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
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
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)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.