The Man with the X-Ray Eyes

Here is Corman at almost his best. Ray Milland was as good an actor as Vincent Price, and this story isn't trapped in the Poe mode of rotting flesh and dilapidated mansions. It's more in the manner of Corman's The Trip, which was made a few years later. Dr. Xavier discovers something that he can use to see through solid objects, but its effect is cumulative, and by the end of the movie he's seeing all the way to the core of reality.

Of course, he has to go on the run, and must abandon his medical career. We see him in a carnival, reading peoples' thoughts, and later teaming up with his x girlfriend and going to Vegas and seeing through the cards and winning big, and finally, escaping from the police, and as he drives through the Nevada desert, we see that he can't see a thing. Abandoning his Lincoln Continental, he stumbles into a tent revival meeting. The preacher, played by Royal Dano(?)is telling his followers to throw Satan out. Filmed by Floyd Crosby, with beautiful special effects, this is a real piece of 60's film-making by one of the masters.

RELEASED IN 1963 and directed by Roger Corman, "X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes" chronicles events in Los Angeles when a doctor (Ray Milland) develops a formula that grants x-ray vision, which derails his career and forces him to join a carnival, using his new power to make a living. Diana Van der Vlis plays his disciple while Don Rickles is on hand as a carnival barker.

The early 60's vibe is to die for, but the beginning is rather dull. Things perk up at an adult party where the aging doctor tries to keep hip and eventually sees everyone nakkid (lol). The carnival sequence and what it leads into are arguably the best parts, although the Vegas and tent revival episodes have their attractions. The movie scores meh on the female front, but Lorrie Summers and Cathie Merchant have small parts.

THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 19 minutes and was shot in Los Angeles, California & Las Vegas, Nevada. WRITERS: Robert Dillon and Ray Russell. ADDITIONAL CAST: Harold J. Stone and John Hoyt play colleagues of the doctor.

GRADE: B-

The sad thing about the film X is that it was 40 years ahead of its time. Roger Corman should have done this or even redone this film in the age of computer graphics. Maybe at a major studio perhaps.

But a major studio would never have taken a chance on a film like this. A science fiction movie without any horrific monsters or buckets of blood and gore, the moguls would reason who would want to see that? X could only be done at American-International Pictures and be done only with someone of the imagination of Roger Corman.

Ray Milland as Dr. James Xavier is a research scientist doing work in the field of vision. Dr. Frankenstein only wanted to bring life back from the dead. Milland wants to improve vision so that we see with the eye of God.

He develops a serum based on hormones and enzymes and you apply to the eyes. Milland sees things more clearly, but as was said in a film some thirty years after X, he can't handle the truth.

After accidentally killing a colleague friend in Harold J. Stone, Milland goes underground still continuing his experiments and working first at a carnival and then at a diagnostic/healer under the tutelage of Don Rickles. All the while colleague Diana Van Der Vlis is looking for him because guilty or not of the homicide of their friend Stone, Van Der Vlis believes in Milland and his work.

The climax of this film which takes place in a tent revival meeting is a sudden death one and unforgettable. Let's just say there are no good choices or fates left for Milland. And he's been given a clarity far beyond what any of these people in that tent can comprehend.

Don Rickles will surprise many with his performance as this bottom feeding carnival hustler at how good he is. Actually he's not wrong in what he sees as a practical solution for all concerned, hiding Milland from the authorities, making money, and allowing him to continue his research. But no proper doctor wants a partner like Rickles. It's like Colin Clive teaming up with Dwight Frye. Also in a small role at the end of the film is John Dierkes as the small time evangelist with the tent show. He's also quite good.

X does ask some interesting questions, much like the original Frankenstein movie. This film really deserves a remake.

I just (finally) saw this film a few days ago, after years of hearing about it. The screening was the final show of a three-day SF/horror film festival. After three days of films, most people were feeling a bit loopy and ready for some light entertainment. As X opened, quite a few members of the audience started treating it as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, shouting out their own (generally lame) joke comments in response to the film. I was annoyed, because I'd been looking forward to this film all weekend (although, in their defense, certain lines have become unintentionally loaded in the comparatively sexually liberated 21st century).

What I found fascinating was that, by 15 minutes into the movie, all the commentary stopped. Once the film moved beyond the talky opening scenes and stilted dialog, once the story really got going, everyone was drawn into it. They actually paid attention to the movie instead of each other.

As SF cinema goes, this is definitely one of the more entertaining, thoughtful, and intelligent examples (and intelligent SF film is a dying genre). This one goes well beyond the standard mad scientist formula.

Dr Xavier (Ray Milland) thirst of knowledge experiments with a formula on his owns eyes which will allow to see through solid material. As he can read a closed book , making diagnosis ills , and seeing naked people. He can literally observe through things , watching beyond of visible lights and turning into a rarefied figure as mad doctor. Then the staff intends to cut off his funds for further research . But an accident takes place , dieing a medic (Harlod J Stone), as he flees and the newspapers publicize , as the Angeles Daily Sun : ¨Doctor falls to death¨, ¨Physician murdered¨ and the Angeles Chronicle : ¨Doctor killer flees¨. Later on , Xavier wearing dark glasses works at a sideshow (ruled by Don Rickles) as fortune teller and finally as psychic consultant. Such increased powers of perception and knowledge bring him neither happiness nor strengthening but transform him an outcast, unsettling person.

A stylish and first-rate film , confidently realized and plenty of eye-popping moments referred to the visions. The basic opposition between blindness and vision is a central key of this interesting work. Good performances from Ray Milland as doctor who gains power to see beyond, Harold J Stone as unfortunate medic who accidentally falls and Don Rickles as ambitious manager . Appears uncredited notorious secondary cast as Morris Ankrum, John Hoyt, and John Dierkes as preacher. Furthermore unbilled actors of the Corman factory as Dick Miller and Jonathan Haze. It packs not withstanding and weak special effects made by date means. Rare musical score by Lex Baxter and colorful cinematography by Floyd Crosby, booth of whom are habitual of Roger Corman.

After his period realizing poverty-budget horror movies as ¨Swamp woman, The beast with a million of eyes, Attack of the crab monsters , Undead¨, then came the cycle of tales of terror based on Poe as ¨ House of Usher, Pit and pendulum, The raven , Tales of terror, The masque of the red death ¨ , and Corman made this undisputed masterpiece , X , that won the Golden Asteroid in the Trieste Festival of Science Fiction Films in 1963. Rating : Above average, definitively wholesome watching , Corman's achievement to have bent the Sci-Fi genre with splendid results.