gullwing592003 After "The Black Cat" in 1934 "The Raven" in 1935 the two horror icons Karloff & Lugosi teamed up again in "The Invisible Ray in 1936. Unlike the first two films The Invisible Ray has less horror & is actually an early foray into science fiction 14 years before it became an established popular genre in the 1950's.1936 Audiences must've been blown away at the early scenes of outer space showing the planets & stars predating "Destination Moon" in 1950. It's plot device is the model & set the standard for 1950's Sci-fi which was a bit ahead of it's time. The only other memorable science fiction film from 1936 is "Things To Come" a visionary film that travels 100 years into the "future". The Invisible Ray shows Bela Lugosi (Dracula) & Boris Karloff (Frankenstein) in roles very different & a departure from their signature identification stamps. Karloff is the visionary & somewhat mad scientist that really loses it as he slowly falls apart after exposure to Radium X . Lugosi in complete contrast is the balanced good doctor scientist that develops a counter-active to keep Karloff's radium poisoning in check for a short time as it wears off & he must have regular doses at certain times or he'll quoting Lugosi's line "Crumble to an ash" as only Lugosi can deliver a line. Bela as Dr. Felix Benet is a sharp contrast from Count Dracula his facial hair & beard gives him a radically different look & virtually removes his vampire image. He really shows his range & versatility here & he wasn't just Dracula he was a great actor. He got to show his versatility again in his next teaming with Karloff as the crazed shepard Ygor in "Son Of Frankenstein" in 1939. Lugosi upstages & steals the show from Karloff one of the reasons why Karloff stopped playing the monster. Boris as D. Janos Rukke was the first of his many mad doctor roles he would play & Bela also did his share of mad genius doctor roles later in the 1940's. The scenes of Karloff glowing in the dark from Radium X is very impressive special effects & still holds up today. The film gets better with age & never gets old & a film I can watch over & over. Bela & Boris were great on their own & even greater together. I have lots of their movies I can't get enough of these two masters of horror. Bela & Boris are the greatest horror kings of all time.

bkoganbing Universal Pictures teamed their two titans of terror once again in The Invisible Ray. Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi teamed many times, not always in the best of films. But this one is carried along on the strength of both men.Karloff and Lugosi are a pair of scientists, Karloff regarded as a quack and Lugosi considered one of the best. Lugosi is one of several people invited to Karloff's home for a demonstration of the power of his new telescope which plots the origin of a meteor that originated in the Andromeda nebula. The meteor landed in Africa and Karloff wants in on an expedition that Walter Kingsford and Beulah Bondi are planning with Lugosi. Of course Boris goes to Africa and discovers the fragments which he labels as Radium X, one hundred times more powerful than the stuff Marie Curie and her husband Pierre discovered. But what eventually killed them gets a hold of Boris and he becomes poisonous to the touch. Lugosi finds an AZT like antidote, which controls the symptoms. But the stuff eventually reaches Karloff's brains with some nasty results all around.Karloff plays his usual well meaning scientist whose experiments go terribly awry, he did that in any number of films and the Citadel Film series book on his films says that this was the first time he essayed that type of character. But Lugosi was cast far more offbeat. He's the good guy in this, you could almost say he was a Van Helsing type character up against sinister evil.The Invisible Ray shows both of the Universal stars to good advantage. Later on when they worked together or apart at poverty row studios the results were not as good as The Invisible Ray.

DarthVoorhees Karloff and Lugosi together again? Sign me up. The problem here is that we get a very silly film for our titans to bring to life. We can tell that the Carl Laemmle horror cycle has run out of ideas. This plot plays like a really silly atomic horror film made twenty or so years too early. There just isn't much horror in this film and the characters aren't that interesting besides for Lugosi's Dr. Benet.Karloff is probably playing the weakest character he got during the golden age of Universal horror. His motivations are really just super silly and without any sort of gravitas to them. He exists like one of the silliest James Bond mad scientists who wants to destroy and spread chaos because the plot dictates that he must. Karloff's performance also feels really phoned in. He doesn't seem to want to really delve into this character. There just seems to be a real lack of conviction which one doesn't expect from Karloff. Maybe if the stakes were raised I might care more. Much of the horror here is implied. Dr.Rukh's laser is just a macguffin and a rather boring one when we don't see what is there. Also, the film seems to suggest the radiation drives Rukh mad but Rukh just seems sinister and silly the entire film.Lugosi is good as a hero. I kind of really like him in this role. He's a lot of fun as a hero and generally is really in tune with this world. Karloff just doesn't give him a lot in return. I think back to the 'Black Cat' and the 'The Raven' where there is genuine chemistry based on a hate for each other. Karloff doesn't give Lugosi anything and so the film just kind of drags when Lugosi isn't there and even when he is it is kind of anti-climactic. I wish the film had gone much much darker. 'The Black Cat' and 'The Raven' were much better films because they were really dark and defied the Hollywood code. I was really hoping the kind of sexual subplot that was in those films would be relevant here but neither Karloff or Lugosi are interested in our leading lady who has possibly the worst male love interest in all of the Universal horrors. The idea of a radioactive charged rape is really twisted and rather brilliant, too bad they weren't smart enough to go into that.

Prichards12345 The third collaboration for Karloff and Lugosi sees a move away from Poe and into the realm of the science fiction serial. Karloff plays Dr. Janos Rukh, creator of a device that can capture light rays through his telescope in the Carpathian Mountains and translate them into pictures that form a visual history of the universe.Before several guests, including Lugosi as Dr. Benet, an astro-chemist who had previously scoffed at Rukh's theories, he demonstrates the existence of an unknown radioactive element, here termed "Radium X", contained in a meteor that fell to Earth in darkest Africa several thousand years ago. Karloff joins the expedition to prove his theories, but Radium X is a tricky compound - it levels mountains at long range, and cures blindness at short range. Rukh is careless, however, and poisons himself, glowing in the dark rather like those old Ready Breck commercials! Dr. Benet is on hand to devise a counter-active for the radiation, but combination of poison and cure drives Rukh insanely paranoid. Convinced he has been cheated, he seeks out the members of the expedition in Paris, including his estranged wife, and his very touch while in his radioactive state means death...Along the way we get the old pseudo-scientific idea that a dead person's eyes record the image of their killer (a remarkably distinct Karloff!) and the Radium X device used to symbolically melt statues that represent the expedition members. And even a touch of James Whale in a cockney landlady in Paris!The Invisible Ray is great fun, aside from the Gothic opening it's interesting to see Universal move the action around to Africa and Paris. The film lacks pace, but is always absorbing. Karloff slightly overdoes his performance but Lugosi is terrific. Universal used the basic story outline again in Man Made Monster, this time with Lon Chaney Jr. as the glowing menace (this time caused by electricity) and Lionel Atwill as a much madder doctor than Lugosi is here. The Invisible Ray is a sombre and clever little film with much to admire. Not as famous as other Universal Horrors, perhaps, but it works and is highly entertaining.