DOCTOR X (Michael Curtiz, 1932)

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(Directed by Michael Curtiz from a script by Robert Tasker and Earl Baldwin adapted from the stageplay TERROR, by Howard W. Comstock; starring Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy, Preston Foster, Leila Bennett, and George Rosener. Released 03 August 1932; watched 2023w40 via Criterion Channel)

SYNTHETIC FLESH!

My passion for pre-code two-strip technicolor remains intact and, though I view DOCTOR X as the lesser of Curtiz's pre-code, Fay Wray-starring offerings (MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM is a masterpiece – and I prefer it to its 1953 remake), I can't help but love it. Will rewatch WAX MUSEUM before the month is out to cement that opinion – anticipate seeing DOCTOR X as trial run for things mastered in WAX: Atwill (one of my favorite actors) as the scientist; the globby makeup of the killer – SYNTHETIC FLESH!! –; Fay Wray screaming – no one was more luminous than she in two-strip technicolor; the newspaper reporter hero (barely Jimmy Olsen here in contrast to proto-Lois Lane in WAX); the fiery denouement in X being the inciting incident in WAX...

An entertaining romp that, if nothing else, kept me guessing and, unlike WAX MUSEUM, had a psychopath screaming SYNTHETIC FLESH! May revise my opinion accordingly.

DRAKULA HALÁLA (1921)

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While working on a PostScript for my umpteenth rewatch (though first on Blu) of Murnau's NOSFERATU (coming later today), I came across this little bit of lost film gold: NOSFERATU wasn't the first on-screen appearance of Dracula (or litigious analogue) but the second. The first was a Hungarian film, now lost, DRAKULA HALÁLA, (DRACULA'S DEATH), directed by Károly Lajthay.

poster for DRAKULA HALÁLA (1921), a lost Hungarian film featuring the first onscreen appearance of Dracula

The plot - which doesn't follow the plot of the novel but sounds fascinating nonetheless:

A woman experiences frightening visions after being admitted to an insane asylum, where one of the inmates claims to be Drakula. She has trouble determining whether the inmate's visions are real or merely nightmares.

Apparently only a few images, featuring stars Paul Askonas (Dracula) and Margaret Lix (Mary) from the film survive:

An announcement of its release:

As fascinating as all of this is – and it is, utterly, profoundly, for this Dracula nut who grew up making lists of vampire films with his grandfather – it’s who was, along with Lajthay, credited as a writer that floored me:

The film was written by Lajthay and Mihály Kertész who had was also a prominent film director in Budapest and became better known as using the name Michael Curtiz, the director of American productions such as DOCTOR X (1932), MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933) and CASABLANCA (1942).

Now I really, REALLY want to see this – nevermind CASABLANCA: MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM is one of my favorites. And thus, my passion for lost films – tragic and without resolution though it may be – continues...