The Invisible Ray

The Invisible Ray is an excellent display of both the acting talents of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. Karloff pulls off a flawless performance as a sullen and conflicted scientist who appears to put his scientific achievements ahead of his relationships with others, even his wife. His already loner personality becomes unbearable as he becomes paranoid.

Lugosi plays the consummate professional, who is passionate about his work but still finds time to maintain on good terms with everyone, but still seems to have no real close friends. This was one of his few roles as a good guy and he plays it very well. It is hard, however to hear his accent and believe he is French.

The biggest problem with the movie was that it was all based on "junk science" but, in a way, even the junk science makes it work well. Since the ideas and theories are completely idiotic, they are as "relevant" today as they were when the movie was made. And they are also as forward reaching- and always will be.

This is a perfectly delightful movie to watch again and again. I saw it maybe 5 times this weekend and I could easily sit through it five more times. The acting is marvelous and the science is amusing. I highly recommend it.

THE INVISIBLE RAY (1936) Starring Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Frances Drake, Frank Lawton, Walter Kingsford Directed by Lambert Hillyer

Universal's third pairing of Lugosi and Karloff strays in to the realm of science fiction while retaining many of the elements of horror for which the studio was famous.

Janos Rukh (Karloff) is a brilliant, workaholic scientist who lives with his beautiful wife (Drake) and mother in a sprawling gothic castle/laboratory/observatory in the storm-swept Carpathian Mountains (where else?).

Sir Francis Stevens (Kingsford) and wife, accompanied by the skeptical Dr. Felix Benet (Lugosi), arrive to see Rukh's latest discovery. By following a ray of light that left the Andromeda galaxy millions of years ago back to its source, he can see back in time. What he is able to show them is a giant meteor striking the surface of the Earth, on the African continent "thousands of millions" of years ago. With this proof that such a catastrophe occurred, he is able to embark on an expedition to Africa. The meteor is found and Rukh is able to harness a strange power that emanates from it...Radium X. Unfortunately, this mysterious element also causes Rukh to glow in the dark. And, as if that weren't bad enough, everyone who touches him dies. Dr. Benet comes up with a counteractive which will not cure Rukh, but will at least make him tolerable to have around. As with all such things, there is a price...Benet cannot promise what effects the counteractive will have on Rukh's mind.

For a film released in 1936, THE INVISIBLE RAY has some pretty good special effects. The image of the meteor sailing toward the Earth is impressive, though the actual impact is less than spectacular. The scene where Rukh launches his invisible ray at a rock formation and reduces it to nothing is also good, even by today's standards. The scenes at Rukh's home are what give THE INVISIBLE RAY its creepy atmosphere. As in other Universal horror productions, the set is made of almost exclusively vertical elements, casting long shadows. The doorways are so tall the tops of them disappear somewhere beyond the top of the screen. A middle segment that takes place in Africa is less eerie, but it does provide a nice setting for us to first see Rukh's glowing face and hands.

THE INVISIBLE RAY is a fun movie to watch despite (or because of?) a few flaws, like the fact that all of the Paris newspapers seem to be printed in English. Not as fun is the film's racist depiction of the African porters. Even allowing for the attitude of the time in which the film was made, these scenes will still make most modern viewers cringe.

One doesn't get to enjoy this gem, the 1936 Invisible Ray, often. But no can forget it. The story is elegant. Karloff, austere and embittered in his Carpathian mountain retreat, is Janos Rukh, genius science who reads ancient beams of light to ascertain events in the great geological past…particularly the crash of a potent radioactive meteor in Africa. Joining him is the ever-elegant Lugosi (as a rare hero), who studies "astro-chemistry." Frances Drake is the lovely, underused young wife; Frank Lawton the romantic temptation; and the divine Violet Kemble Cooper is Mother Rukh, in a performance worthy of Maria Ospenskya.

The story moves swiftly in bold episodes, with special effects that are still handsome. It also contains some wonderful lines. One Rukh restores his mother's sight, he asks, "Mother, can you see, can you see?" "Yes, I can see…more clearly than ever. And what I see frightens me." Even better when mother Rukh says, "He broke the first law of science." I am not alone among my acquaintance in having puzzled for many many years exactly what this first law of science is.

This movie is definitely desert island material.

THE INVISIBLE RAY is a highly enjoyable horror film that seems way ahead of its time, coming as it does in 1936 and making use of meteors and Radium X in its plot design. BORIS KARLOFF is the scientist whose ideas are "stolen", or so he believes, by others and goes about seeking an unusual method of revenge, killing off his intended victims one by one.

FRANK LAWTON and FRANCES DRAKE are the romantic leads with BEULAH BONDI playing an aristocratic Lady Arabella who is one of the victims. But the film is mainly a showcase for BORIS KARLOFF as the mad scientist, with BELA LUGOSI doing extremely well (and underplaying effectively) the role of a colleague among those on the "victim" list.

Universal obviously planned this as a low-budget feature, but the sets are impressive, all the technical credits are more than adequate, and the story is well-paced and effective throughout.

Well worth viewing and certainly one of the better Karloff/Lugosi joint ventures.

The scientist Janos Rukh (Boris Karloff) has been expelled from the scientific community due to the lack of credibility in his researches. Living isolated in a castle with his blind mother (Violet Kemble Cooper) and his wife Diane (Frances Drake), he makes a private presentation of the recently discovered invisible ray to his colleague Dr. Felix Benet (Bela Lugosi), and succeeds in being sponsored by Sir Francis Stevens (Walter Kingsford) and his wife Lady Arabella Stevens (Beulah Bondi) in an expedition to Nigeria, where he believe he could find a meteor with Radium X. Once in Africa, Janos leaves the expedition alone and finds the meteor, but is exposed to its radiation, acquiring a deadly touch that immediately kills anyone who is touched by him. Meanwhile, Diane falls in love for the son of Lady Arabella, Ronald Drake (Frank Lawton). Dr. Benet finds an antidote to control the effects of the radiation in Janos to be daily injected, but advises that the side effect could bring madness to him. Dr. Benet returns to Paris and steals the findings of Janos, exposing and using Janos's researches to the scientific community, while the deranged Janos seeks revenge against those that have betrayed him.

"The Invisible Ray" is a delightfully silly and naive sci-fi visibly inspired in H.G. Well's "The Invisible Man" of 1933. This minor film is a great opportunity to see Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi acting together. The story is entertaining but with questionable ethical and moral behaviors of the lead characters. Dr. Felix Benet steals the research of his colleague that needed to recover the esteem together with the scientific community for self-profit and self- promotion. Diane Rukh has an affair with Ronald Drake in the absence of her husband in Africa. Mother Rukh breaks the only chance of survival of her only son that loved her and recovered and healed her vision. And Janos Rukh does not tell his wife that is sick and kills innocent people to reach his personal vendetta. In the end, all the characters are unpleasant. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Raio Invisível" ("The Invisible Ray")