Review of “The Invisible Man”

    In 1933, Universal released “The Invisible Man”, based on the novel by H.G. Wells.  Boris Karloff had been proposed for the role of the invisible man, but did not end up playing it due to a contract dispute.  James Whale, the director of the picture, chose Claude Rains, whose distinctive voice would prove a great asset to the role.  This would be the first sound film he acted in.
    The special effects used for the movie were groundbreaking.  One of the processes for achieving the appearance of invisibility involved using a black velvet set, with Claude Rains, or a double, clothed in black velvet  - covering even the head (air was supplied through tubes) - and wearing over that whatever article of clothing the scene called for.  A double was often used as Claude Rains was claustrophobic.  Shots made in this manner were combined with shots of the scene in which the invisible man was supposed to be, making composite shots.
    After the credits, the film opens with a scene of a man walking in a snowstorm.  The man’s face is bandaged and he wears dark goggles.  Next, at The Lion’s Head inn, people are talking, drinking, and playing darts.  The door opens to reveal a burst of snow, and the man with the bandaged face.  The room becomes quiet.  The man walks in and says he wants a room and a fire.  Mrs. Hall (played by Una O’Connor) takes the man upstairs to a room and starts the fire.  The man wants food.  After Mrs. Hall leaves the room, he draws the shade.  At the bar, speculation is going on about the man.  Mrs. Hall brings him supper.  The man declares that he wants to be left alone and undisturbed.  Mrs. Hall goes downstairs and discovers that she didn’t bring up the mustard, so she takes it up.  The man quickly covers his mouth with a napkin and makes it fairly clear he is not happy about being disturbed.
    At a different house, Dr. Cranley (played by Henry Travers) is apparently working with some scientific apparatus.  His daughter Flora (played by Gloria Stuart) comes in.  She expresses concern about Jack - her sweetheart and Dr. Cranley’s assistant. He went away to work on an experiment, and they haven’t heard from by him for nearly a month.  Kemp (played by William Harrigan), another assistant of Dr. Cranley, comes in.  Flora goes into the other room and cries.  Kemp comes in and speaks with her.  He tries to convince her that Jack cares nothing for her, and attempts to declare his own love for her, but Flora is in no mood for that, and tells him to leave her alone.
    Back at the inn, Jack (for that is who the man in the bandages is) is apparently working on an experiment on a table in the rented room.  After he slams the door in her face when she tries to bring in his lunch, Mrs. Hall demands Mr. Hall to tell their unpleasant lodger to get out.  Mr. Hall tells Jack to pack up and go.  Jack implores him to let him stay, but Mr. Hall doesn’t relent, and begins to touch Jack’s things on the table.  Enraged, Jack throws him down the stairs.  Mrs. Hall comes in and begins shrieking and crying and having hysterics (in classic Una O’Connor style).  A policeman (played by E. E. Clive) is fetched, and he goes up to the room and confronts Jack.  Jack tells him to keep back.  The policeman, however, comes in.
    “You’re crazy to know who I am, aren’t you?” says Jack, “Alright, I’ll show you!”
    Having said this, Jack proceeds to remove the fake nose.  Next, he removes the goggles, and unwraps the bandages, laughing maniacally as he reveals more and more of his invisibility.  The policeman and onlookers run away.  The policeman decides to go back up after him.  When he arrives he is met by what appears to be a dancing shirt.  He and a few other men chase it, but Jack manages to get the shirt off, and choke the policeman, then escape through the door.
    At the laboratory, Dr. Cranley and Kemp look for clues.  Dr. Cranley discovers a list of chemicals, one of which is monocain, which he claims is a terrible drug.  He explains that “it draws color from everything it touches”, but when tried out on an animal, it caused madness.  Dr. Cranley thinks Jack might not have known this side effect.  He decides that the police should be told that Jack has disappeared (no pun intended on the part of Dr. Cranley, apparently, as he presumably wouldn’t have known Jack was invisible).
    Jack Griffin, in his drug-induced state of madness, wreaks havoc across the country.  Will anything stop him?
    While we only briefly see Rains, his magnificent voice is, like I mentioned before, a great asset to the role.  We hear the menace at some points, and also the tenderness when he speaks to Flora.  He was so well able to convey a range of feelings in his voice that the ability to read his expressions is hardly missed.
    Dwight Frye makes a brief appearance as a reporter.  There is some humor interspersed throughout - like the bit where a lady runs screaming from a pair of pants that are apparently running or walking down the road.
    Jack Griffin is a sympathetic “monster”.  Desiring to do something for Flora, to accomplish a great scientific achievement, to be more than a poor, struggling chemist, he, in his own view - “meddled in things [that] man must leave alone”, and though he accomplished invisibility, it was accompanied by madness.
    Next, and last for the time, in my monster series  - 1941’s “The Wolf Man”.