Humphrey Bogart’s Only Horror Film Is Now Available on Blu-ray
When Humphrey Bogart appeared in the 1939 horror film “The Return of Doctor X” as a scientifically engineered vampire, he already had a couple of dozen movies behind him but was still two years away from becoming a true star with John Huston‘s “The Maltese Falcon.” As a contract player at Warner Bros., the studio that signed Bogart when he came there to reprise his stage role as Duke Mantee in “The Petrified Forest,” the actor was largely subject to the idiosyncratic whims of his bosses, and it was clear that they didn’t quite know what to do with Bogart before Huston got a hold of him.
In 1939 alone, he appeared in a Western “The Oklahoma Kid,” a tearjerking melodrama, and multiple gangster films (“King of the Underworld, “The Roaring Twenties,” etc.). Several of these films are better remembered than “The Return of Doctor X,” but as Bogart’s only horror film, “X” is a fascinating curiosity, and a gorgeous new Blu-ray from Warner Archive provides the best home video presentation it’s ever received — one that really showcases the nuances of Sid Hickox’s richly atmospheric cinematography.
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“The Return of Doctor X” was ostensibly a sequel to Warners’ successful Michael Curtiz film “Doctor X,” but the two movies don’t really have anything in common aside from their title and ghoulish subject matter. Aside from Bogart’s truly weird and wonderful performance, the amazing thing about “The Return of Doctor X” is what a compendium it is of late-1930s styles and tones; it’s a great horror movie, but it’s also a crackling newspaper comedy, a buddy movie in which two opposites pair up to solve a crime, and there’s even a dash of romance — all in a running time of only 62 minutes.
The film’s efficiency is partly the result of an airtight screenplay by Lee Katz — a man better known for his credits as an assistant director than a writer (he would reunite with Bogart as an A.D. on “Casablanca”) — and partly thanks to the energetic direction of first-timer Vincent Sherman, who would go on to helm Warners classics like “Across the Pacific” (another credit for Katz as A.D.), “All Through the Night,” and “The Hard Way.” Sherman sinks his teeth (no pun intended) into the material with gusto, directing the actors at a swift clip to tell the story of a mismatched reporter and doctor who uncover a grim conspiracy of medical experimentation.
Sherman had worked with Bogart as a dialogue director on films like “Crime School,” and he elicits a truly bizarre performance from the actor as a rabbit-stroking, pasty-faced vampire with a white streak in his hair that comes from his electrocution before science resurrected him. Bogart’s initial appearance on screen is a shock to anyone used to seeing him as an insolent, romantic hero in movies like “The Big Sleep” and “To Have and Have Not”; his offbeat appearance and quirky gestures and readings make Xavier a bit like Bogart’s “Longlegs.”
Ironically given the relish with which Bogart seems to lean into his character’s perversities, he didn’t really care for the part and begged Jack Warner to let him out of it. Warner, however, was looking to shake things up and get Bogart out of being typecast as a gangster. (Bogart later said he would have enjoyed playing the bloodsucker more if it was Warner’s blood he was drinking.) Bogart’s discomfort with the role ended up being an asset, as he created a twitchy monster whose unease is infectious and palpable.
“The Return of Doctor X” is genuinely unsettling, but it also blends comedy and horror to great effect so that they complement and never detract from each other; in this regard, it plays like a prototype for something like John Landis’s “An American Werewolf in London.” Sherman’s firm grip on tone enables him to veer from Xavier’s disturbing backstory as a doctor who conducted experiments on starving babies to Hawksian badinage between stars Wayne Morris and Dennis Morgan and detours into romantic comedy without the movie ever feeling inconsistent or jarring; it’s a model of clear, economical storytelling.
It’s also a visual and aural stunner, with an effectively bombastic score by horror maestro Bernhard Kaun (“Frankenstein,” “King Kong,” “The Fly”) and that chiaroscuro-drenched photography by Hickox, who would go on to bigger resources and prestige with “To Have and Have Not” and “White Heat,” among other classics. The movie looks and sounds terrific on Warner Archive’s Blu-ray, worth picking up not only for the top-notch transfer but also for a fantastic archival audio commentary where film historian Steve Haberman interviews a spry 99-year old Sherman. A couple of vintage cartoons and an original theatrical trailer round out the latest essential package from Warners’ boutique label.
“The Return of Doctor X” is now available from Warner Archive.
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