FAQ

After finding stage star Angela Merrova (Lya Lys) dead and drained of blood, New York Morning Dispatch reporter Walter 'Wichita' Garrett (Wayne Morris) is surprised when Merrova turns up alive the next day. Consequently, Walt teams up with his surgeon friend, Doctor Mike Rhodes (Dennis Morgan), in an attempt to find out how a person can be stabbed to death and then show up alive. Their investigation leads them to Doctor Marshall Quesne (Humphrey Bogart), an expert on human blood, but he holds a shocking secret.

The Return of Doctor X is based on British thriller writer William J. Makin's short story The Doctor's Secret, first published in Detective Fiction Weekly on 30 July, 1938. It was adapted for the screen by American writer/director Lee Katz.

Dr. Maurice Xavier. He is introduced as Marshall Quesne (pronounced "Cain"), Dr. Francis Flegg's (John Litel) research assistant. Quesne later proves to be Xavier.

Dr. Rhodes and Walter Garrett help the crypt keeper dig up Dr. Xavier's coffin, which is buried in Greenlawn Cemetery.

"Greenlawn" is a fairly common name for cemeteries. There is a famous Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio. Horror fans know the name best from Psycho (1960) (1960): "Well, if the woman up there is Mrs. Bates, who's that woman buried out in Greenlawn Cemetery?"

Quesne convinces Joan (Rosemary Lane) that he's been sent by Mike to take her to Flegg's home. Joan goes willingly into a cab with him, until she realizes that they aren't headed towards Flegg's house. Meanwhile, Mike and Walt have discovered that Quesne went off in a cab with Joan and was overheard telling the cabby to take them to Jersey. Walt remembers one of the newspaper clippings that mentioned an abandoned duck club just outside of Newark, the place where Dr X starved that baby. Walt, Mike, and Detective Kincaid (Charles C. Wilson) head for Jersey where Quesne/Dr X is preparing to exsanguinate Joan. As Dr X comes at her with a scalpel, Joan screams, and the police open fire. Dr X tries to escape via the roof, but he is shot down by the police. As he lay dying, Dr X tells Walt to tell Dr Rhodes that they'll have to postpone their talk on blood composition. In the final scene, Walt has been reinstated at the Morning Dispatch, and his heroic efforts have been rewarded by the mayor and district attorney. Walt's boss (Joseph Crehan) begs Walt to stay with the newspaper, but Walt has decided to return to Wichita and refuses to sign a contract...until the pretty new secretary (Gwen Seager) brings it into the office.

Not much. Both movies have a character named Dr. Xavier, or "Dr. X" and both have a wisecracking newspaper reporter. The plot of Doctor X (1932) features "synthetic flesh." The Return of Doctor X (1939) has "synthetic blood." The 1932 Dr. X was the head of the fictional Academy of Surgical Research. This movie's Dr. X is a clammy, white-faced laboratory assistant with a white streak in his hair. The 1932 reporter, played by Lee Tracy, was thoroughly a New Yorker. This one, played by Wayne Morris, is more of a drawling, Midwestern type. The studio considered this project a follow-up to the successful Doctor X., and they clearly wanted to evoke that popular movie by making this one sound like a sequel, but there is little connection between them.

This is his only horror film, and that suited Bogart just fine. He hated this role and hated this movie.