Doctor X

Doctor X is a horror mystery set in New York, where a series of killings has left victims strangled and then surgically cut apart. The crimes occur only under a full moon, and the trail points toward a scalpel used at the medical academy run by Dr. Jerry Xavier. To protect the school's reputation and avoid a scandal, Xavier persuades the police to let him hunt the killer himself among the scientists on his staff, while a wisecracking reporter named Lee Taylor noses around and takes an interest in Xavier's daughter, Joanne.

The film was directed by Michael Curtiz, the fifth of the twenty-five features he directed in chronological order, arriving between The Mad Genius and Captain Blood. Lionel Atwill plays Dr. Xavier, with Fay Wray as Joanne, Lee Tracy as Lee Taylor, and Preston Foster, John Wray and Harry Beresford among the twenty credited cast members. George Rosener, Earl Baldwin and Robert Tasker wrote the screenplay. It runs seventy-six minutes.

On IMDb it holds a 6.4 rating from roughly 4,800 votes, and on TMDB a 6 rating from about 85 votes. A film critics' rating of 6.5 from twelve reviews places critics slightly above the audience scores, suggesting a modest but durable reputation for this early talkie thriller.