OVP: Invisible Agent (1942)

Film: Invisible Agent (1942)

Stars: Ilona Massey, Jon Hall, Peter Lorre, Cedric Hardwicke, J. Edward Bromberg

Director: Edward L. Marin

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Special Effects)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 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.

Since we're on the third season of our collective look at the Universal Monster movies, we're getting to the deepest of cuts in the original run of the series, which you're going to see over the next two weeks before we end with some 1950's films that aren't connected to the Universal Monster canon, and are considered in a different "style" of horror film.  The Invisible Man series will have three installments this month, this being the second one of the run, and it stands apart in the monster movie pantheon primarily because, well, it's not a horror genre after a while.  Though undoubtedly the original films in the series were in the classic mode of the horror genre, unlike say a vampire or a mummy, there were more practical aspects to invisibility that you could apply to a hero or love interest that you couldn't other monstrous creations.  We saw that on Thursday with The Invisible Woman, a romantic-comedy (links below), and we see that today with Invisible Agent, which is not a monster movie at all but a film made about World War II (during World War II).

(Spoilers Ahead) Frank Griffin, Jr. (Hall) is the grandson of the original invisible man, and as a result has access to his secret formula.  He is confronted by a German member of the SS named Conrad Stauffer (Hardwicke) and his Japanese ally Baron Ikito (Lorre, not specifically in yellowface but clearly intended to be a Japanese man despite the fact that Lorre is white & Hungarian, so yes, problematic).  They want the formula, but they can't get it, and Griffin is recruited by the Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor to infiltrate the Germans and find their list of spies (and help to understand their war mission).  While he's in Germany, he meets Maria Sorenson (Massey), who seems to be the object-of-desire of pretty much every character in the film save Lorre's Baron.  As one might expect, she's secretly working with the Allies (so she can end up with our hero), and after a large showdown (that involves both Stauffer & Ikito dying), they escape with a book of spies & Griffin becomes visible once again.

The movie is a far enough departure from the formula of the other monster movies you might be confused to find it refreshing, but that would be a bad impulse.  Obviously Lorre's work is problematic here (he plays into a lot of racial stereotypes), but he's also the only person in the cast who is any good at this style of acting-he's by far the best actor (sorry, Cedric Hardwicke, I know you're a knight & all, but this isn't your best work as a mustache-twirling Nazi), and he's given such a low-grade character it's impossible to look past.  Both Massey & Hall are dull and have no chemistry, and all-in-all this is a disappointment, particularly coming after the sparkling fun of Invisible Woman a few days ago (this is the first film in the Invisible Man franchise I genuinely didn't enjoy, disparate as they've all been).

That said, the special effects are really good and this Oscar nomination feels quite earned.  The invisible trick we've seen a lot already, but they do some remarkable stuff especially where an invisible Frank lights a room on fire, a group of pyrotechnics clearly triggered around a room in a well-timed sequence that's super impressive.  There's also a surprisingly effective series of massive explosions as Frank & Maria flee Germany, with Frank trying to take down a Luftwaffe airbase single-handedly (and because it's 1942 in a war film, he's successful).  All-in-all, this is one of the better invisible nominations for Special Effects we've run across, and the first one I'd have probably agreed with Oscar in handing over the nomination.

Past Horror Month Reviews (Listed Chronologically): The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man, The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Mad Love, The Raven, Werewolf of London, Dracula's Daughter, Son of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Mummy's Hand, The Invisible Woman, The Wolf Man, Cat People, The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Tomb, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, The House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Blob, The Masque of the Red Death