Apes On Film: Dr. X’s Babydoll

Welcome to Apes on Film! This column exists to scratch your retro-film-in-high-definition itch. We’ll be reviewing new releases of vintage cinema and television on disc of all genres, finding gems, and letting you know the skinny on what to avoid. Here at Apes on Film, our aim is to uncover the best in retro film. As we dig for artifacts, we’ll do our best not to bury our reputation. What will we find out here? Our destiny.

“Doctor X” – 1932
4 out of 5 Bananas

Starring: Lionel Atwill , Fay Wray, Lee Tracy , Preston Foster

Director: Michael Curtiz

Rated: Unrated

Studio: Warner Archive Collection

Region: A

BRD Release Date: April 20, 2021

Audio Formats: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)

Video Codec: MPEG-4 AVC. New 4K HD Transfer Restoration by UCLA Film and Television Archive and The Film Foundation, in association with Warner Bros. Entertainment

Resolution: 1080p HD

Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1

Run Time: 76 minutes
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Director Michael Curtiz is best known for making film classics like “Casablanca“, “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” and “Captain Blood,” but he also directed a trio of significant early horror films as well. “Doctor X” was the first of these, followed by “Mystery of the Wax Museum” (1933 – reviewed here), and “The Walking Dead“ (1936). The first two films were shot using two-strip Technicolor®, while the third was shot in black and white. Warner Archive Collection has just released a fully restored version of “Doctor X” and the results are breathtaking. Once again, the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation have done an incredible job in reviving an important film from a dull, damaged carcass.

Featuring Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray (just as Wax Museum did), “Doctor X” is another pre-code horror title of the type that would be de-fanged by the censors had it been released just a few years later. The film has much to recommend about it – Ray Rennehan’s cinematography is lush and fluid, art direction by Anton Grot is well ahead of its time, and many of the performances are quite good. It deals in cannibalism and body horror, perhaps the first Hollywood film to do so. The film is, unfortunately, saddled with some far-fetched and frankly ridiculous characters and situations that became overused tropes almost by the time it was released.

Atwill and Wray acquit themselves well, but Lee Tracy is nearly unwatchable as a Leo Gorcey-like newspaper reporter that is the least funny comic relief ever. Full of 1930’s mannerisms (ok, I get it – it was the 1930’s) and catchphrases, he comes off as pandering to an audience who came fully prepared to see a horrifying thriller. He seems to have been inserted by the WB brass who were afraid that the horror film “craze” started at Universal Studios wouldn’t translate to their gangster and crime-themed format. Also stinking up the joint – a police commissioner who allows Atwill’s Dr. Xavier forty-eight hours to conduct his own investigation to determine which of the professors at his university is a serial killer at large before letting his detectives take over. That kind of malarkey would get you fired even in 1932, folks. This film definitely seems like a precursor to “Wax Museum,” with many similar (though better presented) themes recurring in that film.
Warner Archive’s disc is presented very well, with only a few jump cuts throughout where the team was unable to spread available imagery far enough to account for missing frames. The audio is also quite good. The disc comes with a black and white version of the film that was shot simultaneously, as well as a slew of special features such as new commentaries by Alan K. Rode and Scott MacQueen, documentary “Madness & Mystery: The Horror Films of Michael Curtiz” (HD, 27:39) by Constantine Nasr, “Doctor X: Before and After Restoration Reel” (HD, 7:40), and the theatrical trailer: black and white version (HD, 2:15).
This is the kind of amazing restoration and packaging that Warner Media chair Jason Kilar is trying to kill; he’s a digital streaming-only zealot. If he has his way WB would release no physical media at all, and the public will be deprived of this kind of release. If you love classic films and physical media, let Warner Brothers know. Buy this or their other discs. Write them letters. Show them that there will always be an audience for great movies from the past that can be owned outright.

“Babydoll” – 1956
4 out of 5 Bananas

Starring: Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach

Directed By: Elia Kazan

Studio: Warner Archive Collection

BRD Release Date: February 16, 2021

Region: A

Rated: Unrated

Audio Formats: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono

Video Codec: MPEG-4 AVC New 2K Master

Resolution: 1080p HD

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Run Time: 115 Minutes
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With a director, cast, and writer like this, it’s hard to go wrong – and “Babydoll“ doesn’t. Steeped in the kind of sultry, southern-gothic atmosphere and seething sexual tension one expects of a Tennessee Williams script, the film is bursting at the seams with tawdry dialog, black comedy, backhanded insults, and character flaw reveals of the highest level.
Baker plays Babydoll, Malden’s virginal wife who is promised to him sexually when she turns twenty years old, a few days hence. Down on their luck financially, the couple’s furniture is repossessed. Malden blames his cotton ginning competitor Wallach (in his debut screen role) for their fate and burns down his plant. Wallach sets upon Babydoll to confirm his suspicions of arson, and the pair spend a day barely avoiding falling into each other’s arms. The trio burst into open hostility when Malden arrives, with Wallach and Baker using each other to taunt and belittle him into a rage of jealousy.

The film was denounced by the Catholic church’s National League of Decency on release and pulled from distribution a few weeks later by Warner Brothers. It’s easy to see what was so controversial; “Babydoll” and a handful of other films railed against the Hays Code, which had banned exactly this sort of film in 1934 and would continue to keep films at “G” to PG” equivalent rating until it was overturned in 1968. Though nothing explicit is shown onscreen, the overt sexual tones and themes are vividly on display. Despite its chilly reception, the film would garner several Academy Award nominations and was a hit with critics. Kazan won a Golden Globe and Wallach a BAFTA Award for “Babydoll.”

Warner’s presentation blu-ray is once again a pleasure to view. The picture is flawless, and the sound is good, though there’s quite a dichotomy of volume for some of the dialog, and a few of the lower volume examples might have been amplified a bit. Special features are sparse. There’s a featurette from 2006 – “See No Evil: Baby Doll” (SD, 13 minutes) which includes interviews with the three principles, and an HD theatrical trailer (3 minutes).
While not the milestone that “Lolita” (with which this film has been compared) was, “Babydoll” is an important and entertaining movie with great performances and direction. Recommended.
Ape caricature art by Richard Smith.

Written by Apes on Film, Anthony Taylor in Collaboration with ATLRetro