Trying to put together a definitive box set of Roger Corman films would be a fool’s errand. Between the number of different studios he’s worked for over the years and the sheer volume of the man’s work as a director and producer, there’s just no way you could ever put together anything that could truly be called a definitive representation of his career. Still, give MGM credit for taking a shot at it with The Roger Corman Collection; at best, it’s still only a mixture of good, great, and utter dreck…but, then, that’s Roger Corman in a nutshell, anyway.
For the purposes of our Scare of the Day feature, we’ll look at two of the eight films within the set today, then hit up one more tomorrow. Today, however, has been officially declared Ray Milland Day at Premium Hollywood, which means that we’ll be tackling 1962’s “Premature Burial” and 1963’s “X – The Man with X-Ray Eyes.”
“Premature Burial” is based on a short story by Edgar Allen Poe, an author whose works were regularly plundered by Corman for his films. I say “plundered,” but I’m really only kidding; in truth, modern audiences would probably be way less familiar with Poe’s work if it hadn’t been for Corman’s adaptations of “House of Usher,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Raven,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” and “The Tomb of Ligeia.” For that alone, he deserves praise, even if he hasn’t always been 100% on the mark when transitioning the stories into films.
In the case of “Premature Burial,” unfortunately, I can’t make a comparison between the two, having never read the original short story, but I will say that Corman succeeds in putting together a creepy tale of Guy Carrell, a man who’s convinced that he suffers from catalepsy. If you’re not familiar with that particular malady, here’s the scoop: it’s a condition characterized by muscular rigidity, fixity of posture and decreased sensitivity to pain…and in the days before medical technology really took off, it wasn’t too hard for someone in the midst of a cataleptic seizure to be declared dead.
Carrell is in the midst of a full-on obsession with his possible catalepsy, to the point where he even breaks off a relationship with Emily Gault (Hazel Court) because he feels he can’t give it his all. She convinces him to give her a chance, however, and they end up married…if not necessarily happily. Carrell is sure that his father was buried alive while in the midst of a seizure, and to avoid any possibility of such a thing happening to him, he designs a crypt for himself that’s equal parts Rube Goldberg and Dr. Frink from “The Simpsons.” It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Eventually, Emily convinces her husband to have his father’s remains exhumed, so he can see once and for all that it was a legitimate, peaceful death…and not to spoil it for you, but, um, that screen shot is of Carrell’s dad, and I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t look like a smile on his face. “Premature Burial” is an enjoyable Gothic horror flick, and while it’s gotten some rather unfair complaints over the years because Milland took the lead rather than Corman’s usual Poe go-to man, Vincent Price, there’s no question than our man Ray plays the role with all the intensity it requires.
“X – The Man with X-Ray Eyes” is arguably more of a sci-fi film than a horror flick, given that its concept revolves around Dr. James Xavier (Milland), a scientist who tests an experimental drug on himself and is granted levels of vision that his mind cannot handle, but for my money, if a movie ends with a guy ostensibly on the verge of plucking out his own eyes, it’s a goddamned horror film. My mother was actually over at my house today, picking up my daughter, when I started watching the movie, and she frowned at the opening shot of an eyeball floating in a vat of some liquid or other. I figured it was probably just because of the general grossness of it, and it probably was, but we quickly slipped into a discussion about how, although she never really liked the film, it was mostly just because she was depressed that Millard’s career had fallen far enough to take him to the level of doing such a movie. (I couldn’t bring myself to ask what she thought about 1972’s “The Thing with Two Heads.”)
Personally, though, I really dug it. In fact, I was caught up in the concept of “X” almost immediately, and after watching it, I’m left wondering why, with all of the shitty remakes of old movies that have been thrown together over the years, no-one’s ever taken a stab at this one. We’ve seen any number of flicks about scientists who bemoan how man only uses a tiny percentage of his brain power, but I can’t remember anyone trying to raise man’s vision so that he can see into a higher range of the spectrum, thereby providing him with X-ray vision. It’s all fun and games at first, when the doc goes to a party and suddenly finds that he’s able to see through everyone’s clothes; eventually, however, Dr. Xavier’s vision reaches a point where he can see through his eyelids, and the inability to fall asleep aids in no small way toward driving him mad. His ego goes out of control as he assures his fellow physicians that his ability to see within a patient without the assistance of an X-ray machine makes his diagnoses all but infallible, which eventually leads to a shocking moment with one of his colleagues. Due to his actions, Xavier goes into hiding, where – believe it or not – he ends up working as a mentalist at a carnival, managed by none other than Don Rickles! He’s not playing himself, of course, but given his run of insults to some of the attendees at Xavier’s carnival show, it’s clear that it took every ounce of restraint for Rickles to not work the word “hockey puck” into the film somewhere. In the end, though, Rickles’ character offers up a dark streak, trying to blackmail Xavier when he discovers his identity, which leads Xavier to go on the run and head to Las Vegas, where he attempts to use his abilities to win enough money to fund the research to cure himself.
In truth, “X” probably would’ve made a better “Twilight Zone” episode than feature-length film, given that several of the scenes are clearly extended solely for purposes of padding the run time, but when it works, it’s enthralling. And while the famous final scene of the film, where Xavier finds himself in the midst of an outdoor church service, feels like it exists solely to give the film that aforementioned horrifying ending (“If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee”), I can still only imagine the volume of the screams it inspired in theatergoers.
By the way, I wasn’t kidding earlier: I’d really love to see what a current director…someone with a unique vision, like Darren Aronofsky or Alfonso Cuarón, could do with a remake of this flick. In the right hands, I just know it could be awesome.
