Production
The film was the second Warner Bros. feature film to be filmed in the improved Technicolor process which removed grain and improved both the color and clarity of the film. This improved process had first been used on The Runaround (1931) and resulted in an attempt at a color revival by the studios late in 1931. Owing to public apathy, however, the studios quickly retreated from their ambitious plans for color films, late in 1932.
During production, an alternate black-and-white version was shot and still exists, although side-by-side comparison shows that most takes between the two are the same. Differences in takes are minor, such as Tracy's ad lib with a skeleton in the closet, and Mae Busch's dialogue as a madam at a brothel. The black-and-white version was offered to exhibitors (much to Technicolor's dismay) as an alternative on the initial release of the film.
The film also falls into the "pre-Code" era of film making, and carries adult themes throughout. The situations of cannibalism and rape, although not unheard of, were rare and considered perverse in 1932; these topics that were not commonly explored in motion pictures at that point.
Following the success of Doctor X at the box office, Warner Bros. followed up with Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), which also starred Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill directed by Curtiz. Mystery was again shot in early Technicolor, another film to try to complete Warner Bros.' contract with them. Technicolor made sure there were no black-and-white cameras on the set of Mystery and ultimately, the film became the last 2-color Technicolor feature released by a major studio. Both Doctor X and Mystery had their sets designed by Anton Grot.
The makeup was designed by Max Factor, who at that point had been associated with beauty makeup. Mystery of the Wax Museum also shared Factor's horror makeup design.
Doctor X was first of three Curtiz's films with Lionel Atwill. Besides this film and Mystery of the Wax Museum Atwill also collaborated with Curtiz on 1935 Errol Flynn adventure film Captain Blood. Doctor X was also the first in three films that co-starred Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray. Afterward, they both starred in The Mystery of the Wax Museum and The Vampire Bat.
Read more about this topic: Doctor X (film)
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“An art whose limits depend on a moving image, mass audience, and industrial production is bound to differ from an art whose limits depend on language, a limited audience, and individual creation. In short, the filmed novel, in spite of certain resemblances, will inevitably become a different artistic entity from the novel on which it is based.”
—George Bluestone, U.S. educator, critic. “The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the Film,” Novels Into Film, Johns Hopkins Press (1957)