George Albert Smith
George Albert Smith, The X-Ray Fiend
In 1897, English film pioneer George Albert Smith used early special effects to depict X-ray vision in his film The X-Ray Fiend, also known as The X-Rays. He used costumes combined with the so-called stop trick to suggest the X-raying of a flirting couple. The two are surprised by an ominous man who targets them with a camera-like X-ray device. Their skeletons then become visible. The lover is seen through by his beloved in multiple senses and stops his advances. The film takes up several themes associated with the early days of X-ray technology: from the expansion of human perspective to the fear of abusive voyeuristic use to the more or less pleasant memento mori horror that emanates from X-ray images.