FANTASIA OBSCURA: Having X-Ray Vision Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be
There are some fantasy, science fiction, and horror films that not every fan has caught. Not every film ever made has been seen by the audience that lives for such fare. Some of these deserve another look, because sometimes not every film should remain obscure.
Sometimes, it’s those funny little things that can make or break a film…
X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963)
(Dist.: American-International Pictures; Dir.: Roger Corman)
Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision. -Stevie Wonder
By 1963, Roger Corman had directed over 30 films, and that year, five of his pictures would hit the theaters and drive-ins. He was on a roll, having gotten the most for his money from a castle set on The Terror, and he felt ambitious enough to flesh out an idea he had, for a picture about a jazz musician that developed extraordinary powers from taking too many drugs.
Instead of trying to predict Miles Davis’ future, however, Corman decided instead on doing a story about a doctor who gets x-ray vision. Which, with the producers needing to put out pictures for wide release to a general audience, and this being 1963, was probably for the best.
Our story follows Dr. James Xavier (Ray Milland), who’s so obsessed with expanding the range of electro-magnetic wavelengths that human eyes can process that he’s willing to forego caution and the scientific method to pursue his research. The funny little thing is, there’s a certain goofiness that comes with an almost “gee-wiz” abandonment of sense exhibited by the characters as Dr. Xavier (I said Doctor, not Professor) tests his formula on himself, which allows him to melodramatically save a patient and go to a party where his eyes behave the way those x-ray specs advertised in comic books just could never do.
The fun soon grinds to a halt, however, as the foundation that sent Dr. Fairfax (Diana van der Vlis) to examine his research (during which time she falls in love with him) cuts his funding. In a rage from losing the grant money, Xavier accidentally kills his friend Dr. Brandt (Harold J. Stone), which forces him on the run, out of the hospital that Corman never seems as at home shooting in as he does the rest of the film.
The movie starts to find its soul and pace when we get to the amusement park, where Xavier lies low as a psychic in the sideshow that is managed by the barker, Crane (Don Rickles). It’s Crane that helps set up Xavier in his mind-reading act, one where he gets to prove he’s not a dime-store phony to a heckler (Dick Miller, who disappointingly did not go under the uber-character-name of “Walter Paisley”) by reading him, or more precisely reading his wallet in his pocket from across the room.
Crane recognizes the talent in his midst, and convinces/pressures Xavier to become a storefront faith healer, using his CAT-scan-like abilities to diagnose the desperate to lead them on to other things. There’s a lot of traction gained when Milland gets to work off of Rickles in a straight dramatic role, something unexpected from the comedian by this point in his career. Whether he’s alone or opposite van der Vlis, the dimensions of Milland’s spiraling out of control can’t get fully appreciated the way they do as we see Rickles guide and force the mad doctor into a downward spiral.
It’s on the midway and in the shabby storefront that Corman finds his meter for the rest of the film. It’s funny that he’s able to build enough momentum in the middle section of the movie that when Rickles is fled from, there’s enough from there to carry the film through to Las Vegas, where whatever goofiness could have been applied here from earlier would not have a chance in hell as things go south for our all-seeing experiment subject.
What one sees in the film, other than shots in the heralded visual process of “Spectarama,” is pretty much in the eye of the beholder (no pun intended). Some later viewers embraced the film for its atmosphere and study of a deeply flawed character who we get to watch self-destruct in spectacular fashion. The film even gets praise in Stephen King’s Danse Macabre, while King would use his discussion of the film to start a rumor of a deleted ending that was never shot, something that Corman would later say he’d wished he’d thought of actually doing that scene.
It’s not a perfect film, though. It takes too long to get started and could probably have re-arranged the order a bit to allow for the first act to be done as flashbacks while starting with Xavier at a more vulnerable yet intense period on the midway, where the director is more comfortable with the setting and the best pairing of actors is in place from the get-go. And amazingly, it’s a comedian that helps the tragic dramatic lead find his center in order to get things rolling along.
Maybe not surprisingly enough these days, there was word as late as 2012 that a remake was being considered. Which is funny, as supposedly it already happened…
When one looks at X, a story of a genius who develops the means to see more of the universe than he is able to handle, which puts him in opposition with others, and compare that with Pi, the first full-length film by Darren Aronofsky, which follows the same general story outline, you start to think that something funny may be going on. Especially as both Corman’s character Dr. Xavier and Aronofsky’s protagonist Max Cohen both come to believe as their stories wrap up that they have glimpsed something disturbing before needing to take drastic action to relieve the burdens their visions impose…
NEXT TIME: As the killer follows the Book of Exodus, words fail us…
