Doctor X (film)
''Doctor X'' is a 1932 American Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code Mystery film, mystery horror film produced jointly by First National Pictures, First National and Warner Bros. Based on the 1931 play originally titled ''The Terror'' by Howard W. Comstock and Allen C. Miller, it was directed by Michael Curtiz and stars Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray and Lee Tracy. ''Doctor X'' was produced before the Motion Picture Production Code was enforced. Themes such as murder, rape, cannibalism and prostitution are interwoven into the story. The film was one of the last produced, along with Warner Bros.' subsequent ''Mystery of the Wax Museum'' (1933), in the early Technicolor#Process 3, two-color Technicolor process. Separate black-and-white prints were shipped to small towns and foreign markets, while color prints were reserved for major cities. Plot ''Daily World'' newshawk Lee Taylor is investigating a series of pathological murders that have taken place over a series of months in New York City. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz ( ; born Manó Kaminer; since 1905 Mihály Kertész; hu, Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed classic films from the silent era and numerous others during Hollywood's Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age, when the studio system was prevalent. Curtiz was already a well-known director in Europe when Warner Bros. invited him to Hollywood in 1926, when he was 39 years of age. He had already directed 64 films in Europe, and soon helped Warner Bros. become the fastest-growing movie studio. He directed 102 films during his Hollywood career, mostly at Warners, where he directed ten actors to Oscar nominations. James Cagney and Joan Crawford won their only Academy Awards under Curtiz's direction. He put Doris Day and John Garfield on screen for the first time, and he made stars of Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Bette Davis. He himself ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Horror Film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apocalyptic events, and religious or folk beliefs. Cinematic techniques used in horror films have been shown to provoke psychological reactions in an audience. Horror films have existed for more than a century. Early inspirations from before the development of film include folklore, religious beliefs and superstitions of different cultures, and the Gothic and horror literature of authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley. From origins in silent films and German Expressionism, horror only became a codified genre after the release of ''Dracula'' (1931). Many sub-genres emerged in subsequent decades, including body horror, comedy horror, slasher films, supernatural horror and psychological horror. The genre has been produ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Mae Busch
Mae Busch (born Annie May Busch; 18 June 1891 – 20 April 1946) was an Australian-born actress who worked in both silent and sound films in early Hollywood. In the latter part of her career she appeared in many Laurel and Hardy comedies, frequently playing Hardy's shrewish wife. Early life and career Busch was born in Melbourne, Victoria to popular Australian vaudeville performers Elizabeth Maria Lay and Frederick William Busch. Her mother had been active since 1883 under the stage names Dora Devere and then Dora Busch; she toured India with Hudson's Surprise Party and toured New Zealand twice. They continued to tour with various companies with short breaks when their two children were born, Dorothy in 1889 (who lived for only four months) and Annie May in 1891. Following a concert tour of New Zealand, the family left for the United States via Tahiti. They departed on 8 August 1896 and arrived in San Francisco at the end of 1896 or in early 1897. While her parents were touri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Harry Holman
Harry James Holman (March 15, 1862 – May 3, 1947) was an American character actor. He appeared in approximately 130 films between 1923 and 1947. Biography Born in Conway, Missouri, Holman dropped out of school in the ninth grade and began seeking work as an actor. In films from at least 1930, he played "a vast array of mayors, justices of the peace, attorneys, millionaires and sugar daddies". He is best known to modern audiences as the desperate Professor Richmond who tries to transform the uncouth Three Stooges into gentlemen in the film ''Hoi Polloi'' (1935). He also played frequently in the films of director Frank Capra, for example as the mayor in ''Meet John Doe'' (1941) and as the befuddled high school teacher Mr. Partridge in ''It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946)''. On Broadway, Holman portrayed Wilson Prewitt in ''The County Chairman'' (1903) and Caesar Augustus Miggs in ''Ruled Off the Turf'' (1906). Holman performed in vaudeville, heading the Harry Holman Comed ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Thomas Jackson (actor)
Thomas E. Jackson (July 4, 1886 – September 7, 1967) was an American stage and screen actor. His 67-year career spanned eight decades and two centuries, during which time he appeared in over a dozen Broadway plays, produced two others, acted in over a 130 films, as well as numerous television shows. He was most frequently credited as Thomas Jackson and occasionally as Tom Jackson or Tommy Jackson. Life and career A native of New York City, Jackson began his career as a child actor in Broadway productions at the age of twelve, in the production ''The Ragged Earl'', which had a short run at the Academy of Music in 1899. He appeared in several more productions as a youth over the next four years, before taking a ten-year absence from the stage. He returned to the theater in 1913, where he remained until the end of the 1920s, appearing in or producing a dozen plays. His last stage performance was in the hit play ''Broadway'', directed by George Abbott and Philip Dunning, which ra ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Willard Robertson
Willard Robertson (January 1, 1886 – April 5, 1948) was an American actor and writer. He appeared in more than 140 films between 1924 and 1948. He was born in Runnels, Texas, and died in Hollywood, California. Biography Robertson first worked as a lawyer in Texas, but he left his profession for a sudden interest in acting after being encouraged to do so by Joseph Jefferson. Robertson's initial venture onto the stage did not last, however. He returned to the practice of law as an attorney with the Interstate Commerce Commission. During World War I, he was an administrator in the Chicago office of the federal railway police. He appeared on Broadway in 16 plays between 1907 and 1930. Robertson played supporting roles in many Hollywood films from 1930 until the year he died, typically portraying men of authority such as doctors, elected officials, military officers, and lawyers. He played Jackie Cooper's stern but loving father in the oscar-winning drama '' Skippy'' (1931) a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
George Rosener
George Michael Rosener (May 26, 1884 – March 29, 1945) was an American film actor and writer. He also wrote and acted in the Frank Buck serial ''Jungle Menace''. Career Rosener began his acting career at age 19 as a circus clown, followed by stints in tent and medicine shows, vaudeville, and stock companies. He was a playwright whose 1927 play ''Speakeasy'' (written with Edward Knoblock) was adapted for film in 1929. Rosener acted in or directed more than 200 plays, including ''My Maryland''. He was on the news staff of the ''New York World''. He worked for the Shubert family, operators of the Broadway theater district, for more than seven years as an actor, director, and writer. He also acted in 38 films and wrote 14 more, including '' Doctor X'', '' Union Depot'', ''The Secret of Treasure Island'', ''City of Missing Girls'', ''The Mysterious Pilot'', '' Alias the Doctor'', ''The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok'', ''Sinners' Holiday'', ''New Faces of 1937'', '' Ho ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Robert Warwick
Robert Warwick (born Robert Taylor Bien, October 9, 1878 – June 6, 1964) was an American stage, film and television actor with over 200 film appearances. A matinee idol during the silent film era, he also prospered after the introduction of sound to cinema. As a young man he had studied opera singing in Paris and had a rich, resonant voice. At the age of 50, he developed as a highly regarded, aristocratic character actor and made numerous "talkies". Early life Warwick was born Robert Taylor Bien in 1878 to Louis and Isabel (Taylor) Bien. Some sources say he was born in England; others say Sacramento, California. His father was of French ethnicity. Bien studied music in Paris and trained for two years to be an opera singer, but acting proved to be his greater calling. He met his future wife, Arline Peck in Paris; the American couple married in 1902. After his return to the United States, he started in theatre and then film. Stage Warwick (by then using his stage name) ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Leila Bennett
Leila Bennett (November 17, 1892 – January 5, 1965) was an American film actress who primarily appeared in supporting roles as either slapstick sidekicks, mousy maids, and scatterbrains. Early life Bennett was born in Newark, New Jersey, into a working-class family; her father worked as a newspaper editor and her mother was a part-time stenographer and housewife. The whole family was affiliated with the church of Christian Science. Acting career After working through the Harry Blaney Stock Company in Brooklyn, New York, she began her career on the New York stage in 1919 portraying the character of 'Mandy Coulter' in the comedy production ''Thunder''. She was praised for her role, which was performed in black-face, by the ''New-York Tribune''. She also was featured in the plays ''The First Year'' (1920–22), ''The Wheel'' (1921), ''Chicken Feed'' (1923–24), ''A Holy Terror'' (1925), ''It's a Wise Child'' (1929–30), and, in what was her final stage appearance, ''C ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Arthur Edmund Carewe
Arthur Edmund Carewe (December 30, 1884 – April 22, 1937), born Hovsep Hovsepian ( hy, Հովսեփ Հովսեփյան), was an Armenian-American stage and film actor of the silent and early sound film era. Early life Born on December 30, 1884 in Trabzon (Trebizond), Ottoman Empire, Carewe was from a prosperous Armenian family in his native country. His father, Garo, was engaged in the banking business and carried some influence from his positions in the national legislature and board of education. His father died in 1892, and the Hamidian massacres forced the Hovsepian family to emigrate. Carewe emigrated to the United States on August 7, 1896, arriving in New York Harbor on the ''Augusta Victoria'', having departed from Cherbourg. He was accompanied by his elder brother, Ardasches. Another elder brother, Garo Armen, had preceded them, and their mother arrived the following year. He attended Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, after which he studied painting and s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Harry Beresford
Harry J. Beresford (4 November 1863 – 4 October 1944) was an English-born actor on the American stage and in motion pictures. He used the professional name Harry J. Morgan early in his career. Career Harry Beresford began his acting career in 1885, as a member of the chorus of ''Little Jack Sheppard'' at the Gaiety Theatre, London. After moving to the United States in 1886, he performed throughout the country in repertory theatre and with various touring companies—including his own—for the next 30 years. His first major Broadway theatre success was in 1919, in ''Boys Will Be Boys'', which was soon followed by a starring role in ''Shavings'' (1920). In August 1922, he created the role of the alcoholic Clem Hawley in Don Marquis's comedy ''The Old Soak'', a character Beresford made famous and played for two years. He won praise for his character performances in the Broadway productions of ''Stolen Fruit'' (1925) and ''The Perfect Alibi'' (1928). Between 1926 and 1938, Beres ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
John Wray (actor)
John Wray (born John Griffith Malloy; February 13, 1887 – April 5, 1940) was an American character actor of stage and screen. Career Wray was one of the many Broadway actors to descend on Hollywood in the aftermath of the sound revolution, and quickly appeared in a variety of substantial character roles, such as the Arnold Rothstein-like gangster in '' The Czar of Broadway'' (1930); Himmelstoss, the sadistic drill instructor in '' All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1930); and as the contortionist the Frog in the remake of '' The Miracle Man'' (1932), in the role previously played by Lon Chaney in the 1919 original. Wray's roles grew increasingly smaller as the decade progressed but he was very visible as the starving farmer threatening to kill Gary Cooper's Longfellow Deeds in Frank Capra's classic ''Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'' (1936) and as the warden in Fritz Lang's '' You Only Live Once'' (1937). On Broadway, Wray performed in ''Achilles Had a Heel'' (1935), ''Tin Pan Alley ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |