The Amazing Mr. X (USA, 1948) 78 min B&W DIR: Bernard Vorhaus. PROD: Benjamin Stoloff. SCR: Crane Wilbur, Muriel Roy Bolton, Ian McLellan Hunter. MUSIC: Alexander Laszlo. DOP: John Alton. CAST: Turhan Bey, Lynn Bari, Cathy O’Donnell, Richard Carlson. (Eagle-Lion Films)
Turhan Bey (the Austrian actor of Turkish and Czech descent was a matinee heartthrob even when he was cast as a no-gooder) is a phony psychic who claims he can communicate with a grieving woman (Lynn Bari)’s dead husband. Her sister (Cathy O’Donnell) naturally thinks the medium is just exploiting her in order to make a quick buck. This derivative B movie may seem familiar now, due to bigger pictures made before and after it, but today it remains a lovely treasure. It is worth seeking out alone for the great scene when, during a seance in which the medium will be revealed as a phoney, when suddenly the voice of the dead husband is heard… and even Bey is shocked!! What this movie obviously lacks in originality it makes up for with a startling command of mise en scène which transcends the modest production. Every scene is an exercise in style: expressionistic lighting and shadows elevate this movie into a genuinely captivating mood piece. The success of this film may be more attributed to the great cameraman John Alton, who turned many B noirs into first-class cinema, than to director Bernard Vorhaus. (Alton, O’Donnell and director Vorhaus had previously collaborated on Bury Me Dead.) After this picture, director Vorhaus would be blacklisted, and would finish his career in Europe. The Amazing Mr. X (also titled The Spiritualist) is in the public domain, so one should have no problem finding it. (My copy for view is a big box VHS tape that shares the film on a double bill with another PD favourite, Bela Lugosi’s The Ape Man.) It is the perfect little film to accidentally discover on a rainy night.
Originally printed in Vol. #1, Issue #9.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.