What did you just say about me?
It’s always fun to prepare oneself to watch some utter drek, and discover it’s not drek at all. X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes (1963) fits neatly into this niche, what with it being made by the King of the Bs (or schlock), Roger Corman, during the Golden Age of B movies. Yet here we have a soberly considered premise: if a human eye could be modified to be sensitive to the entire electromagnetic spectrum, rather than that small chunk we call the visible spectrum, what would we see, and, more importantly, how would we manage it?
Dr. James Xavier is a research M.D. driven by the thirst of knowledge, specifically the improvement of our ocular equipment, and when he concocts a drug which appears to improve the sensitivity of the eyesight of mice, he’s all excited. This was the first hint that this movie was not what we were expecting, as the simple experiment he puts together to show the mouse is seeing more than it should is simple, easy to understand, and really rather delightful to see done.
The next step? Self-experimentation, because Dr. Xavier is simply too hungry for knowledge to use intermediaries. The first experience is a terrifying blur, but as he sharpens his control, it lets him stop another surgeon from improperly operating on a child. He becomes fixated on the advantages of his vision, if he can only master it, and when his assistant, Dr. Brant, decides to forcefully end the experiment, the driven Xavier accidentally tosses him out a window.
Xavier slips away from the research facility as the police arrive, and fades into a traveling carnival, where he does simple tricks. His enhanced eyesight lets him examine people desperate for a cure for their illnesses, but between his failing eyesight and his crooked manager, he’s unhappy. When his love interest, Dr. Fairfax, tracks him down, he flees with her, but with a plan: to move to Las Vegas in order to use his powers to cheat the casinos, and use his winnings to fund his research.
But casinos dislike cheaters, and when Xavier overreaches, he must once again flee. By now, his non-stop exposure to the electromagnetic spectrum has rendered his sanity a chancy thing, and following police pursuit and a car accident, he stumbles into a revivalist tent.
And I’m sure my reader knows what the Bible says about eyes.
Not only is the plot good, but so is the acting and the surprisingly well managed special effects. Not that this is movie is a triumph, as Dr. Brant is more or less a shell of a character, and Dr. Fairfax isn’t entirely believable, either. But the drive and authenticity of Xavier is almost mesmerizing.
And what does Xavier’s sad end say about science? For those looking for a dose of morality, it might be the dangers of science meme. Then again, given the extensive time spent letting the audience experience, as can best be done, the enhanced vision, the commentary may be refined to observations that humanity’s ability to comprehend the reality around them is limited, and trying to go beyond it using direct experiential stimulation will end in disaster. Evolutionary biologists might come up with even more fascinating themes.
But in any case, this is quite a reasonable movie, given its parentage and era. A very pleasant surprise for the audience member who, like ourselves, didn’t know just how good it can be.
