THE INVISIBLE RAY / Beware The Luminous Man! - 1936

This is a favorite movie I used to watch in the fifties on Friday nights on channel 47 out of Fresno. In this tale, visionary scientist Dr. Janos Rukh has proof that an ancient meteorite of great significance landed in Africa, and wants to put together an expedition of associates to go there and find the cosmic prize...

The stars are Boris (THE BLACK CAT) Karloff, Bela (THE RAVEN) Lugosi, Frances (MAD LOVE) Drake, Frank (THE DEVIL DOLL -1936) Lawton, Violet Kemble (THE INVISIBLE MAN) Cooper, Walter (GHOST CATCHERS) Kingsford and Beulah (THE SNAKE PIT) Bondi.

It all starts here, at the observatory of  Dr. Janos Rukh, he's asked a few of his associates to come and behold his uncanny discovery.

He has captured light emanating from the Andromeda Galaxy, and with it, he can explore space, travelling faster that the speed of light! 

And here's the kicker, he can see into the past.. He shows the spectators where a special meteorite fell to Earth in Africa eons ago, and the location for the expedition he proposes to them. They all agree to participate.

The doctor locates the meteorite (shades of Lovecraft) and is busy mining for the unnatural elements to further his experiments.

But, he's starting to change and his sadistic side rears its ugly head. He shows the natives working with him what his ray can do, melt rocks!! Then he tells them that if they try and leave, well, that is what will happen to them!

That night, the horrible truth becomes clear, he has been poisoned by his handling of the unpredictable elements he's mining. And, anyone he touches, dies!

Rakh goes to see Dr. Benet, who also came on the expedition. Benet comes up with a serum to make Janos normal, but he has to use it on a daily basis, for the rest of his life! Benet gives him the formula for the serum and an injection kit.

So, everyone comes back from Africa, Janos tries to cure his mother's blindness with a special ray he's developed. And, it works!

Janos is losing his mind. He now thinks that he must murder all the people that were on the expedition, including his wife Diana! So, he finds this guy and fools him into thinking he has a job, but becomes the mutilated corpse of Dr. Rukh. He has faked his death so that he couldn't be tied to the killings he's about to commit.

This expedition member is the first to go. But Dr. Benet is suspicious and takes some photos of the face of the deceased man...

Upon inspection of a close up of the man's eye, he sees that Dr. Rukh was responsible!

And after a few more deaths, this weird article appears in The Paris Herald.

So, knowing that Dr. Rukh is alive (but not well), Dr. Benet and others plan a mock get together with invited science community members. The plan is to lure the doctor to the house and at a certain moment, turn the lights out to reveal the luminous maniac who's touch can kill. And if they have to, gun him down!

Dr. Rukh has just killed a scientist to get his admittance card required to enter the premises. He goes to the back door and surprises Dr. Benet inside, and after a few words, Janos reaches out and kills his old friend with a touch. Now here's the part that really makes me angry, Dr. Benet is the Best Guy in the whole world, why in the Hell did he have to die!! F U!

He goes to his ex and threatens to kill her (she remarried after Janos supposedly died). But, he just can't do it...

Whoa boy!.. The glowing Janos is surprised when his mother shows up and puts him in his place. She takes her cane and knocks his medical kit out of his hands and it lies broken on the floor! She tells him, my son, you have broken the first law of science! He starts smoldering and replies, yes mother, I have!..

He runs to a window and jumps through it, and before he hits the ground he's just a ball of flames!! What a waste.

So, here's another great poster from this wild movie, from us to you!

DEAD MAN'S EYES - "An Inner Sanctum Mystery" (1944)

 

Like Jay and the Techniques said back in 1966, 'We gotta keep the ball rollin" and also just like "The Hokey Pokey," that's what this Saturday Night Special is all about!

 

Tonight's feature is the third of six "Inner Sanctum" mysteries that were made between 1943 to 1945. "Inner Sanctum" was a radio show that aired from January 7, 1941 to October 5, 1952, and this series of movies happened after Universal bought the rights in 1943.

 

 

Each of these "Inner Sanctum" films except the last one, "Pillow Of Death" opened with the disembodied head of David Hoffman as "The Spirit Of The Inner Sanctum" giving a brief warning to the viewing audience.

 

As you can see, it was probably quite painful for Mr. Hoffman, whose last role was that of the messenger in William Castle's "13 Ghosts."

Lon Chaney Jr. was the star of all six of the ""Inner Sanctum" films.

 

 In this one, Lon is Dave Stuart, a good artist with a promising career. In this shot, he's working on his current project, a portrait of a woman named Tanya as played by the awesome actress Acquanetta. I've often wondered if she ever got paid for the use of her name by the makers of Acqua Net hair spray!

When his eyes get tired, Dave puts boric acid on them to make them feel better, but it would have probably been better for him if he didn't store acetic acid on the same shelf!

It's nice to see Lon in a role where he's a suave and debonair gentleman instead of some kind of monster! Dave and his fiance Heather are getting ready to get hitched, and life is good. Heather is played by Jean Parker, whose many roles have included women with names like Mazie, Timka, Toni, Betty, Sally, Molly, Kitty, Necia, Della, Dixie, Madge, Frances, Doris, Shirley, Hatti, Dolly, and Clara, and that's only about half of them!

Dave thinks his pal, a psychiatrist named Alan and his model Tanya, would make a swell couple, but secretly Tanya is in love with Dave instead. Alan was played by Paul Kelly, who in 1915 starred in a series of 18 comedy shorts about a guy named Willie Jarr.

Tanya accidentally got the bottles out of order, and Dave gets acetic instead of boric acid in his already sore eyes!

Dave is permanently blinded, which for a painter of fine arts, is just not cool.

Dave believes and agrees that it was just a mistake, and isn't vindictive toward Tanya at all.

Heather's Dad is very rich, and he likes Dave a lot, enough so that he tells Dave that he will make out a will that says when he dies, they can remove his corneas for an operation that might possibly restore Dave's vision. Edward Fielding had the role of Stanley Hayden. In his first role in 1916, Edward played Dr. Watson in a movie called "Sherlock Holmes."

 

I honestly believe this is the weirdest fireplace I have ever seen, just like an open fire in the room. I'm assuming there's some kind of vent above it there in the wall

Dave is understandably on a bummer, and he doesn't even want to get married any more.

Now Dave is just spending all his time drinking. The good news is that he gets to wear cool dark glasses!

One night Heather comes home to find her Father dead on the floor. Dave is there for no understandable reason, and worse than that, his hands are covered with blood!

Heather freaks!

 

The newspapers are all over this story, because even though Dave is the suspected murderer, he is still in the will as the recipient of the dead man's eyes.

He gets the surgery, and it seems like after all that, it was still a failure.

 

Somebody murders Tanya, and the portly Captain Drury who has been on the case the whole time, does everything he can come up with to prove that the operation was a success, and that Dave can actually now see, and is perfectly capable of murder. Thomas Gomez as Captain Drury is another one of those special people that was in more than one episode of "The Twilight Zone." Those two shows were "Escape Clause," an "Dust." Oddly enough, Thomas's first role in 1942 was also a Sherlock Holmes film titled "Sherlock Holmes And The Voice Of Terror."

  Dave really didn't kill Tanya or Heather's Dad, and his vision really was restored. There's a happy ending, and Heather gets to wear that crazy looking hat, and look good doing it some how.

THE WOLF MAN / MAN TURNED BEAST... - 1941

Us guys here at The Dungeon are on a binge to find all the great stuff from the thirties and forties that we haven't reviewed yet, like today's post, THE WOLF MAN, so hold on to your hats! Our story goes like this... Larry Talbot returns to his ancestral home in Wales after his brother (who looked exactly like Larry) dies. One night, him, Gwen Conliffe and Jenny Williams are out for a walk in the woods where Jenny's  picking some Wolf's Bane flowers. They end up at a local carnival where they meet a mysterious gypsy fortune teller named Bela...

This classic horror tale stars Lon (SON OF DRACULA) Chaney, Claude (THE INVISIBLE MAN) Rains, Warren (THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS) Williams, Ralph (THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN) Bellamy, Patric (FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN) Knowles, Bela (THE INVISIBLR RAY) Lugosi, Maria (TARZAN AND THE AMAZONS) Ouspenskaya and Evelyn (THE FROZEN GHOST) Ankers.

So, Larry has come home after his bro dies, he settles in and helps his father repair his telescope. The one thing about this movie that really bugs me is that no way is Claude Rains Larry's father, they look nothing alike and are about a foot difference in height. That includes his dead brother who looks exactly like Larry!! They must have had a wild looking mom!

Larry looks through the telescope and sees a heavenly image, and goes to her shop to meet her. It's also weird that Gwen doesn't recognize Larry when his brother had lived there for years!! Anyway, Larry buys a cane with a wolf's head handle and she tells him some of the history behind the wolf's head, and it involves werewolves!

The night Larry, Gwen and Jenny go to the carnival, Jenny wants her fortune told so Bela invites her into his tent for a reading. Bela asks to hold her hands, and he sees the pentagram on her palm. He then tells her that she needs to run away from the area and get to somewhere safe.

Well, Jenny is attacked and killed by a wolf and the animal then attacks Larry when he comes to help. Larry ends up killing the wolf with his cane after being bitten on the chest...

At the murder scene, the authorities confirms that Jenny was killed by a wolf, but there's no wolf! Instead, they find Bela face down, dead. They also notice that he isn't wearing any shoes. Another weird thing, Jenny and Larry were both clearly attacked by a wolf, not a monster wearing clothes!

And guess what, they found Larry's cane at the murder scene! Clearly, Larry killed Bela with his cane by mistake in the heat of the battle with the wolf.

Larry finds Maleva and needs to know the answers to his questions. Unfortunately, she only has bad news for him...

And it isn't long before Larry's out looking for more victims. He finds a grounds keeper at the graveyard and deep-sixes him!.. Ironic!

By now Larry's convinced that he's a werewolf so dad brings in Dr. Lloyd to talk with his son. But, the doctor and friends there all say that it just has to be Larry's imagination.

Well, it's definitely NOT his imagination! This part kills me, poor Larry has stepped into a large trap set out for him by the authorities and it's clinging to his ankle as he writhes in agony. He passes out and turns back to his human form. He awakens and hobbles back to his house, even past the authorities because he was Larry Talbot, and not a werewolf!

Larry does not know what to do! He wants to see Gwen but as he's talking with her, he sees a pentagram on her palm, he freaks out and runs into the night.

He goes home and has his father tie him to a chair and lock the doors and windows, to assure that he will be restrained and can't do any harm, if he does so happen to change into the dreaded wolf man!

While the authorities keep up the search for the werewolf, Maleva rides by in her cart. Larry's dad stops her and wants to know why she's filling his son's head with all those crazy ideas. But the wise old lady has a few things to say herself.

Of course, Gwen is next!

So, dad ends up killing his own son, finally realizing that Larry was right all along... Don't worry, Gwen is okay, but it's not a happy ending.

We'll end with this very cool Mexican poster! Check in tomorrow, here at The Dungeon!