Roger Corman takes time out during the Poe cycle to make a contemporary film, albeit one with many of his Poe gang (Floyd Crosby, Dan Haller, Les Baxter, etc.) and a story which could have been a period film. Indeed, at times I wish it was, with Vincent Price in the lead – though Ray Milland is fine as the scientist so devoted to finding a formula that enables him to see through things he experiments on himself.
It’s an original screenplay, and a good one – well, half good. Lots of smart stuff – it begins well, with believable mumbo jumbo and interesting scientific gobbledy gook. The structure isn’t right – at first it’s fine, with Milland experimenting on himself, then going to a party (nude jokes a la The Immoral Mr Teas), then pulling funding and turn to murder. But it feels as though the middle bit with Don Rickles should have been at the end, and the bit going to Vegas should have been the second act.
Also they set up these interesting support characters and drop them – the girl disappears from the middle, pops up at the end but she isn’t really used, you wish Rickles would come back, etc. The acting is good. Milland is believably determined (he lacks Vincent Price’s flamboyance but still goes ga-ga quite well). Rickles is very effective in an unsympathetic “straight” part that still incorporates a scene where he insults members of the general public.
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