I thought it was fantastic. America finally has its own daikaiju.
1953 -
The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, with creature animation by Ray Harryhausen. That's a year ahead of
Godzilla.
...and I remember seeing on the news the controversy about the night-vision: they had some sort of X-ray ability, as in they were able to see through clothes. I never saw it, but I remember it being on the news and the guy I worked with witnessed it with his camera. I don't know, though, if the original night vision was infrared or something else. Whatever it was, they had to change it.
It was some kind of infrared. The "X-ray image" thing was more of an illusion, that works in two ways. Any part of clothing that was insulated from body heat (either by undergarments, or thick seams, or by virtue of not being in direct contact with the skin) would be cooler than thin fabric stretched tight across body ... features. The cooler areas appear darker.
So, for tight garments you have the contrast between the fabric that is in contact with skin and the fabric that bridges across, say, two butt cheeks, which gives a 3D shading effect for normally invisible features.
Add to that the outlining of multiple layers of fabric, such as seams, pockets, undergarments, etc. and it reinforces the illusion of X-ray vision.
My understanding was that Sony stopped production of consumer night-vision-capable cameras because of the fuss about supposed X-ray pix.
This type of X-ray specs, OTOH, can be approximated by looking through a white feather as a filter, which merely forms a diffused image.