When Humphrey Bogart appeared within the 1939 horror movie “The Return of Physician X” as a scientifically engineered vampire, he already had a few dozen motion pictures behind him however was nonetheless two years away from changing into a real star with John Huston‘s “The Maltese Falcon.” As a contract participant at Warner Bros., the studio that signed Bogart when he got here there to reprise his stage function as Duke Mantee in “The Petrified Forest,” the actor was largely topic to the idiosyncratic whims of his bosses, and it was clear that they didn’t fairly know what to do with Bogart earlier than Huston bought a maintain of him.
In 1939 alone, he appeared in a Western “The Oklahoma Child,” a tearjerking melodrama, and a number of gangster movies (“King of the Underworld, “The Roaring Twenties,” and so on.). A number of of those movies are higher remembered than “The Return of Physician X,” however as Bogart’s solely horror movie, “X” is an interesting curiosity, and a beautiful new Blu-ray from Warner Archive gives the very best house video presentation it’s ever acquired — one that actually showcases the nuances of Sid Hickox’s richly atmospheric cinematography.
“The Return of Physician X” was ostensibly a sequel to Warners’ profitable Michael Curtiz movie “Physician X,” however the two motion pictures don’t actually have something in widespread other than their title and ghoulish material. Except for Bogart’s really extraordinary efficiency, the wonderful factor about “The Return of Physician X” is what a compendium it’s of late-Thirties kinds and tones; it’s an amazing horror film, nevertheless it’s additionally a crackling newspaper comedy, a buddy film by which two opposites pair as much as resolve against the law, and there’s even a splash of romance — all in a operating time of solely 62 minutes.
The movie’s effectivity is partly the results of an hermetic screenplay by Lee Katz — a person higher recognized for his credit as an assistant director than a author (he would reunite with Bogart as an A.D. on “Casablanca”) — and partly due to the energetic route of first-timer Vincent Sherman, who would go on to helm Warners classics like “Throughout the Pacific” (one other credit score for Katz as A.D.), “All By means of the Night time,” and “The Laborious Method.” Sherman sinks his tooth (no pun meant) into the fabric with gusto, directing the actors at a swift clip to inform the story of a mismatched reporter and physician who uncover a grim conspiracy of medical experimentation.
Sherman had labored with Bogart as a dialogue director on movies like “Crime College,” and he elicits a really weird efficiency from the actor as a rabbit-stroking, pasty-faced vampire with a white streak in his hair that comes from his electrocution earlier than science resurrected him. Bogart’s preliminary look on display screen is a shock to anybody used to seeing him as an insolent, romantic hero in motion pictures like “The Massive Sleep” and “To Have and Have Not”; his offbeat look and quirky gestures and readings make Xavier a bit like Bogart’s “Longlegs.”
Paradoxically given the relish with which Bogart appears to lean into his character’s perversities, he didn’t actually look after the half and begged Jack Warner to let him out of it. Warner, nevertheless, was seeking to shake issues up and get Bogart out of being typecast as a gangster. (Bogart later stated he would have loved enjoying the bloodsucker extra if it was Warner’s blood he was ingesting.) Bogart’s discomfort with the function ended up being an asset, as he created a twitchy monster whose unease is infectious and palpable.
“The Return of Physician X” is genuinely unsettling, nevertheless it additionally blends comedy and horror to nice impact in order that they complement and by no means detract from one another; on this regard, it performs like a prototype for one thing like John Landis’s “An American Werewolf in London.” Sherman’s agency grip on tone allows him to veer from Xavier’s disturbing backstory as a health care provider who carried out experiments on ravenous infants to Hawksian badinage between stars Wayne Morris and Dennis Morgan and detours into romantic comedy with out the film ever feeling inconsistent or jarring; it’s a mannequin of clear, economical storytelling.
It’s additionally a visible and aural stunner, with an successfully bombastic rating by horror maestro Bernhard Kaun (“Frankenstein,” “King Kong,” “The Fly”) and that chiaroscuro-drenched images by Hickox, who would go on to larger sources and status with “To Have and Have Not” and “White Warmth,” amongst different classics. The film seems and sounds terrific on Warner Archive’s Blu-ray, value choosing up not just for the top-notch switch but additionally for a incredible archival audio commentary the place movie historian Steve Haberman interviews a spry 99-year outdated Sherman. A few classic cartoons and an authentic theatrical trailer spherical out the most recent important package deal from Warners’ boutique label.
“The Return of Physician X” is now obtainable from Warner Archive.