- Actors: Ray Milland, Diana Van der Vlis, Harold J. Stone, John Hoyt, Don Rickles
- Directors: Roger Corman
- Writers: Ray Russell, Robert Dillon
- Producers: Roger Corman, Bartlett A. Carre, James H. Nicholson, Samuel Z. Arkoff
- Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Colour, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
- Language English
- Subtitles: Spanish, French
- Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.85:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: Unrated (US MPAA rating. See details.)
- Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
- DVD Release Date: 5 Jun 2001
- Run Time: 79 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00005AUK1
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 79,506 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
After the underwhelming "The Premature Burial", "X", the second Roger Corman-Ray Milland collaboration, really delivers, largely because Milland is better cast. In fact, in his autobiography he rated it as one of only two worthwhile films he made out of nearly 100 in a long career, the other being "The Long Weekend".
As Corman points out in an exceptionally good "extra" director's commentary, after the war obsessive scientists were always seen as Bad, and it was only after Man went into space that the idea of the Good Scientist became current again. Dr. James Xavier wants X-ray vision purely to be able to cure people, but as he gets more involved in taking the drug which gives him the power, it becomes literally blinding. On the run for accidentally killing a collaborator, he is reduced to being part of a freakshow, and ends up after a hair-raising chase in an evangelical tent which provides the disturbing, almost apocalyptic ending.
The special effects are almost laughably cheap, mainly created by irises and dissolves, with some basic film processing thrown in. However, it doesn't matter at all, because we have swallowed the McGuffin about how this vision is possible. And that's what the audience wants to see - X-ray vision. We buy it wholesale.
This is on one level a simple science fiction story following the Dr Frankenstein tradition, except the monster is himself. But it is also a film about drugs (LSD was gradually coming onto the market in 1963, and Corman originally wanted to do an explicit movie about that). And in a curious way it becomes a religious movie too, about the possibility of either becoming or seeing God.
As Corman points out in an exceptionally good "extra" director's commentary, after the war obsessive scientists were always seen as Bad, and it was only after Man went into space that the idea of the Good Scientist became current again. Dr. James Xavier wants X-ray vision purely to be able to cure people, but as he gets more involved in taking the drug which gives him the power, it becomes literally blinding. On the run for accidentally killing a collaborator, he is reduced to being part of a freakshow, and ends up after a hair-raising chase in an evangelical tent which provides the disturbing, almost apocalyptic ending.
The special effects are almost laughably cheap, mainly created by irises and dissolves, with some basic film processing thrown in. However, it doesn't matter at all, because we have swallowed the McGuffin about how this vision is possible. And that's what the audience wants to see - X-ray vision. We buy it wholesale.
This is on one level a simple science fiction story following the Dr Frankenstein tradition, except the monster is himself. But it is also a film about drugs (LSD was gradually coming onto the market in 1963, and Corman originally wanted to do an explicit movie about that). And in a curious way it becomes a religious movie too, about the possibility of either becoming or seeing God.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
i'll make this short and sweet - buy it but don't watch it alone - this is one of the creepiest movies ever and the final scene has stayed with me for years! horrible but a must have for your horror collection. if thine eye offends thee...THEN PLUCK IT OUT!!!
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I saw this film when I was 8 years old and it scared the hell out of me. Watching it decades later as an adult I found it less scary but far more...disturbing.
This is one of those exceptional b-movies of the era that punches way above its weight and has survived the long test of time remarkably well. The reason is that beyond the obvious shock and horror of the film's plot, there is a sub-text that is thought-provoking and chilling.
It's also made memorable by the special effects which - despite their obvious limits - are used ingeniously and with deliberate wit.
It belongs right up the there with sci/fi-horror classics like The Incredible Shrinking Man and The Village Of The Damned.
This is one of those exceptional b-movies of the era that punches way above its weight and has survived the long test of time remarkably well. The reason is that beyond the obvious shock and horror of the film's plot, there is a sub-text that is thought-provoking and chilling.
It's also made memorable by the special effects which - despite their obvious limits - are used ingeniously and with deliberate wit.
It belongs right up the there with sci/fi-horror classics like The Incredible Shrinking Man and The Village Of The Damned.
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