One of my all-time favorite movies, Roger Corman's X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, starring one of my all-time favorite actors, Ray (The Lost Weekend) Milland in the titular role, was released sixty years ago today by American International Pictures.
The fable, scripted by Robert Dillon and Ray Russell, covers Dr. James Xavier, a physician/scientist who concocts an eye-drop formula which allows him to see through objects, in particular the human body. Though the formula ensures accurate diagnoses, it also proves addictive, forcing Xavier down a path of murder, isolation and spiritual tragedy.
Man with the X-Ray Eyes costars Diana Van der Vlis (as Xavier's colleague/lady friend), Harold Stone, John Hoyt, Barbour Morris, Dick Miller, Jonathan Haze, John Dierkes, Morris Ankrum and in perhaps his most memorable performance, Don Rickles as a slick carney named Crane, who for a time harbors the desperate doctor.
Floyd Crosby's cinematography is crisp and surreal, and Les Baxter's haunting score is his crème de la crème. Above all, Corman's direction is swift and trim, but not to the extent of diminishing the characters and their plights.
Legend has it that Corman filmed an alternate ending for this endeavor, which continues to be the topic of curiosity and debate. Nevertheless, as the movie stands, Man with the X-Ray Eyes is a science-fiction triumph that only gets better with age. (Re)watch it today; and while you're at it, toss in Francis Ford Coppola's Dementia 13, its popular co-feature, to double the historic impact.
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