X - The Man with X-Ray Eyes (1963)/Roger Corman

 I always find this Corman film with Ray Milland, as a doctor and scientist obsessed with increasing the power of the eyes, developing a fluid that allows X-ray vision, such a fun cult curiosity. But there is this addiction to the fluid, seemingly incapable of laying off it, eventually losing the ability to see the world as he once did. The use of color filters by Corman and Milland's star power just kept my eyes and mind towards the screen. I'm not gonna lie: I can't fucking stand Don Rickles, so he's as good a minor antagonist as there is. There are parts of the film, though, I had forgotten. Like when Harold J Stone's Dr. Sam Brandt tries to give Milland's Dr. Xavier a sedative to calm him down and is accidentally knocked through a window, crashing to the sidewalk, killed instantly. Or Xavier actually cutting a surgeon, John Hoyt's Dr. Benson, so he won't operate on a girl he believes has stenosis but, in fact, has a tumor in a particular spot unnoticed by X-rays. I think it's understood early that Milland is on the road to self-destruction. Vegas seeing the cards and drawing attention from casino floor managers, at the carnival with a blindfold on as Rickles barkers customers like a skeptical Dick Miller into realizing what's hidden can be identified, or convinced again by Rickles to use his penetrating sight to diagnose ailments of poor patients at a low rent district, two-room "office"; Dr. Xavier can't just prioritize his life and abilities towards keeping concealed from law enforcement. He jeopardizes himself, while colleague, Dr. Fairfax (Diane Van der Close), tries and fails to help him. But those eye drops, and his developing, evolving eye sight eventually sees a light he isn't quite able to embrace, deciding a tent preacher is right about plucking out the eyes if they offend thee while a cheering congregation agrees. The car speeding around California roads while a chopper gives him chase, avoiding car crashes as his eyes look through metal and wood, no longer capable of seeing structures and devices and people on the surface; the pursuit of knowledge, wanting to experience more, Dr. Xavier gets more than he bargained for. And Corman lets us see what he sees, experiencing the jarring, disorienting visual color lens fracturing that normality of regular sight, creating this wholly different way of seeing the world...and beyond. This film sort of functions as a series of events, adventures, and vignettes. Milland's tortured character can't seem to put the kibosh on the eyes seeing more than they probably should. The scene at the dinner party where Milland sees everyone without clothes, addresses that elephant in the room regarding X-ray vision. Dancing naked people with Ray trying to keep cool while many of us might otherwise react quite a bit differently. 4/5