In an earlier post I suggested that Edmond Hamilton’s “The Man Who Saw Everything” was the source for the 1963 movie, The Man With the X-Ray Eyes. Let’s look deeper and see if this really is the case.
“The Man Who Saw Everything” by Edmond Hamilton appeared in Wonder Stories, November 1933. Ed included this story in his first collection The Horror on the Asteroid and Other Tales of Planetary Horror (1936). David Winn gets an operation on his eyes that allows him to see through walls. With this ability he can but see all the corruption in the world. He even sees his girl, Marta Ray, having a frank conversation with her folks. She admits she has settled with David. The story ends with Winn killing himself by drowning. The doctor who gave him the operation realizes Man is not meant to see more than his usual world.
Lumen Winter’s illo for the story is quite clever, with Dr. Homer operating with the floors above see-through. This image will be important later in this post.
Reprinted as “The Man With the X-Ray Eyes” (Startling Stories July 1946) so it was editor, Sam Merwin Jr., who gave the story the same title that would be used in 1963. Michael Marchioni does the scene where Marta talks with her parents.
The Man With the X-Ray Eyes (1963) was written by Ray Russell and Robert Dillon. Story by Ray Russell. Directed by Roger Corman. Starring Ray Milland, Diana Van der Vlis, Harold J. Stone, John Hoyt and Don Rickles.
Watching the film I was waiting for key Hamiltonian moments but they largely didn’t appear. Dr. James Xavier is a driven researcher who foolishly experiments on himself. The benefits of his discovery, like seeing inside patients before surgery, make his work appear positive. This changes at the moment he gets angry and throws his ally, Dr. Sam Brant (Harold J. Stone) out the window. (Yes, you will laugh when this happens. But not as hard as when you see the “young” hipsters dancing at the party.) After this, Xavier becomes a wanted fugitive. He hides in a cheezy sideshow, making money as a mind reader. (He actually reads the audience’s questions through a blind fold and his own eye lids.)
Enter Don Rickles as Crane, the greedy grifter who Xavier uses to finance a secret lab so he can continue his research. Crane brings sick people to Xavier for body scans. Dr. Diane Fairfax (Diana Van der Vlis) finds her lover and Crane’s scam falls apart. Xavier and Fairfax flee the cops, go to a casino but the doctor ends up in an evangelical prayer meeting where the preacher tells Xavier “…if it offends thee pluck it out!” After seeing beyond reality to some Lovecraftian vision, Dr. X does tear his eyes out. Film ends.
Looking at this tale, the only Edmond Hamilton elements I see are a man getting his vision changed by medicine and a downer ending. If Ray Russell had the Hamilton story in mind, it was only as a germ that he flushed out. What Roger Corman had in mind as the director felt like something completely different than Hamilton. Corman was re-making The Invisible Man (1933) starring Claude Rains. Dr. Xavier’s angry outburst mimic Griffin’s madness in the H. G. Wells story. Those moments seem very odd since Milland is so laid back.
Gold Key Comics adaptation written by Paul Newman and drawn by Frank Thorne. The first thing you will notice with this comic is that Thorne draws all the characters his own way. They do not resemble the actors at all. This suggests he was working from an early script and hadn’t seen any stills from the film. Dr. X looks too young and macho for Ray Milland. Dr. Fairfax is a brunette, not blond, and so on.
Conclusion
Having watched the film I find only traces of Edmond Hamilton’s story. I think the old x-ray glasses sold in the back of comic books might have had as much influence. The obvious sex element of being able to see under people’s clothing is in the film. At the hilarious party scene (where forty year olds play “young people”) Xavier’s eyes allow him to see beneath the dancers’ clothing, including Dr. Fairfax’s. Corman isn’t making an X-rated film (how ironic that would be!) so the shot is done through a circular lens meant to simulate Xavier’s vision. You don’t see anything more raunchy than a bare shoulder or back.
The concept of x-ray vision has become a cultural trope that SF fans have forgotten began with Hamilton. It pops up everywhere, from Superman comics to sleazy magazines like Dream World (three issues in 1957). Don’t laugh Robert Silverberg, Randall Garrett, Harlan Ellison, Paul W. Fairman, Milton Lesser and Walt Sheldon wrote the stories. Virgil Finlay did some of the artwork. This was a Science Fiction magazine that was meant to appeal to the baser senses with things like X-Ray vision.
