1897 – The X-Ray Fiend

Directed by: George Albert Smith

This is an early British example of the substitution splice, a special effect already used by Alfred Clark in The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895) and extensively by Georges Méliès in films such as Escamotage d’une dame chez Robert-Houdin / The Conjuring of a Woman at the House of Robert Houdin (1896) and Le Manoir du Diable / The House of the Devil (1896). The novelty of this film is its subject matter: x-rays had been discovered by Wilhelm Röntgen only a little over a year prior, on November 8, 1895. It led to something of a craze at the time, including countless public demonstrations and comic strips detailing the new discovery.

From Punch (vol. CX) 1896 Almanack (noted under March 7, 1896).

In 1897, George Albert Smith incorporated it into a comedic sketch film, starring a man and a woman who are transformed into skeletons by a scientist brandishing a device similar to a camera (clearly labeled “X RAYS”). It highlights the complicated nature of film – on one hand, it is a reflection of the times (of some anthropological value) but on the other hand, whether for the sake of entertainment or due to general ignorance, it presents a fiction that gets details of the phenomena wrong (x-rays as something you uncap and release and cause people and objects to physically transform). It raises the question: is seeing truly believing?

Bibliography

Gershon, L. (2019). ‘The X-Ray Craze of 1896’, JSTOR Daily, 14 November. Available at: https://daily.jstor.org/the-x-ray-craze-of-1896/ [Accessed: 2 January 2022]

IMDb contributors (n.d.). ‘The X-Ray Fiend (1897)’, IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000172/ [Accessed: 1 January 2022].

Kramer, F. (2016). ‘The X-Rays (1897) A Silent Film Review’, Movies Silently, 19 February. Available at: http://moviessilently.com/2016/02/19/the-x-rays-1897-a-silent-film-review/ [Accessed: 1 January 2022].

Long, T. (2010). ‘Nov. 8, 1895: Roentgen Stumbles Upon X-Rays’, Wired, 8 November. Available at: https://www.wired.com/2010/11/1108roentgen-stumbles-x-ray/ [Accessed: 1 January 2022].

McKernan, L. (2010). ‘X-ray fiends’, The Bioscope, 10 August. Available at: https://thebioscope.net/2010/08/10/x-ray-fiends/ [Accessed: 1 January 2022].