THE AMAZING MR. X is one of those movies that seemed to find its way into numerous box sets throughout the years. It could be a collection of supernatural or mystery films, one of those sets that are like $25 for 100 movies. Those sets were always nice to pick up because you finally got to see a number of movies you might have missed, but the reproduction quality was always lacking. The films might be scratched, jumpy or worse yet edited.
The Film Detective is not a huge company. They specialize in finding lost treasures and have lately gone to great lengths to make sure the best presentation possible is offered with those films. Now they are releasing THE AMAZING MR. X and I can tell you I’m glad they did. I think I saw bits and pieces of this long ago and due to the damaged version I was watching I didn’t stick with it. Now I’ve had the chance to watch the entire film and loved it.
The story revolves around Christine Faber (Lynn Bari), a woman whose husband Paul (Donald Curtis) died two years earlier in a car explosion. She’s on the verge of remarrying Martin Abbott (Richard Carlson) when one night she thinks she hears her dead husband calling to her. She wanders out onto the veranda and then down to the beach. There she meets Alexis (Turhan Bey). He seems to know all about her as they walk and talk. She finds out that Alexis is a spiritualist.
More ghostly encounters happen and eventually Christine’s younger sister Janet (Cathy O’Donnell) visits Alexis to find out what he’s all about. She begins to fall for Alexis and at the same time brings Christine around to see if he can help her with her problem. As he attempts to do so we, the viewer, are shown things from both sides. Alexis is a con artists posing as a spiritualist. But what does he hope to gain?
Martin finds all of this disturbing. He doesn’t believe in spiritualism and thinks that Alexis is a phony. But he has no way of proving him to be a charlatan. He brings in a detective friend with him to investigate but by doing so upsets Catherine for his not believing.
As the film progresses another wonderful twist takes place I won’t reveal. You may see it coming already. But it is not only a twist that will turn the direction of the story but of the lives involved as well. That makes this different than most of this type and provides a nice ending as well.
The move relies so much on atmosphere you can almost feel the fog drifting into the room while watching it. This more than anything is what brings the story to life. Bey never became a huge star but he should have watching his performance here. The character of Alexis is one where you can’t quite decide if he’s a bad guy or if there is some redeeming quality to him. The entire cast makes this film one that is believable, more so than other films like this.
The Film Detective has done a wonderful job with this presentation giving us a quality reproduction of the film that most others haven’t bothered with. In addition to that they’ve added extras which include a commentary track by professor and film scholar Jason A. Ney, a full color booklet with the essay “The Amazing Mr. Bey” by Don Stradley and a new documentary called “Mysteries Exposed: Inside the Cinematic World of Spiritualism” from Ballyhoo Motion Pictures featuring interviews with author Lisa Morton (CALLING ALL SPIRITS: A HISTORY OF SEANCES) and author and film historian C. Courtney Joyner.
As I said I found this movie to be an enjoyable experience, a
movie that offered more than I had anticipated going in. My guess is you’ll
enjoy it too. I highly recommend this one.
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