“The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the LORD has made them both" (Proverbs 20:12; ESV)
Ray Milland excels at playing cold-hearted, remote, indifferent men who look at life in a clinical rather than emotional manner. That is why he would be the perfect actor to play a scientist who has developed a chemical formula that allows him to see with X-ray vision. Unfortunately, due to the fact that Milland is so good at playing such aloof men, it is difficult to build much sympathy for the lead character.
Milland is Dr. Xavier (clever name considering the film's title), the scientist who can see beyond or thru anything, including walls and pages of his fellow doctor's notes. While out on the town with Dr. Diane Fairfax (Diana Van der Vlis), he does the twist and can see people without their clothes on! Oh, my! After the doctor's research into this scientific breakthrough falls through, Xavier tries to prove his case by claiming that another doctor's diagnosis of a little girl is wrong. In a scene that is one of many unbelievable moments, Xavier cuts the doctor's hand with a scalpel in the operating room and proceeds to save the girl - the scene never has a payoff so we don't know if Xavier saved a life versus the other's possible misdiagnosis. Then Xavier is confronted by another sympathetic doctor who tries to calm him down with a sedative, and Xavier accidentally pushes him out the window and to his death!
That is not all. Xavier doesn't stay hiding from the police; instead he works for a devious carnival manager (a terrifically greedy Don Rickles) and the magical act consists of Xavier wearing only a blindfold while reading scribbled pieces of paper from patrons. He can see through his eyelids now, and the more drops he puts in his eyes, the worse the condition gets. Xavier takes it even further at a Las Vegas casino where he wins without much effort because, you know, he can see through the playing cards.
Ray Milland's Xavier keeps us at a distance and it is hard to work much sympathy for a man who has little to no interior emotional life - he never seems to enjoy his abilities and keeps making it worse for himself despite headaches and developing the blackest eyes you can imagine. Xavier has no interest in romancing the willing Dr. Diane - he just has a perverted side because he enjoys seeing women naked. His intentions with the x-ray eyes are never made clear and an ending during a religious service could have led to him, gee I don't know, thinking that he saw God. Well, it seems like it but then...oh, I will not give it away. Director Roger Corman never exploits this novel idea far enough and never builds the character beyond being just some average scientist without a care in the world. The solarized special effects serving as Xavier's point-of-view only serve to further distance us.
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