Third of the Karloff-Lugosi teamings isn’t as highly regarded by buffs because it isn’t pure horror but it is definitely part horror with Boris Karloff going mad and on a killing rampage.He plays a scientist who becomes infected by a mineral obtained on an expedition to Africa – he starts killing off expedition members one by one and you realise the writers had the King Tut expedition curse very much in mind. Lugosi plays a good doctor who wants to use the mineral for the Right Reasons and he gives an accomplished performance – Lugosi always made an interesting hero because, with his dark looks and Hungarian accent, he looked evil. Karloff goes mad well and has an interesting relationship with his devoted mother.
A bit yucky is the subplot where Karloff’s much younger, prettier wife, Frances Drake, falls in love with a younger scientist (wimpy Frank Lawton) and ends up marrying him.
This is one of the most sympathetic treatments of a woman leaving her elderly husband while he’s still alive – I guess it was OK even under the Production Code because Karloff turns into a killer. But it doesn’t quite work because Drake looks like a bit of a tramp and Lawton comes across as a buck tooth loser. So you kind of wish either one of them bought the farm at the end instead of Lugosi. This is polished work, lacking the lunatic brilliance of Black Cat or Raven but a lot more logical than either (NB I admit I am talking relatively here).
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