One Of Boris Karloff’s Most Underappreciated Monsters Deserves The Spotlight
Dr. Rukh should be considered a classic horror movie monster.
Boris Karloff is one of the most iconic and esteemed horror stars/creature performers in cinema history, responsible for some of the most memorable monsters of all time. Frankenstein’s Monster and The Mummy must be mentioned of course, but Karloff boasted appearances in a whopping 1974 films over his nearly 50-year film career. His roles ranged from work as an extra in the 1919 serial Lightning Rider to his final American film, Peter Bogdanovich's spectacular 1968 thriller Targets.
With an impressive emotional range and a memorable intensity, Karloff’s praises are widely sung, but one of his best films gets regrettably eclipsed by his higher profile outings. It’s time we revisit the legacy of 1936’s remarkably unsung Universal outing, The Invisible Ray.
The film centers on astronomer Dr. Janos Rukh (Karloff), who has developed a telescope that can reportedly look far enough at light rays in deep space that it can give a glimpse into Earth’s past. He invites skeptical colleagues Dr. Benet (Bela Lugosi), Sir Francis Stevens (Walter Kingsford) and his wife Lady Arabella (Beulah Bondi), as well as her nephew Ronald Drake (Frank Lawton) to witness his test of the telescope and the device that can “read” the information recorded on that light beam. The test is a success, and it leads Dr. Benet and Sir Francis Stevens to invite Dr. Rukh to an expedition where they discover an ancient meteorite. Rukh gets exposed to its undiscovered radiation, “Radium X,” which causes him to glow and gives him a deadly destructive touch.
Dr. Benet develops a serum that slows the radiation’s toxic effects, but the exposure still warps Rukh’s mind. He simultaneously discovers that Dr. Benet and Sir Stevens have taken a sample of the meteorite to an international conference to prevent its monopolization, and that his wife Diana (Frances Drake) has run away with Ronald. Driven mad by the radiation, he goes on a revenge mission to kill the members of the expedition, with a suspicious Dr. Benet in hot pursuit.
While Karloff is still best known for his magnificent portrayal of some of cinema’s most enduring monsters, his work as Dr. Rukh belongs in that conversation. In the film, he transforms from a bitter scientist to a wounded husband, then into a monomaniacal killing machine, grounding the role with surprising nuance for a movie that requires him to glow in the dark. Karloff’s line delivery is top-notch here (“I could kill a nation, all nations,” he says in reflection on his newfound powers), and it’s notable for a truly tragic finale, as the person Rukh loved the most is the one who does him in.
Lugosi and Karloff face off for the third and final time.
The Invisible Ray itself has a unique place in film history for a variety of reasons. After Karloff and Lugosi became national celebrities thanks to Frankenstein, Dracula, and other monster classics, Universal paired the duo in a further set of three films: the horror-comedy The Black Cat (1934), the Poe-inspired The Raven, and The Invisible Ray. As the last collaboration of the three, Ray is a milestone in their distinguished careers, and they have a stellar dynamic. As Rukh gets more menacing on his killing spree, Bela Lugosi’s Dr. Benet brings intelligence and a measured empathy to the role, and they play off each other well.
The 1936 film is also a pioneering sci-fi spectacle in a distinguished and influential tradition. Concerns over radiation’s destructive power fueled numerous films during the 1950s golden age of science fiction cinema, from American films like Them! (1954), Creature with the Atom Brain (1955), and The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), to the Hammer Horror outing X the Unknown (1956), or Japan’s pathbreaking kaiju epic Godzilla (1954). The Invisible Ray, however, has a solid claim to being the first film sci-fi horror film to use deadly radioactive mutations as a plot device (even if the science is remarkably iffy, and the specific radiation is made up). It’s a genuine landmark in what will become a wildly influential subgenre, nearly 20 years ahead of its time.
For all these reasons, we should revisit and remember The Invisible Ray as the classic that it is. There are some spotty colonial politics during the African expedition that are clearly remnants of its era, but it’s otherwise an important part of film history. Karloff gives another great creature performance, here able to emote more thanks to an effects-driven, makeup-free role. It’s a great collaboration with Lugosi, a monumental work in the radioactive horror subgenre, and a fun revenge story to boot. Now at 90 years old, it’s high time we remember how genuinely excellent it really is.
