MovieChat Forums > Doctor X (1932) Discussion > A Question of Morals

A Question of Morals

posted 19 years ago by bok602
14 replies | jump to latest

What exactly is the nature of the relationship between Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray in this film?

Atwill refers to her as his "daughter" and she reciprocally refers to him as her "father." HOWEVER she also calls him "darling" more than once...

Their behavior towards each other is also rather questionable.

For example, while the kisses they exchange are properly chaste, Atwill delivers the gesture stiffly and almost guiltily ---And it is clear to anyone that Fay Wray is expecting a LOT more than a peck on the cheek.

Their scenes together are drenched with an uncomfortable degree of sexual tension -repression, actually.

Is it possible that amid all the lurid dialogue and oddball characters Curtiz threw in a bit more forbidden plot...?

[–] Norman_Rocks_Well 19 years ago

It's pretty obvious.... yes. Hell... that's why it was referenced in Rocky horror. Notice all the movies in it's opening song have some sort of sexual references in them. Fay Wray and king kong... a gigantic ape's infatuation with a human. Forbidden planet... Anne Frances refers to herself being a "bi.... oh what does it matter anyway" (cause she's never met another woman). Not to mention, her promiscuity with the crew of the ship.

[–] bok602 19 years ago

You're absolutely right!

And just what was behind Fay's "volunteering" to perform in the Moon Killer re-enactment in her "state of undress" before a roomful of lecherous old men (all of whom are wearing handcuffs!)?

I particularly liked the way the one old lecher asked "Were the murdered women...attacked?"

"If you don't know the answer -change the question."

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Rosabel 15 years ago

I think it was pretty well established that that particular old lecher was a sex maniac - he was reading a dirty magazine when the police came calling, which he hastily hid in a scientific tome. Though by today's standards, a magazine called "French Art" with a vampish-looking woman on the cover would probably be incredibly mild. However, I also recalled that later on, when they were being handcuffed to their chairs, the old scientist with crutches cracked, "They look pretty good on YOU," - don't know if that was a reference to Dr. Haines' taste for bondage, or the fact that he'd done some illegal things and hadn't been caught yet.

What makes everything even weirder, if you think about it, is that Dr. Xavier actually mentions that Dr. Haines has the hots for his daughter, and obviously doesn't mind! The more we get to know this bunch, the stranger their relationship seems.

Anyway, I've no idea what was going on between Joanne and "Faaaaahthah", but there sure were some strange vibes. I also fully expected him to kiss her right on the lips instead of the cheek in their first scene together. Not that I can blame her - Lionel Atwill was a very attractive older man, and the "love interest" reporter was such a obnoxious drip, I'm not surprised she'd find Dr. X more attractive. I wouldn't be surprised to hear either that Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill were having a torrid affair at the time, OR that they absolutely loathed each other - each situation would explain their odd rapport.

Flat, drab passion meanders across the screen!

[–] jellyree 14 years ago

"...she also calls him "darling" more than once... "

Just the fashion for a certain social set during that period.

[–] bok602 14 years ago

I would agree with that if they were in a more light-hearted social setting; but the way she calls him darling strongly suggests that she wasn't being so innocent.

I honestly believe that something more was implied and intended on the part of the film-makers.

If taken by itself the "darling" line could be interpreted in the way you describe if you simply read it in the script, but as played in the film -and coupled with all the other clues- it's suggestiveness is plain.

"If you don't know the answer -change the question."

[–] hbenthow 14 years ago

Nonsense. The only sexual hints are the lines "Were the murdered women-attacked", and "Oh, Mr Taylor!".

[–] bok602 14 years ago

You're missing the subtlety of the suggestiveness.
This was the early 1930's, when the Production Code was about to take effect. They couldn't be as blatant and shameless about it as we are today. But they still pushed the envelope of the times with a plot revolving around cannibalism, tissue grafting and dismemberment -and even then some of the dialogue got trimmed.
The sexual innuendo, therefore, was not so much spoken in as many words, but rather in the WAY the words were spoken. Pay close attention to the obviously longing glance fay Wray gives as she closes her bedroom door. Look at the way she pets and fawns over Atwill. Re-read the earlier postings for the other examples and then watch the film again.
There is something decidedly subtext going on.

"If you don't know the answer -change the question."

[–] hbenthow 14 years ago

Nah, I don't think so. 90% of the movies I watch are from the 1930s, and I can usually tell when there is an innuendo. And seriously, why would they want to put in an incest subtext?

[–] Rosabel 14 years ago

I don't believe that the writers intended any sexual subtext between Joanne and her father. But I think that the two actors injected that sexual tension through their performances, and that's why I wonder if they might have been having an affair offscreen. They have a really interesting chemistry together, much more intense than the Joanne-reporter love story, which is frankly unbelievable. I NEVER believed that she would fall for a dope like him. Actually, at the end, when she was supposed to be going off to Europe for a short trip and then coming back to marry him, I assumed that once she got away from him she'd just never come back!

Flat, drab passion meanders across the screen!

[–] hbenthow 14 years ago

But I think that the two actors injected that sexual tension through their performances, and that's why I wonder if they might have been having an affair offscreen.

Well, it has been noted that Fay Wray often acted that way. It was just her mannerisms. There have been such rumors about many of her films. Also, in "Mystery of the Wax Museum", made the same year, with Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill, there was no such tension.

[–] Roddenhyzer 10 years ago

Also, in "Mystery of the Wax Museum", made the same year, with Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill, there was no such tension.

Not that I necessarily agree with the OP's sentiments, but to be fair, Atwill and Wray had barely any screentime together in "Mystery of the Wax Museum". Plus Atwill's character was severely immobilized for the majority of that movie, meaning that he couldn't really interact properly with anybody. However, he still *was* portrayed as being madly obsessed with Wray, so there certainly was some tension between the two (characters), more bluntly so than in this movie, in my opinion.

[–] mastergundam 8 years ago

While I can't comment on the on-screen relationship of the characters in Doctor X, I did read something tonight that affirms the off-screen relationship between Wray and Atwill, and that is that there was no relationship at all! In fact, Wray later said in an interview that although she made three films with him, Atwill was nearly a total stranger to her. She barely conversed with him during their film work and they never socialized privately. She met his wife Louise a couple of times when she visited the set, but that's about as much of his private life as she saw. Wray said he was polite on set and very professional but never open to much discussion, and rightly so. They were working mostly horrible 20-hour days under excruciatingly hot lights in Doctor X and Mystery of the Wax Museum, and nothing much was going on in The Vampire Bat, so she and Atwill simply never got to know each other, which I find weirdly unsatisfying since they made an unlikely but likeable couple in these titles :)

[–] liscarkat (16515) 6 months ago

They were father and daughter, nothing more. It was not uncommon at that time to address a parent as "darling", and I've heard it in quite a few old movies. It doesn't mean anything sexual. But, read into it all you want, if it makes it more entertaining for you.