L'incroyable Monsieur X

I'd heard a lot of good things about this movie and I'm pleased to say that when I finally watched it I wasn't disappointed. Aside from an occasional choppy edit there really isn't much to find fault with here --- I'll echo the praise many other viewers have offered for the striking imagery, the acting, and the clever script. The movie features several ingenious plot twist which manage to keep you guessing right up to the last scene. Not a film for jaded slasher fans, of course, but so what. THE AMAZING MR. X was made for more sophisticated palates and can hold its head up beside the works of Val Lewton or Jacques Tourneur's NIGHT OF THE DEMON.

As others have commented, the cinematography, lighting, set decoration, art direction, special effects, and location footage on this film are far, far above the quality one would normally expect for a B-movie -- and surpass even the level of many A-movies of the time period. Additionally, anyone interested in how subjects such as occultism, seances, mediums, magic, superstition, stage magic, seers, and prophets were treated in the mid 20th century film will certainly wish to see it.

Don't let the silly science-fiction title fool you -- the UK release, as "The Spiritualist", comes much closer to the heart of this story than its silly US title, "The Amazing Mr. X." Plot-wise, the presentation treads a fine line between functioning as a semi-documentary exposure of fraudulent spiritualists (as in the earlier "Mystic Circle Murders" with Betty Compson and Mrs. Harry Houdini), presenting the apparitions "straight" (as in a standard horror film), and leaving the reader guessing as the plot takes one looped turn after another and ends with a detective-noir closure (as in Hitchcok's "Rebecca").

Turhan Bey is wonderfully nuanced as the mystic. He alone makes the movie worth seeking out.

A big tip-of-the-hat should also go the stage magician Harry B. Mendoza for his lovely bit-part work as a detective who used to be a stage magician. Mendoza builds his character's history subtly, rolling a coin for almost a minute before his prestidigitation becomes a subject of discussion, making it look like a mere nervous habit instead of the highly trained feat it really is. Then he begins to produce cigars -- an endless supply of them! -- and during the whole demonstration, he keeps up a constant flow of on-topic plot exposition dialogue. What a wonderful little turn!

All in all, this is a movie that is watchable on many levels and for many reasons. I agree with other commenters that a fully restored version with technical commentary would be well received.

What a cool movie. So much more than your typical B horror flick, loved every second of this one. The plot would be very easily spoiled, so I wont go into that, suffice to say it's very interesting and well-done. On top of that, the ending is great. Turhan Bey was great in the lead role, I'm definitely going to track down some more of his films. He commands the screen, makes each scene his own. Great presence, put simply. The rest of the cast is good enough as well, though they pale by comparison to Mr. Bey. The score is beautifully haunting, and sets the scene perfectly throughout the film. I highly recommend this movie.

8.5/10

This 1948 B-movie is an excellently made thriller. It is well acted, well filmed, moves briskly, and keeps the viewer engaged with clever plot-twists and a couple of nicely done double- reversals of expectations. There are films with perhaps twenty times the budget of "The Amazing Mr. X" that aren't half as successful at telling the kind of story that this film features--which, I admit, was pretty well-worn even in 1948. Modern filmmakers trying their hands at thrillers with supernatural overtones would do well to study this film, as it shows exactly how that kind of film is made.

Don't let the cheesy title fool you. This is a top-notch thriller that's well worth a look by any lover of the genre.

Several people posting about this film have mentioned that it must be preserved or ought to be preserved, so I am writing to say: www.archive.org has the film digitized in several formats. I downloaded the smaller version, about 250MB, and it's watchable. But they have also digitized it for DVD burning, with an enormous and detailed file that is 2.8G in size.

Archive.org is a non-profit preservation site that digitizes old films whose copyright has expired. They are a wonderful resource, and I encourage all old film lovers to use them extensively and recommend them to their friends.

I have watched more than a dozen of their films in the past month. They're wonderful.