This film starts off very slow (and lame). I couldn't watch it straight-through. The racist colonial attitude towards Africans is painful to watch, despite it being typical for the time. And then there's the sexism; women are so fragile that hard truths must be kept from them, no matter how much suffering it causes them. It's stupid and ridiculous.
I was pleasantly surprised by the second half. Bela Lugosi is GREAT playing a good guy; I couldn't get enough of his stylish performance. He even opens a clinic to heal the sick (well, blind people at least). That is SO noble -- seriously -- it's a soft spot for me. The plan to corral the murderous Dr. Janos Rukh (Boris Karloff) feels a bit like Phantom of the Opera, though it uses a lecture setting.
It was refreshing to see a character (Lugosi's Dr. Benet) actually put 2 and 2 together regarding what the killer was thinking and doing; in this respect the plot was rather intelligent. The vaguely pro-science attitude towards harnessing a dangerous element, bending it to a useful purpose, feels a little ahead of its time, although there was more of a "can-do" attitude in older generations.
One can question Janos' decision to kill his (perceived) enemies when he's a Nobel-prize-winning scientist, but he admits that Radium-X affected his brain.
The ending was classy, appropriate, and satisfying -- how many contemporary films can claim such?
This is a difficult film to rate, but here goes:
Seven stars, minus 3 stars for lameness/racism/sexism/pacing, with 1-star bonuses for Lugosi, healing the sick (yay!), and the ending. So that's seven (7) stars total.
I was pleasantly surprised by the second half. Bela Lugosi is GREAT playing a good guy; I couldn't get enough of his stylish performance. He even opens a clinic to heal the sick (well, blind people at least). That is SO noble -- seriously -- it's a soft spot for me. The plan to corral the murderous Dr. Janos Rukh (Boris Karloff) feels a bit like Phantom of the Opera, though it uses a lecture setting.
It was refreshing to see a character (Lugosi's Dr. Benet) actually put 2 and 2 together regarding what the killer was thinking and doing; in this respect the plot was rather intelligent. The vaguely pro-science attitude towards harnessing a dangerous element, bending it to a useful purpose, feels a little ahead of its time, although there was more of a "can-do" attitude in older generations.
One can question Janos' decision to kill his (perceived) enemies when he's a Nobel-prize-winning scientist, but he admits that Radium-X affected his brain.
The ending was classy, appropriate, and satisfying -- how many contemporary films can claim such?
This is a difficult film to rate, but here goes:
Seven stars, minus 3 stars for lameness/racism/sexism/pacing, with 1-star bonuses for Lugosi, healing the sick (yay!), and the ending. So that's seven (7) stars total.