To me, this movie is perfection.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

THE SPIRITUALIST is a typical mystery thriller of the 1940s that seems indebted to the likes of Hitchcock's REBECCA. The opening sequence, in which a bereaved woman is standing on a beach at night and listening to her dead husband's voice calling her, is effectively spooky and ties in well with the whole Gothic sub-genre of the era that invariably involved rambling old houses, kooky partners, and mysterious events of the past.As it transpires, this film is even slower paced than most, and the first half only offers repetitions of the above event, mixed up with a little back story and some romance that threatens to drag the pace down to a plodding level. American viewers watching this under the title of THE AMAZING MR. X will invariably be disappointed by the movie's lack of incident and general sluggishness.Those with the willpower to persevere will find that the second half picks up somewhat substantially, with decent crime and thriller aspects added to the story and a strong, suspenseful climax. While Lynn Bari and Cathy O'Donnell come across as wet blankets, Turhan Bey does well in a complex part while Donald Curtis steals his scenes. Some surprisingly effective special effects round off the story nicely.

With distinct echoes of REBECCA (1940) and GASLIGHT (1941, 1944), THE AMAZING MR. X centers round the exploitation of a psychologically vulnerable woman Christine Faber (Lynn Bari) by two unscrupulous men - the fake medium Alexis (the Mr. X) of the film's title (Turhan Bey), and her supposedly dead ex-husband Paul (Donald Curtis). Although vowing to protect her sister at all costs, Christine's sister Janet (Cathy O'Donnell) also becomes ensnared in the intrigue.Set in a lonely villa right by the sea - hence the REBECCA echoes - Bernard Vorhaus's thriller has been atmospherically photographed by John Alton in atmospheric black-and-white with a clever interplay of light and shade to denote Christine's gradually degenerating mental state. The window-bars are reflected in shadow on plain white walls, emphasizing the extent to which the house has become like a prison for her. Exterior shots are also cleverly handled; the scene where Alexis appears apparently out of nowhere, dressed in dinner- suit and smoking a cigarette, to greet Christine on the beach generates a genuine frisson.The music - extracts from Chopin's Nocturnes - likewise creates a sinister atmosphere, reminding us both of Paul's profession as a pianist while reminding us of the extent to which the past has a controlling influence over the present.Turhan Bey exerts a feline grace as the medium; every movement is carefully rehearsed in a series of performances designed to hoodwink his clients, ably abetted by Emily (Virginia Gregg). He is shown at least twice in half-light looking through the spy-hole of his house at the prospective customers, either grinning in anticipation of their visits, or smiling when he understands the extent to which he manipulates their lives.Nonetheless Vorhaus exposes Alexis's performances as merely mortal once Paul reappears. The fake medium's movements become jumpy; he clasps his hands in terror as he realizes that he is no longer in control of the situation. He only recovers his sang-froid at the end in the final shoot-out with Paul, where the medium congratulates himself on his "greatest performance" in the shadows as he evades at least six shots from Paul's pistol.In the end both of the bad guys have to die (according to the diktats of the Johnston Office), but Alexis undergoes a sudden change of heart as Janet leans over him and vows unending love. Even the cleverest personalities can be won over by affection.Tautly plotted with at least a few surprises in store, THE AMAZING MR. X crams a lot into its seventy-eight-minute running-time.

I am not a fan of Turhan Bey but he did do a nice job in this thriller as a con man spiritualist. It was interesting to see how such smooth operators were able to win over their unfortunate victims. In this case, it's Christine Faber who is still mourning for her husband who died two years previously. Since she is engaged to be married her overwhelming grief is not especially plausible. When she starts to hear the voice of her dead husband she goes to the spiritualist, named Alexis, she had previously met. Christine's sister becomes concerned about this and she and Christine's fiancé go to a private detective. There follows one of the best scenes when they're talking to the detective, he does some skilled tricks with a coin and a cigar while all the time talking about scam spiritualists. The actor was a long time stage magician by the name of Harry Mendoza. At any rate, in a silly teenager kind of way, Christine's sister falls for the smooth talking Alexis. What happens next is predictable but still suspenseful. While the lighting certainly added to the suspense, it was occasionally overdone with too much shadow. Except for the detective and the crow, none of the characters are particularly likable but at least Alexis is memorable.

This is a delicious little House-On-The-Cliff-By-The Seething Sea" "B" movie, an immersion in style and spiritualist hocus-pocus, starring Lynn Bari, who usually played hard-bitten criminal types, and Turhan Bey, a 40's leading man almost forgotten, since many of the films he was in (with folks like Maria Montez) haven't been released on DVD. Bey usually played exotic types in flashy costumes, and here is no exception--he even has a cackling pet raven to follow him around with avian commentary on the shifty doings in the neighborhood.As a side note, Bey retired to Vienna and worked as a photographer, and passed away in 2012; Out of The Blue, an odd little comedy made for Eagle-Lion, in which he co-stars with George Brent, Ann Dvorak and Virginia Mayo, has been released on DVD.What makes The Amazing Mr. X. stand out from most of its kind is the dazzling atmospheric cinematography from John Alton--just the opening interior scenes are enough for me to watch the film again! Yes, it's hokey melodrama, but great fun if you're in the mood.