Back when low-budget indies used their freedom to address outré subject matter (not winning a beauty pageant), there was a golden age of genre trash. Roger Corman was its king, and this 1963 sci-fi gem, starring former A-lister Ray Milland, is probably the director-producer’s scariest. Milland plays the fantasy role of teenage boys everywhere: a scientist who invents X-ray vision. But the movie quickly enters dark territory as he begins to see deeper and deeper—into the substance of metaphysics itself. Our hero flees to Las Vegas, where he cheats at cards and also gets exploited in a carnival freak show run by Don Rickles. (I’m so not making this up.) No less an authority than Stephen King has celebrated this movie’s memorable climax, which I won’t ruin for you. It plays tonight at Anthology Film Archives at 9:15pm.








