Thursday, September 15, 2022

The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963)

It is every teenage boy's fantasy but the reality is quite different...

Dr Xavier (Ray Millard) is working hard on a special new eyedrop which can help the eye see more of the electromagnetic spectrum. Despite misgivings from his colleagues Dr Fairfax (Diane van de Vlis) and Dr Brant (Harold Stone), he pushes on with his experiments and uses himself as a guinea pig! The results are tremendous, he can see inside a sick child and thus can save her life in surgery. However, with the plug pulled on his funding Xavier kills Stone by mistake...

He goes on the run and ends up using his super vision for coin at a low-rent seaside attraction run by the spiv Crane (Don Rickles). Reunited with Dr Fairfax, he heads to Las Vegas to use his powers to make a fortune however no one breaks the bank in Vegas without raising suspicion...

A highly enjoyable and well paced science fiction film, this is one of those rare films that a modern day remake could probably improve upon as the special effects are rather limited. Yes Dr Xavier does get to see a lot of women naked but he also sees a lot more, and it drives him insane in the end.