☆ ☆ ☆ ½
The Amazing Mr. X (1948) – B. Vorhaus
With stunning black & white cinematography by John
Alton (then working his magic for Anthony Mann in a string of heralded films noir),
this unusual film, part mysterious supernatural quest and part twisty noir, took
me by surprise. At the start, viewers cannot quite be sure whether Christine
(Lynn Bari) really does hear the voice of her dead husband while walking alone
by the ocean at night. Sure, the “psychic consultant” Alexis (Turhan Bey), who
she meets soon after, seems suspicious – but it isn’t clear how he could be
influencing her weird dreams about her husband. When she meets him at his house/office,
he isn’t shy about telling her that he knows she is thinking of remarrying, to
boring lawyer Martin (Richard Carlson), and that her dead husband is not happy
about it. As she gets sucked into ongoing sessions with Alexis, her younger
sister Janet (Cathy O’Donnell) joins with Martin to hire a detective to look
into his operations, suspecting him to be a shady conman (although Janet soon
falls for him too, given his sensitive and sultry nature). Soon we learn that their suspicions are
correct, as director Bernard Vorhaus quickly gives us a tour of Alexis’s house
and its instruments of deception and duplicity. But even as the detective is
ready to turn the screws on Alexis, the appearance of Paul’s ghost throws
everyone for a loop. To say more would spoil the film, but suffice it to say,
that even Alexis finds himself in a tricky situation going forward. Overall, the film isn’t a masterpiece but it
is a dreamy unpredictable affair that tantalizes with its spooky look at spiritualism.
