X - THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES

(vt The Man with the X-Ray Eyes)

   Film (1963). Alta Vista/AIP. Dir Roger CORMAN, starring Ray Milland, Diana Van Der Vlis, John Hoyt, Don Rickles. Screenplay Robert Dillon, Ray Russell, based on a story by Russell. 88 mins cut to 80 mins. Colour.

   A surgeon, Dr Xavier, uses an experimental drug to develop X-ray vision and thus perform operations more skilfully, but the process affects his mind. He accidentally kills a colleague and hides in a carnival sideshow where he is exploited as a faith healer. His X-ray vision becomes a metaphor for insight into all the ugliness andsadness of life. A series of events bring appalling visions which alienate him progressively from ordinary, unseeing humanity. Finally he encounters an evangelist holding a religious meeting in the desert; when the man cries "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out!", Xavier does just that. Though close to being a Poverty Row product (the special effects are notquite up to showing Dr Xavier's ability to "see through the centre of the Universe") this bleak film is sometimes considered Corman's masterpiece.

   PN/JB

   See also: CINEMA.