The Invisible Man (1933)

Film: The Invisible Man (1933)
Stars: Claude Rains, William Harrigan, Gloria Stuart, Henry Travers, Una O'Connor
Director: James Whale
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

This month we are devoting all of our classic film reviews to Golden Age Horror films that I saw for the first time this year.  If you want to take a look at past titles (from this and other seasons of this series), look at the bottom of the page for links.

So far this month, we haven't watched what we think of as a "traditional" monster movie classic.  While we've seen monsters (and Boris Karloff), we haven't really caught one of the truly iconic characters of the Universal canon.  That ends today, as I'm going to watch possibly the last really iconic monster of the Universal canon for the first time: the Invisible Man (other titles we've hit are listed below, including my thoughts on Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Mummy), and throughout the rest of the month we will look at Universal monster sequels, as well as a couple of other American classic horror films before the late-1960's, when violent slasher films started to become en vogue.  With that said, let's just dive into one of Universal's most transparently evil creations.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie stays (for the most part) loyal to the premise of HG Wells' novel, and finds Dr. Jack Griffin (Rains, in his American film debut) staying at a remote inn where he appears to be a burn victim of sorts, since he constantly covers his face.  This elicits suspicion from Mrs. Hall (O'Connor), who eventually realizes that the Griffin is 1) mad and 2) invisible, unable to be seen by anyone.  After being kicked out of the hotel room for not paying his rent, Griffin goes about terrorizing the community, and realizes that he can essentially do whatever he wants while being invisible.  He meets his cowering former partner Dr. Kemp (Harrigan), and blackmails Kemp into helping him obtain more-and-more power, and in the process Griffin becomes ruthless & murderous.  The only people who sympathize with him are his former fiancee Flora (Stuart) and her scientist father Dr. Cranley (Travers).  However, Griffin doesn't repent and is eventually found out by the police after killing several people (including Dr. Kemp).  In those final moments, he seems apologetic, and we see him appear in human form again, a sign that he has died.

The Invisible Man was a big hit for Universal, the biggest monster movie hit they'd had since Frankenstein, and it's easy to see why.  The movie's effects were pretty revolutionary at the time, using a black screen to make it appear as if certain hats or glasses that Rains is wearing onscreen are floating in thin air.  In an era before CGI, it's pretty cool how well this effect works (though obviously a modern audience can tell that some of this is done through wires).  Rains, a genuinely good actor whom we'd see graduate away from horror in a way that Karloff, Lugosi, & Chaney never would, instantly takes to the sinister nature of the character, and plays him with a bit of camp.

This is really what stands The Invisible Man apart from most of the remainder of the Universal classics (save The Bride of Frankenstein)-it's hilarious.  I always struggle with satire in older movies because I don't like it when people laugh at films that weren't meant to be funny (this happened when I saw live screenings of both Mad Love and Detour), but The Invisible Man is genuinely meant to have moments of humor, and it works beautifully.  Una O'Connor's shrieking Mrs. Hall is the highlight of the movie-you will cackle she's so ridiculous (she'd also play a key role in Bride of Frankenstein), and steals the first half of the movie even from Rains.  The film isn't perfect (Gloria Stuart is radiantly beautiful but shows no signs that she'll eventually be an Oscar nominee for her paint-by-numbers love interest), but it's delicious.

Past Horror Month Reviews (Listed Chronologically): The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Bride of Frankenstein, Mad Love, Son of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Ghost of Frankenstein, The House of Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Masque of the Red Death