The Invisible Ray (1936)

- written February 2006

Summary: Janos Rukh is on an expedition in Africa to find an ancient meteorite. Splitting off from the group of other scientists, he finds it but becomes poisoned with its radioaton. Turns out, although he’s alive, everything he touches dies. His friend, Dr. Benet, comes up with a temporary cure to limit the effects to both Janos and everyone around Janos. But Janos has discovered this power to destroy, and he’s starting to go mad with the possibilities. Dr. Benet sees this and tries to use this new meteorite substance to help cure diseases. Soon these 2 will do battle over this discovery and mankind’s existence may well be in the balance.           Overall: I’ve seen a lot of good and also bad reviews for this movie. Some find the script quite weak and others find it a roller-coaster ride of fun. Frankly, I run down the middle. Lugosi does a nice job in 2nd billing as a subdued scientist without an evil bone in his body but Karloff’s performance is sort of over the top without the script helping justify this. It wants us to feel bad that his wife is pining for another guy, but then shows us the way he treats his wife…so I’m not feeling all the bad. The worst part about the film is the quality. It’s a shame after 70 years, this is the best we have left. No criticism of the DVD distributors…they did their best. But it reminds us we need to help save and preserve our older films.           Comparison: Creepshow meets Road to Morocco

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