The Invisible Ray (1936)

Director:

Lambert Hillyer

Writers:

Howard Higgin (original story) &
Douglas Hodges (original story) ...

Release Date:

20 January 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Delving into new, strange fields of mystery!

Plot:

Visionary scientist Janos Rukh convinces a group of scientists and supporters to mount an expedition...

Plot Keywords:

Expedition | Scientist | Antidote | Revenge | Meteor

Cast

Boris Karloff	...	Dr. Janos Rukh (as Karloff)
Bela Lugosi	...	Dr. Felix Benet
Frances Drake	...	Diane Rukh
Frank Lawton	...	Ronald Drake
Violet Kemble Cooper	...	Mother Rukh
Walter Kingsford	...	Sir Francis Stevens
Beulah Bondi	...	Lady Arabella Stevens
Frank Reicher	...	Professor Meiklejohn
Paul Weigel	...	Monsieur Noyer
Georges Renavent	...	Chief of the Surete (as Georges Renevant)

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #1746) | USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

The scene of Boris Karloff being lowered into the pit containing the Radium X meteor was reused in a 1939 Universal serial, "The Phantom Creeps," starring Bela Lugosi. Karloff essentially "doubled" for Lugosi in the sequence since in "The Phantom Creeps" it was Lugosi who was lowered into the pit.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The film shows a clipping from a news magazine announcing that the principal characters have gone on an expedition to Nigeria to find the meteor containing Radium X. Yet in the earlier sequence showing the meteor landing on earth, it hit on the southwest coast of Africa over 1,000 miles away from Nigeria.

Quotes:

Ronald Drake: Diana, my dear, there are no such things as curses!

Movie Connections:

Edited into Mondo Lugosi (1987)

Soundtrack:

Bridal Chorus (Here Comes the Bride)

Sci Fi Caviar

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.