From my experience, not a lot of people have seen or are aware of The Invisible Ray. This film was one of Universal’s last horror films from its “golden age” and is said to be an all-around very unusual film for the company. The premise, about backfiring research and a mad scientist, seems ridiculously out-of-place at times. Most of the performers for the film were on loan from either RKO or MGM. And, perhaps most “shocking” of all, Bela Lugosi plays the heroic character. My stars! Regardless of all of this supposed strangeness behind the existence of The Invisible Ray, it’s a highly entertaining lark but not a very good film.
The star here is the legendary Boris Karloff. He plays Hungarian scientist Dr. Janos Rukh. Rukh is one of these mad scientist archetypes that float around, heavily involved into his work and shoving other people away in the process. Rukh is married, somehow, to a beautiful woman (Frances Drake). She’s ridiculously young and we wonder how in the sweet blue she would up with a guy like Rukh. Still, there she is. Anywho, Rukh lives in a big stormy castle up in the Carpathian Mountains, where he works tirelessly on projects and research at the behest of his blind mother (Violet Kemble Cooper). Rukh’s reputation as a scientist is a little off and to the left, as he seems rather full of it and is widely regarded to be a little bit…..well, mad. To this equation, we add a sudden dinner party at which Rukh is dying to display his latest find to his dinner guests. Among the dinner guests are two of Rukh’s sharpest critics, Sir Francis Stevens (Walter Kingsford) and Dr. Benet (Bela Lugosi). Also, a young dashing cartographer named Ronald Drake (Frank Lawton) tags along for the ride.
Rukh shows his guests his findings and his experiment, which is rather like a giant telescope that shows a meteor hitting the earth. He then decides he has to find the meteor that hit the earth thousands of years ago, through using his ray from Andromeda of course, and sets out on an African expedition. I probably have a lot of this wrong, but the “plot” is hardly the most important aspect of this film. As Rukh gets to Africa, he immerses himself into his work, driving his wife into the hands and waiting arms of Drake. It doesn’t matter at the time because Rukh simply doesn’t notice. He’s too busy being “poisoned” by his findings and he winds up glowing in the dark and killing anything he touches as a result of contact with the meteor. Rukh goes to Dr. Benet for assistance and, within a few seconds, Benet has a cure that Rukh must take for the rest of his life. Yes!
The element within the meteor, called Radium X, is eventually harnessed and used by Rukh and Dr. Benet. Both men obviously use it for very different purposes, however. Dr. Benet uses it to cure people, while Rukh uses it to go on a bit of a killing rampage after learning of his wife’s relationship with the Drake (sorry, Seinfeld joke). We love the Drake! As all hell breaks loose and Rukh is leaving his little glow-in-the-dark handprints all over the throats of his victims, it’s up to Dr. Benet to rally the troops and stop this madman before it’s too late.
This kooky sci-fi is pretty different from the norm for a studio (Universal) that was mostly doing gothic horror tales at the time. Hell, it was even a bit removed for Lugosi and Karloff, as it was even a bit too kooky for them. Nonetheless, The Invisible Ray is a great deal of fun and is ridiculous campy goodness. So many logical questions might arise, but for the love of God stop asking questions during movies! Instead, The Invisible Ray is a camp hit that was largely overlooked. It has some great moments of jealousy and terror in it, although it’s certainly not a horror film. Instead, it’s Karloff and Lugosi that steal the show as they play off of one another to the fiery finish. The effects aren’t great, but they aren’t bad either, and the whole film is a bit of an exercise in high dramatic camp. See it if you can.
6/10
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