This is a better than average Universal sci-fi movie, somewhat dressed up to be like a horror film, but it is not. Also this was the first
of the Karloff-Lugosi collaboration features in which it was clearly Karloff in the lead with Bela in support.Karloff is scientist Janos Rukh, who lives in a castle in the Carpathian Mountains with his wife Diane (Frances Drake) and blind mother (Kemble Cooper). He has invited a team of scientists, including Dr. Felix Benet (Lugosi) to witness a re-enactment of "past vibrations" from the "nebula of Andromeda". He successfully recreates a vision of a meteor hitting the continent of Africa. The scientists subsequently invite Rukh to join their planned expedition to Africa to look for the meteor and the powerful elements of it that Rukh calls "Radium X". Things go dreadfully wrong, of course.
Karloff is excellent as the misunderstood scientist who goes too far. Lugosi contributes one of his most restrained performances as one of the good guys. Drake is effective as the damsel in distress. Kemble Cooper is very good as The Voice of Doom. Maria Ouspenskaya must have watched this movie before making "The Wolf Man" (1941).
Franz Waxman contributed an underrated musical score. The castle sets that dwarf everyone aren't credited on TCM's webpage, but they are creepily effective. If my eyes didn't deceive me, some of the laboratory equipment that was prominently featured in "Frankenstein" (1931) and "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935) was reused in the Planetarium sequences.
There are some flaws. The native laborers in Africa all sound like they come from the American South, and Janos' name is pronounced "Yanosh" or "Yanush", depending on who is talking. But overall, this is an underrated horror film and worth your time.
Karloff is excellent as the misunderstood scientist who goes too far. Lugosi contributes one of his most restrained performances as one of the good guys. Drake is effective as the damsel in distress. Kemble Cooper is very good as The Voice of Doom. Maria Ouspenskaya must have watched this movie before making "The Wolf Man" (1941).
Franz Waxman contributed an underrated musical score. The castle sets that dwarf everyone aren't credited on TCM's webpage, but they are creepily effective. If my eyes didn't deceive me, some of the laboratory equipment that was prominently featured in "Frankenstein" (1931) and "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935) was reused in the Planetarium sequences.
There are some flaws. The native laborers in Africa all sound like they come from the American South, and Janos' name is pronounced "Yanosh" or "Yanush", depending on who is talking. But overall, this is an underrated horror film and worth your time.