The Invisible Man
Directed by James Whale
Written by R. C. Sherriff from the novel by H.G. Wells
1933/US
Universal Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
Farmer: Excuse me, sir. There’s breathing in my barn.
James Whale again shows his deft hand at mixing wit with violence and doing justice to both.
Jack Griffin (Claude Rains) works for Dr. Cranley (Henry Travers) in a research lab. He works in secret on something to do with food preservation advances. Actually, he is playing with fire by developing an invisibility drug. Unfortunately, he tests the drug out on himself without having discovered an antidote.
The invisible Griffin makes a run for a country pub where he hopes he can continue his work in private. But the landlady (Una O’Connor) walks in on him partically clad. Her screams continue for the remainder of the film. Something in his drug is making him both invisible and insane. He leaves the pub and has fun using his new found powers for evil.
Eventually, he decides he needs a visible assistant for his research and coerces his colleague and rival in love Dr. Arthur Kemp to fill that role. Griffin hates Kemp for his interest in Flora Cranley (Gloria Stuart). I’ll end here.
Claude Rains makes an unforgettable US film debut as the title character with his resonant voice. I could live without Una O’Connors hysterics but what would these movies be without them? Recommended.
