The Invisible Ray (1936)*** (out of 4) Dr. Janos Rukh (Boris Karloff) discovers a new form of radiation and he hopes to do great things with it but he becomes poisoned and soon everything he touches dies.This here was the third teaming between Karloff and Bela Lugosi and as fans often point out this film here isn't nearly in the same league as THE BLACK CAT or THE RAVEN. In a large part this is due to the fact that horror films were pretty much banned and were not put into production for several years. This here meant that there weren't any "horror" movies from the studio and all of their famous monsters remained on the shelf. What we got a spike in were old dark house movies and more science-fiction type of films, which is what THE INVISIBLE RAY here.The film isn't a complete success but if you're a fan of the two stars then it's certainly good enough to hold your attention. What works the best is the performance by Karloff who once again does a very good job at making you believe he is the character as well as making you like the character. I really thought he gave a very strong performance here and he once again works extremely well with Lugosi. Lugosi is given a fairly weak role here but whenever the two legends are on the screen together you can see that they both raise their game.The film has a lot of dialogue scenes that tend to drag on a bit but where the film really works are the science ones. I really liked the special effects of Karloff's hands and face glowing. I also liked how the radiation story played out. One just wishes that they had given more screen time to the special effects instead of the dialogue.

A good and interesting older sci-fi film. I love the idea of finding a cure for blindness but this particular fictitious form of radium called Radium X also has it's dark side if it falls into the wrong hands (as we see in the film). This movie is a grim reminder that scientific discoveries in real life (as well as in the movies) can be used for good but it can be used for bad/evil if one uses that way.Great film for fans of the science fiction genre. It tells the story of Dr. Janos Rukh (Karloff) who discovered the (fictitious) Radium X, is exposed to the poison and becomes a murderous maniac against the scientists and supporters of the expedition were the Radium X was found.7.5/10

Universal tried to capitalize on the fame of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi by putting them in a bunch of vehicles together.In this one, Boris plays the Mad Scientist and Bela plays the good one, who find an element in Africa called "Radium X" because they couldn't think of cool new names for elements back then. Boris is infected with Raidum X, becoming a killing machine that glows in the dark if he doesn't take his meds. He proceeds to lose his wife to another man and then his mind, and goes on a killing spree.The ironic thing was, Lugosi always saw himself as a leading man, and this was probably as close as he got. His accent got in the way, and he didn't quite work here, being dead for the last five minutes of the movie.Cringe-worthy, the portrayal of African characters.

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.