The X-Rays (1897)

Original title

The X-Ray Fiend

Directed by

George Albert Smith

Genre

comedy film, silent film, science fiction film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

44 min

Rating

5.5 of 10 from 63 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A courting couple is exposed to X-rays and their bodies become transparent, revealing skeletons. The effect is done with a jump cut and the actors wearing skeleton costumes. Then they return to normal.

playfulwhimsicalnoveltyquickfunnylightheartedgimmicky

What happens

The X-Rays (also known as The X-Ray Fiend) is an 1897 British silent comic trick film directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a courting couple exposed to X-rays. The 44-second trick film, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "contains one of the first British examples of special effects created by means of jump cuts" Smith employs the jump-cut twice; first to transform his courting couple via "X rays," dramatized by means of the actors donning black bodysuits decorated with skeletons and with the woman holding only the metal support work of her umbrella, and then to return them and the umbrella to normal. The couple in question were played by Smith's wife Laura Bayley and Tom Green, a Brighton comedian. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• A Novice at X-rays (1898)
• Macintyre’s X-Ray Cabinet (1909)
• The Merry Skeleton (1898)
• Prehistoric Peeps (1905)
• The Skeleton Dance (1929)
• Is Spiritualism a Fraud? (1906)
• Burglars at the Ball (1907)
• The Big Swallow (1901)