The X-Rays

The X-Rays (also known as The X-Ray Fiend^[1]) 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"^[2] 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.^[2]

The X-Rays
Directed by	George Albert Smith
Produced by	George Albert Smith
Starring	Tom Green Laura Bayley
Cinematography	George Albert Smith
Production company	G.A. Smith
Distributed by	Warwick Trading Company
Release date	October 1897 (1897-10)
Running time	44 seconds
Country	United Kingdom
Language	Silent