — Lee Taylor
* Preston Foster — Dr. Wells
* John Wray — Dr. Haines - Academy of Surgical Research
* Harry Beresford — Dr. Duke - Academy of Surgical Research
* Arthur Edmund Carewe — Dr. Rowitz - Academy of Surgical Research
* Leila Bennett — Mamie, Dr. Xavier's maid
* Robert Warwick — Police Commissioner Stevens
* George Rosener — Otto, Dr. X's butler
* Willard Robertson — Detective O'Halloran
* Thomas Jackson — Daily World editor
* Harry Holman — Mike, waterfront policeman
* Mae Busch — Madam
* Tom Dugan — Sheriff

## External links

* Doctor X quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Doctor X at Allmovie