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The Invisible Man (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Invisible Man | |
|---|---|
 The Invisible Man movie poster |
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| Directed by | James Whale |
| Produced by | Carl Laemmle Jr. |
| Written by | H.G. Wells (novel} R. C. Sherriff (screenplay) |
| Starring | Claude Rains Gloria Stuart William Harrigan Henry Travers Una O'Connor Dudley Digges |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 13, 1933 U.S. release |
| Running time | 71 min |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Followed by | The Invisible Man Returns (1940) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Invisible Man is a film produced by Universal Pictures in 1933 and directed by James Whale. The movie was based on H. G. Wells' science fiction novel The Invisible Man.
It is considered one of the great Universal Horror films of the 1930s, and spawned a number of sequels, plus many spinoffs using the idea of an "invisible man" that were largely unrelated to Wells' original story. In his first screen appearance, Claude Rains portrayed the Invisible Man (Dr. Jack Griffin) mostly only as a disembodied voice. Rains is only shown clearly for a brief time at the end of the film, spending most of his on-screen time covered by bandages. The film also starred Gloria Stuart.
Contents |
The main characters include:
- The Invisible Man (Claude Rains) - a scientist who creates a formula to turn his body invisible.
- Flora Cranley (Gloria Stuart) - the Invisible Man's fiancee.
- Dr. Arthur Kemp (William Harrigan) - The Invisible Man's partner before he became invisible.
- Several notable character actors appear in minor roles, including Dwight Frye as a reporter, Walter Brennan as a man whose bicycle is stolen, and John Carradine, acting at that time under the name Peter Richmond.
The film opens with a mysterious stranger, his face swathed in bandages and his eyes obscured by dark spectacles, taking a room at an inn at the English village of Iping (in Sussex). Never leaving his quarters, the stranger demands that the staff leave him completely alone. However, his dark secret is slowly revealed to his suspicious landlady and the villagers: he is an invisible man! When the innkeeper and his semi-hysterical wife tell him to leave after he makes a huge mess in the parlor and drives away the other patrons, he tears off the bandages, laughing maniacally, and throws the innkeeper down the stairs. He takes off the rest of his clothes, rendering himself completely invisible, and tries to strangle a police officer.
The invisible stranger is revealed as Dr Jack Griffin, a scientist, who has discovered the secret of invisibility while conducting a series of tests with a strange new drug called monocane. He returns to the laboratory of his mentor, Dr. Cranley (Henry Travers), where he reveals his secret to onetime partner Dr. Kemp (William Harrigan) and fiancee Flora Cranley (Gloria Stuart). Monocane has rendered Griffin's entire body undetectable to the human eye. Alas, it also has the side effect of driving Griffin insane. Cranley has investigated and discovered the monocane among Griffin's papers, so he realizes that Griffin has recently used it. On the evening of his escape from the inn, Griffin turns up in Kemp's living room and imprisons him in his own house. He forces Kemp to be his partner, and together they go back to the inn where Griffin stayed and retrieve his books on the invisibility process. While there, he picks up a wooden stool and cracks the police officer over the head, killing him. Kemp calls Cranley, asking for help, and then secretly calls the police. Flora comes to him and they talk for only a minute, until the police show up. Their conversation reveals that the two are completely devoted to each other, and she is as infatuated with him as he her. In Flora's presence, Griffin becomes more placid, and calls her 'darling.' He rants a little about power, but when he realises Kemp betrayed him to the police through the window, his first reaction is getting Flora to flee, and out of danger. She begs to let her stay, but he says softly, 'The only thing you can do is get out of here. Then they can't hurt you. Go, my darling.' After promising Kemp that at 10:00 the next day he will murder him, Griffin escapes again and a reign of terror ensues, the Invisible Man running down the streets killing, robbing, and reciting nursery rhymes in a spooky voice. The police offer a monetary award for anyone who can think of a way to catch the Invisible Man.
They disguise Kemp as a police officer and lead him away from his house to protect him, but Griffin has been following them all along. He forces Kemp into the front seat of his car with his hands tied and releases the emergency brake. The car rolls down a steep hill and over a cliff, and explodes.
Finally, after derailing a train and throwing two construction workers off of a cliff, Griffin rests in a barn. Alerted by the farmer, the police set fire to the barn. When Griffin comes out, the police sight his footprints in the snow and open fire, mortally wounding him. On his deathbed, Griffin admits to Flora, that he has tampered with a type of science that was meant to be left alone. The effects of the monocane wear off the moment he dies. He is visible once again.
Although the film is sometimes hailed for its fidelity to H.G. Wells' novel, it changes many aspects. The story is updated to 1933, rather than taking place in the 1890s. Griffin does not have a fiancee in the novel, there is no Dr. Cranley, and Griffin does not kill Kemp. (In fact, in the book, it is Kemp who pronounces Griffin dead at the end.) Kemp is neither an old friend nor an old partner of Griffin's in the novel, just an acquaintance. Most important, Griffin does not use monocane to make himself invisible in the book, but instead another unnamed formula, and it is strongly hinted in the novel that Griffin was already mad long before he ever made himself invisible. The film portrays Griffin much more sympathetically than the novel, in which Kemp describes Griffin as "inhuman" to the police. In the film, he is shown regretting what he has done to Flora; Griffin shows no such regrets in the novel.
The film is known for its groundbreaking and clever use of visual effects. When the Invisible Man had no clothes on, the effect was achieved through wires and the like, but when he had some of his clothes on or was taking his clothes off, the effect was achieved by shooting Claude Rains in a completely black velvet suit against a black velvet background and then combining this shot with another shot of the location the scene took place in using a matte process. Claude Rains was claustrophobic and it was hard to breathe through the suit. Consequently, the role was especially difficult for him.[1]
A few years ago, Universal released six legacy collections that included some of their best horror films. Here is a list of the films included in The Invisible Man Legacy Collection.
- The Invisible Man (1933)
- The Invisible Man Returns (1940)
- The Invisible Woman (1940)
- Invisible Agent (1942)
- The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944)
The Legacy Collection also included bonus features.
- Now You See Him: The Invisible Man Revealed: A detailed look at the making of the classic horror film and its sequels by film historian Rudy Behlmer.
- Film Historian Rudy Behlmer provides insightful commentary to the film on an alternate audio track
- Invisible Agent Original Theatrical Trailer
- Production Photographs
- ^ Now You See Him: The Invisible Man Revealed! Dir. David J. Skal. With Rudy Behlmer, Bill Condon, Curtis Harrington, and Paul M. Jensen. Universal Home Entertainment, 2000.
- The Invisible Man at the Internet Movie Database
- The Invisible Man at the All Movie Guide
- The Invisible Man at The Terror Trap
Categories: 1930s horror films | 1933 films | Black and white films | Films directed by James Whale | Films based on science fiction books | Films based on short fiction | Films based on the works of H. G. Wells | Invisibility | Mad scientist films | Science fiction horror films | Universal Pictures films | American films | English-language films