Roger Corman’s X: The Man with The X-ray Eyes (1963)

X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes lobby card set image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

B-movie director Roger Corman and American International Pictures released X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes in 1963. Ray Milland has the title role, with Harold J. Stone and Don Rickles also along for the eye-popping ride.

Roger Corman Directs X

The venerable Roger Corman produced and directed X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes for Alta Vista Productions. Robert Dillon and Ray Russell penned the screenplay and Les Baxter created the eerie music score.

Ray Milland, who had won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend (1945), heads the cast as Dr. James Xavier. Other cast members include Diana Van der Vlis (Dr. Diane Fairfax), Harold J. Stone (Dr. Sam Brant), John Hoyt (Dr. Willard Benson), Don Rickles (Crane, Carnival Barker), Morris Ankrum (Mr. Bowhead) and John Dierkes (Preacher).

X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes was a low-budget production, filmed in a scant three weeks for an estimated $250,000-300,000. The movie was shot in two locales: Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Ray Milland Sports X-Ray Vision

Dr. James Xavier is a scientist who invents special eye drops that enable humans to see beyond the normal scope of vision. Unable to secure continued funding for his trials, an impatient Xavier uses himself to road test his invention.

The doctor’s eye drops prove to be a real eye-opener, as he discovers that he can see through walls and people’s clothing. The drops also prove to be medically beneficial, with Xavier gazing into the body of a young girl and accurately diagnosing her condition.

Increased usage of the drops leads to complications, as Dr. Xavier can no longer see the world in normal terms. Fearing for his sanity, Xavier eventually wanders into a religious revival, where he is told by an evangelist, “If thine eye offends thee…pluck it out!”

X Release, Reviews

X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes was released to movie theaters on September 18, 1963.

“Director Roger Corman keeps this moving and Ray Milland is competent as the doomed man. Special effects…are good if sometimes repetitive,” reported Variety.

X Movie Review

X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes is a fun, campy science fiction film with serious overtones. Like Them!(1954), The Fly (1958) and other sci-fi entries before it, X is also a cautionary tale, warning man that scientific dalliances into the unknown can have dire consequences.

Straitlaced Ray Milland has fun with the title role, using his X-ray vision for a variety of purposes: ogling “naked” female guests at a swinging party, working as a mind reader at a carnival, and hitting the smug casino stiffs for big bucks in Las Vegas.

X’s special effects, achieved through a process called Spectarama, are excellent, granting the viewer a good sense as to what the altered Milland is seeing. After experiencing a few of these mind-blowing visions, however, one wonders whether Milland’s character used eye drops or LSD.

X on DVD

• X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes is available on DVD (MGM/UA Video, 2001).

“I’ve come to tell you what I see. There are great darknesses…And beyond the darkness, a light that glows, changes…and in the center of the universe…the eye that sees us all,” Ray Milland tells a preacher in the desert.

Heavy, but didn’t those old comic book ads for X-ray glasses pretty much promise the same thing?