The Age of Commercialism

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Lambert Hillyer directed this science fiction story starring Boris Karloff as Dr. Janos Rukh, who organizes an expedition to Africa to locate a newly discovered meteorite of reputed power. Unfortunately, Janos becomes ill when exposed to it, though Dr. Felix Benet(played by Bela Lugosi) finds a cure for his radiation sickness. When they return to London, Benet uses the radiation to develop a cure for blindness, making him a hero, though Janos becomes embittered by what he considers the theft of his discovery, so uses his newfound power to kill by touch to avenge himself on his perceived enemies... Good film has a fine cast and interesting story, which makes inspired use of its familiar plot to create a moving tragedy.

Boris Karloff, billed only as Karloff in capital letters, plays a mad scientist who stumbles onto a meteoric substance that boasts incredible healing powers. Unfortunately, this radium X poisons our protagonist so he has to inject himself with a counteractive agent to survive the stuff. Dr. Felix Benet (Bela Lugosi of "Dracula") heralds Dr. Janos Rukh's discovery, and they embark on an expedition to Africa to find the meteorite. The scenes before this revelation are very strange. Dr. Rukh (Karloff) is fascinated by the nebula in Andromeda. He sets out to capture a ray from this nebula and have it transferred electronically to the projector in his laboratory at Carpathia. They would recreate what was recorded on that beam of lights. Initially, the scientific society is dubious about Rukh's claims. Sir Francis observes that the theory of reproducing vibrations from the past is not new. Rukh is able to capture an occurrence that took place millions of years ago. Rukh, his wife, Sir Francis, and Dr. Benet go on expedition to Africa. Not long afterward, Rukh leaves the main expedition and finds the meteorite. He harnesses its power to keep his superstitious workers in line. He demonstrates the power of his radium X device and the tribesmen become his hostages. Rukh can aim the radium gun and use it to kill. Later, in Paris, other members of the expedition have revealed their invaluable find in Africa. At the same time, Rukh's wife Diane (Francis Drake) wants to leave her husband for young Ronald Drake (Frank Lawton), and eventually she does that. Although he has won the Nobel Prize, Rukh is furious when Dr. Benet starts to use the radium light beam. Like Rukh, who cured his mother's blindness, Benet has been curing a lot of people, too. Rukh uses his destructive gun to blast cement statues on a church building where Ronald and Diane exchanged vows. In Rukh's warped mind, each of the six statues on the church building represented Rukh's victims. This low-key, 71-minute horror epic incorporates some element of science fiction. Karloff is good as the doomed protagonist, and Lugosi turned in a solid performance as a rival scientist. This slowly-paced chiller features robust good performances but the filmmakers do little to generate fear.

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.

The invisible ray comes from Andromeda and allows Dr Rukh (Boris Karloff) to see a meteorite that hit Africa millions of years ago. He goes in search of evidence with a party that includes his wife Diane (Frances Drake), Dr Benet (Bela Lugosi), Sir Francis (Walter Kingsford), Lady Arabella (Beulah Bondi) and non-entity Ronald (Frank Lawton). He discovers Radium X and lets Dr Benet into his secret, but it has a fatal effect on him. He starts to glow and decides to exact his revenge on the party that "stole" his discovery. He's a madman!It's a film that starts out spooky, then goes into science fiction, then switches to adventure in Africa before changing into a murder story. It contains quite a lot of shifting story lines but it never really settles into any. It's a bit of everything and comes across as quite dull in parts. The best thing about the film is the performance of Violet Kemble Cooper as "Mother Rukh". She is proper scary and her performance would still creep the hell out of audiences today. At the opposite end of the scale is the dreadful Frank Lawton who has no charisma, especially as a love interest for Diane. Lugosi is laughable at first because of his accent but then becomes very likable. I was convinced by his performance as a good scientist and quite surprised that he managed to pull it off.Unfortunately, the film ends rather unimaginatively. My mind drifted in parts, Violet Kemble Cooper is good but the film is just OK.