The second life of Dr. X

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Movie
German title The second life of Dr. X
Original title The Return of Dr. X
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1939
length 62 minutes
Rod
Director Vincent Sherman
script Lee Katz
production Bryan Foy
music Bernhard Kaun
camera Sidney Hickox
cut Thomas Pratt
occupation

The second life of Dr. X is an American horror film about 1939 by Vincent Sherman , who made his directorial debut with this "curious B-Picture ... with Humphrey Bogart in the title role of a zombie-like vampire". The plot is based on the short story "The Doctor's Secret" by William J. Makin, published July 30, 1938 in the publication Detective Fiction Weekly.

action

After reporter Walter Garrett found the body of actress Angela Merrova in her hotel room, he immediately called the police. When it arrives, however, the body has disappeared, and the next day the artist, believed to be dead, appears in Walt's newspaper office and announces that she intends to sue the newspaper that published the story of her death. Confused, Walt visits his friend Dr. Mike Rhodes for an explanation of this strange occurrence. Rhodes refers Garrett to his colleague Dr. Francis Flegg, who insists that Walter must have hallucinated. Rhodes' interest is piqued when he is called to identify the body of Rodgers, one of his patients. Walter Garrett insists that the circumstances of Rodgers' murder must be linked to those of Angela Merrova's alleged killing in the hotel room. That night, Rhodes visits Flegg with a blood sample for him to examine, and while he's in the house, Mike Flegg's assistant, Marshall Quesne, is a rather sinister-looking and bloodless-looking contemporary.

On the trail of the ominous events, Walter follows Dr. Rhodes to his house. When he later sees Angela Merrova entering the building, he persuades Rhodes to visit with him tomorrow. The next day the artist confirmed Walter's observations and promised to go into more detail the next day. However, she mysteriously dies before she can explain herself. While searching through some newspaper articles, Walter comes across a picture of Quesne that depicts him as Dr. Identifies Xavier, an unscrupulous researcher who was once executed for murder. Garrett and Rhodes go to Xavier's grave site and open it, but the grave is empty. One confronts Dr. Flegg with the findings and admits that he brought Xavier back to life as part of an experiment. But now Xavier has turned into a monster and wandered around as a kind of living dead, always looking for the rare type of blood he needed to stay alive. After Garrett and Dr. Rhodes left, Xavier appears at Dr. Flegg, shoots him and takes his blood donation register. Then Dr. X Joan Vance, a nurse who has this very rare blood type and brings it to his laboratory. Walter, Rhodes and the police follow the zombie vampire and arrive just in time to shoot Xavier and save Joan from death.

Production notes

The shooting of The Second Life of Dr. X began on May 24, 1939, and the film premiered on November 23, 1939 in New York City. In the late evening of October 10, 1970, the film was broadcast for the first time on German television (on ARD ).

Warner Bros. bosses Jack L. Warner and Hal B. Wallis also took on the line of production, while Bryan Foy was in charge of production . Esdras Hartley designed the film sets, Milo Anderson the costumes. Make-up artist Perc Westmore was responsible for the make-up.

synchronization

role actor Voice actor
Dr. Maurice Xavier Humphrey Bogart Gerd Martienzen
Walter Garrett Wayne Morris Eckart Dux
Dr. Francis Flegg John Litel Christian Marshal
Pinky Huntz Hall Horst Sachtleben
Detective Ray Kincaid Charles C. Wilson Otto Preuss

Reviews

Frank S. Nugent wrote in the New York Times : “All in all, 'The Return of Dr. See X 'as a happy little movie, where the humorous climax is undoubtedly reached when Wayne and his doctor friend Dennis Morgan exhume something that turns out not to be the Doc and then weirdly exit the hole that the cemetery keeper refills shall be. This is really a very funny scene. "

The Movie & Video Guide stated that "only Humphrey Bogart as a zombie makes this low-class science fiction story worth watching."

In the lexicon of the international film it says: "Horror story from the 30s loosened up by cheerful love scenes, which owes its horror dimension above all to the intense portrayal of Humphrey Bogart."

Halliwell's Film Guide said: "Little thriller that doesn't get going right through to the last act. Only remarkable because of Bogart's appearance as a monster."

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kay Less : The large personal dictionary of films , Volume 7, p. 301. Berlin 2001.
  2. ↑ The second life of Dr. X in the German synchronous file .
  3. ↑ The Return of Dr. X in The New York Times, November 23, 1939.
  4. ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 1084.
  5. ↑ The second life of Dr. X. In: Lexicon of international film . Film service , accessed June 1, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  6. ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 849.

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