Tonight I saw an awesome movie : "The Invisible Ray" (1936), from my newly arrived four pack of Karloff/Lugosi movies, ones in which Boris & Bela co-starred. I'd known of this movie for ages, and had long been meaning to see it, but the Libe never had a copy, and a dvd at Amazon was cost prohibitive for a while. Some of the various studios' have older films that they release as part of "Archive" or "Vault" collections. These older films are duplicated "on demand" to dvd-r discs; in other words, they don't have a stock supply like they do with popular new or recent movies. Instead, they just print up and package a small amount of dvd-rs for the limited demand, and because the demand is limited, they usually charge 17 to 19 bucks for these "Archive" movies. As much as I wanna see a great many of them, I won't pay that high a price.
But wait! Because I occasionally scan Amazon for all the zillions of unseen movies and movie stars that go round and round in my head, I finally found "The Invisible Ray" not only at an affordable price, but in a package that also includes three other Lugosi/Karloff Classics, the titles of which I'll not reveal until I watch them.
Movie titles are a big deal, I think. I mean, if you nail the title, it will draw half of your audience right off the bat. In this case, it worked that way on me. I love sci-fi, hence I love anything having to do with rays, or ray guns. I've even seen a real live ray gun, as you know, at the Wilbur Wash.
Now that would make for a great title right there, for a sci-fi Western : "Ray Guns At The Wilbur Wash".
"Wilbur" is about as Western a name as you can get, and "Wash" is totally Western, like "Gully". And then you have the juxtaposition of "Ray Guns" to bring in the sci-fi element.
I'd watch it! Man, I'd be there on opening night. :)
But back to "The Invisible Ray", not only does it have a great title, it has everything else too :
A Mad Scientist! That's Boris Karloff of course. He lives and works in a Creepy Old Castle in the Carpathian Mountains, which means.....Incredible Sets!, full of Huge Electrical Generators and Control Panels and Weird Tesla Equipment. He also has a Giant Telescope through which he has zoomed in on the Andromeda Nebula, 750 Million Light Years Away. Now he is looking backwards in time, and he sees a humongous meteor from Andromeda crash land in Africa, long ago in the distant past. Boris believes that the meteor contained an element more powerful than Radium, and he sets out to find it, with fellow scientist Bela Lugosi, who is skeptical of Karloff's Klaims, and also another professor and his family.
So now you are on an African Safari! I told you this movie had it all. :)
And, the main turning point of the plot has to do with.......love!
Boris has a wife (Frances Drake), but she only married him to please her father, and once she meets the handsome son of the third professor on the safari, the cracks begin to show.
That is all I am gonna tell you about this classic of science fiction. It is an obscure classic that deserves to be well known, and once again I must harp on the ability of screenwriters of that era to tell a Ton Of Story and show A Truckload Of Scenes in a mere 79 minutes.
Think about it. Three themes. 1) The Discovery Of The Meteor From Andromeda, including all the great sets from the Carpathian Laboratory. 2) The African Safari, complete with natives, to find the site of the meteor. 3) The Love Triangle, which starts early and plays out until the end.
That's good screenwriting, folks. Not to mention all the smaller parts involved.
Two Big Thumbs Up for "The Invisible Ray", one of the great films from the Universal Horror era, though it is really a sci-fi. ///
Elizabeth, I was glad to see your photo this morning from the Columbia River. It shows the wide open landscape I am reading about in my Indigenous Peoples history book. I have never been to Oregon but I know that you are in Lewis and Clark territory, and it is inspiring to think that there is land in North America that still looks the same as it did hundreds and thousands of years ago. Just to stand in such a place and be part of it, and absorb it, is a wonderful feeling. I am guessing that you are there on a film project, and I know it will be great. :) I am happy that you are doing what you do.
Post more photos if you have a chance.
See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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