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The Invisible Man, Woman, Guinea Pig, Chevy Chase, etc.

Started by Small Man Big Horse, August 09, 2021, 08:24:32 PM

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Small Man Big Horse

I never planned to do this originally but after watching the 1933 version of The Invisible Man I followed it up with the 2020 take, and since then have been working my way through a number of other invisible movies, I've posted before about some of them but thought it'd make sense to put them all in the same thread, especially as I now plan to watch a good few others.

So, previously on CookdandBombd:

The Invisible Man (1933) - aka The Invisible Bastard as after coming up with a serum to turn himself invisible there's a side effect Jack Griffin (Claude Rains) didn't expect - he's a right old fucking mad man and then some. At first as he tries to perfect a serum to turn him visible again he's only surly and pushy, but then when kicked out of the room he's working in he turns psychotic, killing and murdering and causing horrendous train accidents and often singing gleefully post violence. This is an absolute delight, an extremely tight, lean number without an ounce of flab, and watching Rains fuck about while invisible is never less than extremely entertaining, the effects are impressive for their day, and it doesn't outstay it's welcome once the inevitably tragic ending occurs. 8.4/10

The Invisible Man (2020) - Thought I'd give this very different take on the story a go after watching the first version yesterday, where Cecilia (Elizabeth Moss) flees violent control freak Adrian Griffin' (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) in the middle of the night as it turns out he's something of a psychopath. Saved by her sister Emily she then hides away with friend James (Aldis Hodge), paranoid as fuck that Adrian will come after her, until Emily turns up with the news that Adrian is dead of an apparent suicide. But is he? Nah, of course not, he's just invisible thanks to a suit he's conveniently made beforehand, but for a while only the audience are aware of this as he tries to drive Cecilia crazy, and then her life gets even worse as he turns murderous. This is initially genuinely disturbing and it plays with some interesting ideas as it creates a taut, bleak atmosphere, but the second half is weaker and there's a good couple of things which are questionable (how come Adrian gets all that paint off of him so quickly, and kills people with just one punch so many times? Why didn't Cecilia take the magic invisible suit when she initially found it? Does the psychiatric hospital not have cctv? How come she didn't bleed all over the place after her suicide attempt? And why doesn't she tell James that Adrian spoke to her outside the hospital? Plus after calling 911, wouldn't the cops think it's weird she just upped and left? Along with some other minor bits that I can't be arsed to mention as I've already complained a lot as it is) all of which frustrated as this starts off really effectively and it's a shame that I had such issues that led me to feeling a bit disappointed by it. 6.7/10

The Invisible Man Returns (1940) - It's several years on from the first film and Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe (Vincent Price) is due to be executed for a murder he didn't commit - but after a visit from Frank Griffin (John Sutton), the brother of the original invisible man, Geoffrey mysteriously disappears and Scotland Yard are now on the case and trying to find him. Geoffrey is terrified that he'll go insane in the same way Jack did, while Frank is desperately working on an antidote that'll hopefully make Geoffrey visible again,  which involves killing a lot killing a lot of guinea pigs so it might be worth avoiding if you love the little furry bastards.. The film doesn't become really fun until about half way through when good old Geoffrey starts going a bit crazy, and though it has a couple of fun set pieces and the effects are decent enough, it's nowhere near as enjoyable as the 1933 film and the body count is much, much lower too sadly. 6.1/10

The Invisible Woman (1940) - The third in Universal's Invisible series, this time they decide to play it for laughs and feature all new characters, as playboy Dick Russell (John Howard) normally funds the work of mad scientist Professor Gibbs (John Barrymore) but has run out of money. Gibbs thinks all of Russell's problems are over with however as he's come up with a machine to make people invisible, though after placing an advert in the paper for a victim to try it out on he's surprised when a woman called Kitty (Virginia Bruce) turns up. It's a mixture of screwball comedy and slapstick from here on, and there's also a subplot about gangsters wanting the machine, in what's a smart, fun comedy with some extremely strong dialogue, Barrymore and Bruce are both superb, and it's a shame they didn't make a sequel with Bruce in the lead role once again. 7.6/10

Invisible Agent (1942) - The fourth in Universal's Invisible Man series, and set just after the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbour and Frank (Jon Hall), the grandson of the original Invisible Man, is recruited by the US Army to head over to Germany and fuck with those pesky Nazis and flirt with double agent Maria (Ilona Massey). Slightly problematically is the fact that Peter Lorre plays the very Japanese Baron Ikito, and one scene where Frank plays pranks on a hungry Nazi goes on for too long, but the rest of it is largely entertaining, there's a couple of quite chilling scenes, and once again the effects are impressive for the time. 7.2/10

The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944) - For the first time a cast member returns as Invisible Agent's Jon Hall is back again, but confusing everyone he plays Robert Griffin, a completely different character and one who is unrelated to all of the Griffins in the other movies. The set up is that he is all pissy that after suffering from amnesia he was cheated out of his share in a diamond mine, but several years on and his memory is back, and he happens upon a scientist who can turn him invisible, leading to more fun psychotic daftness. There's a little bit of filler but for once I'm not complaining as a game of hilariously slow darts is very funny to watch, and while this is a little all over the place and effectively killed off the series (at least until Abbott and Costello spoofed it seven years later) I found myself still fond of it. 7.1/10

Invisible Man Appears (1949) - A Japanese take on H.G. Wells famous story where the scientist responsible for the formula is kidnapped and his protégé is tricked in to taking the serum that will turn him invisible. It takes just under half an hour before we can't see the fella, but even after this there's an annoying subplot about the theft of some diamonds and the search for the invisible man and it's mostly dull. The effects aren't as good as the 1933 original either, even when the invisible fella is out and about we often witness things from his perspective rather than seeing (or not seeing) him, it's a very sober film lacking the dark humour of the US version, and even though it picks up in the final half hour I still felt quite disappointed. 4.9/10

And now:

Abbott And Costello Meet The Invisible Man (1951) - Technically this serves as a sequel to Universal's first Invisible Man movie as there's a reference to the serum being created by John Griffin, who was "gunned down like a mad dog", but this time around it's boxer Tommy Nelson who is invisible after he's accused of murder and heading straight to the electric chair, but thanks to his girlfriend's Uncle he's able to turn invisible, hire newly graduated private eyes Abbott and Costello to prove it was a dodgy gangster who was behind the killing. There's lots of fun invisible silliness, the best being a very long boxing match which surprisingly doesn't get old, but a drunk invisible man is fun too, as is Costello's lunacy in general, and there's some strong word play as well. 7.4/10

Coming soon: An Invisible Man Goes Through the City, Invisible Man Vs The Human Fly, Chelovek-Nevidimka, The Invisible Man (1954), Now You See Him, Now You Don't, Memoirs Of An Invisible Man, the 1975 pilot for The Invisible Man (and maybe the series if I like it, but I'm largely sticking to films right now), Hollow Man, The Amazing Transparent Man, and The Invisible Maniac.

Bar some dodgy sex comedies I think that just about covers it, but if I've missed anything out if you could let me know that'd be great, and I'd love to hear other people's thoughts about the movies too.

Jerzy Bondov


Brundle-Fly

Don't forget The Invisible Boy (1957) which is of particular interest as it bizarrely stars this iconic metal chap from Forbidden Planet (1956)


Magnum Valentino

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on August 09, 2021, 09:12:33 PM
Don't forget The Invisible Boy (1957) which is of particular interest as it bizarrely stars this iconic metal chap from Forbidden Planet (1956)



Much prefer to think of him as the robot who asked Barbara for a cup of hot chocolate in that episode of the Twilight Zone.

chveik


Gulftastic


Replies From View

has there ever been an invisible sumo wrestler


god imagine it




one that's a bit raging and just charges into places and flattens people

Brundle-Fly

The Entity (1982). Definitely worth a look. Bit long though.


Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on August 09, 2021, 09:12:33 PM
Don't forget The Invisible Boy (1957) which is of particular interest as it bizarrely stars this iconic metal chap from Forbidden Planet (1956)



That one completely passed me by but it looks fun, thanks for that.

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on August 09, 2021, 09:08:36 PM
Don't forget Hollow Man 2! It's terrible

Just looked that up on imdb and it does look awful, but I'm in this for the long run now I guess so will watch it at some point.

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on August 10, 2021, 09:43:02 AM
The Entity (1982). Definitely worth a look. Bit long though.



The opening blurb on its wikipedia page suggests an awful lot of rape so I'm not certain about this one and might just pretend it doesn't exist.

Quote from: chveik on August 09, 2021, 11:18:13 PM
start with those before you get burnout

Ha, but I just don't think I can subject myself to them, they look awful even by sex comedies standards.

Quote from: Gulftastic on August 10, 2021, 06:47:18 AM
And the bit from Amazon Women On The Moon.

I have seen that a long time ago but have no memory of it, but the completist in me may mean I watch it again.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on August 10, 2021, 09:52:53 AM

I have seen that a long time ago but have no memory of it, but the completist in me may mean I watch it again.

It's simply one of the greatest sketches ever written.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSQWyx26FnY

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on August 10, 2021, 01:09:07 PM
It's simply one of the greatest sketches ever written.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSQWyx26FnY

Ha, thanks for that, it is indeed great and if my memory serves me correctly that's an almost perfect recreation of the pub from the 1933 film.

Hollow Man (2000) - Paul Verhoeven directs one of the more disappointing invisible man films where Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon), one of those rock star scientists you only seem to get in movies, has invented a way to turn animals invisible but human testing isn't allowed, so he does the sensible thing and tests it on himself and of course it goes horribly wrong. I was hoping for a little more given that it was Verhoeven, at one point a character jokes about all the things you could do if you were invisible, but
Spoiler alert
Caine just uses his ability to rape a woman and then starts trying to murder his colleagues, including Elisabeth Shue and Thanos. The final half hour is a base under siege slasher which finally sees the movie start to have fun with the central concept
[close]
, but at just under two hours it's easily forty minutes too long, the effects are decent most of the time but it's frustrating that it wasn't more playful, and I wish it wasn't so unpleasant on the sex side of things. 5.8/10

I like what a curmudgeon as well as a psycho he is in the original story.

notjosh

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on August 09, 2021, 09:12:33 PM
Don't forget The Invisible Boy (1957) which is of particular interest as it bizarrely stars this iconic metal chap from Forbidden Planet (1956)



Not seen this (yet), but the invisible effects in Forbidden Planet itself are absolutely beautiful.

Catalogue Trousers

QuoteThe opening blurb on its wikipedia page suggests an awful lot of rape so I'm not certain about this one and might just pretend it doesn't exist.

Also, it's hardly an 'invisible man' story. More a ghost story. Let that in and you might as well let in every M R James ghost tale, every Edgar Allan Poe ghost tale, every H G Wells ghost tale, every...well, you get the idea.

The Entity isn't an invisible man/woman/dog story. It's a rather misogynistic and crappy little ghost story. It can be safely ignored.

Oh, and you do need to include that bit from Amazon Women On The Moon. Damn right.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: notjosh on August 10, 2021, 09:10:39 PM
Not seen this (yet), but the invisible effects in Forbidden Planet itself are absolutely beautiful.

They were executed by the Disney animators if memory serves.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Catalogue Trousers on August 10, 2021, 09:23:59 PM
Also, it's hardly an 'invisible man' story. More a ghost story. Let that in and you might as well let in every M R James ghost tale, every Edgar Allan Poe ghost tale, every H G Wells ghost tale, every...well, you get the idea.

The Entity isn't an invisible man/woman/dog story. It's a rather misogynistic and crappy little ghost story. It can be safely ignored.


Fair enough. I've not seen it in many, many years.

mothman


Small Man Big Horse

Tômei Ningen (aka The Invisible Avenger, 1954) - A group of invisible men were created by the military but after a suicide at the beginning only one is still alive, and when a spate of robberies take place it looks like he's behind them. It spends the first half of this very short seventy minute film establishing characters and plot and it's a little bland as there's only one very brief moment of invisible action, but then the second half is far more enjoyable as there's lots of amusing antics and people throwing themselves all over the place and having to pretend they're having a big fight. Because of the lacklustre first half I can't rate it that highly, but as the second half is so strong it's worth seeking out if you're in to this sort of daftness. 5.8/10



Yeah, I can't quite put my finger on it, but for some reason I am...

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on August 09, 2021, 09:12:33 PM
Don't forget The Invisible Boy (1957) which is of particular interest as it bizarrely stars this iconic metal chap from Forbidden Planet (1956)



This really is quite the oddity, as half of it's a kid's adventure film and half of it a serious thriller about the dangers of sentient A.I. It starts off following young Timmy who is the son of computer scientist Tom, but a bit of a thicko until Tom leaves him with a computer who hypnotises him and makes him really smart, and Timmy rebuilds the robot from Forbidden Planet (with a brief bit of exposition suggesting the two films exist in the same universe). After getting in trouble for flying inside a giant kite the robot makes Timmy invisible, but only for about ten minutes, though for once it works on clothes too so Timmy doesn't have to worry about his penis being bitten off by a dog or cat or human. Once the invisible Timmy's been a bit of a dick to his parents there's a large section with Tom discovering that the computer is evil and has made a number of his colleagues his slaves, and Timmy's forgotten about until the final ten minutes. The two separate elements don't gel together well at all but the juxtaposition is strangely entertaining, the dialogue is knowingly amusing (The way his father casually responds to Timmy's now invisible status is hilarious as he claims "He's probably doing this just to get attention", before spanking the invisible boy), and I can't deny being thoroughly entertained throughout. 7.4/10

Blue Jam

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on August 09, 2021, 08:24:32 PMThe Invisible Man, Woman, Guinea Pig, Chevy Chase, etc.

Another of George Melly's party tricks?


Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Blue Jam on September 02, 2021, 11:22:49 AM
Another of George Melly's party tricks?

Ha, and quite probably!

Quote from: notjosh on September 02, 2021, 02:21:36 PM
Don't forget The Invisible Mouse!

I'll allow it as it's Tom and Jerry (and Tom was far smarter than the majority of detectives / policemen in the films) but won't be watching shorts in general, I only discovered the existence of two Italian "Invisible Boy" films yesterday and fear this may never end.


Blumf

The Amazing Transparent Man (1960) in on Talking Pictures tonight 2255h


Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Dusty Substance on September 03, 2021, 12:02:20 PM
Don't forget Tom Scharpling's The Invisible Hipster - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdUZ8zObh0Y

I appreciate the link but I'm not doing audio, that'd take me in to Big Finish territory - https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-invisible-man-1598 - and I'd probably never escape from that.

Quote from: Blumf on September 03, 2021, 02:37:03 PM
The Amazing Transparent Man (1960) in on Talking Pictures tonight 2255h



Thanks for the heads up, that's a bit late for me to watch live but I have obtained it now to watch at a later date.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on September 01, 2021, 09:16:09 PM
This really is quite the oddity, as half of it's a kid's adventure film and half of it a serious thriller about the dangers of sentient A.I. It starts off following young Timmy who is the son of computer scientist Tom, but a bit of a thicko until Tom leaves him with a computer who hypnotises him and makes him really smart, and Timmy rebuilds the robot from Forbidden Planet (with a brief bit of exposition suggesting the two films exist in the same universe). After getting in trouble for flying inside a giant kite the robot makes Timmy invisible, but only for about ten minutes, though for once it works on clothes too so Timmy doesn't have to worry about his penis being bitten off by a dog or cat or human. Once the invisible Timmy's been a bit of a dick to his parents there's a large section with Tom discovering that the computer is evil and has made a number of his colleagues his slaves, and Timmy's forgotten about until the final ten minutes. The two separate elements don't gel together well at all but the juxtaposition is strangely entertaining, the dialogue is knowingly amusing (The way his father casually responds to Timmy's now invisible status is hilarious as he claims "He's probably doing this just to get attention", before spanking the invisible boy), and I can't deny being thoroughly entertained throughout. 7.4/10

Nice review. BTW is Robbie the massive same scale in the film as he is on the poster?

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on September 03, 2021, 04:26:26 PM
Nice review. BTW is Robbie the massive same scale in the film as he is on the poster?

Cheers! And sadly not, he's about 7 foot in the film at a guess but little more than that.

Blumf

Quote from: Blumf on September 03, 2021, 02:37:03 PM
The Amazing Transparent Man (1960) in on Talking Pictures tonight 2255h

Quiet nice. Kinda no nonsense, as far as a crime drama meshed with goofy 50s sci-fi can be. Bit light on meat to the story, but it gets you from A to B just fine.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Blumf on September 04, 2021, 01:42:04 AM
Quiet nice. Kinda no nonsense, as far as a crime drama meshed with goofy 50s sci-fi can be. Bit light on meat to the story, but it gets you from A to B just fine.

It'll definitely be the next invisible film I watch, all but certainly one night this week after your recommendation.

Small Man Big Horse

The Amazing Transparent Man (1960) - Very short 57 minute film where after being broken out of jail by criminal mastermind Major Paul Krenner (James Griffith) our surly hero Joey Faust (Douglas Kennedy) is persuaded to become invisible and commit crimes. Apart from making a guinea pig invisible it's not until over the half way point that Faust becomes invisible, and even then a lot of the action is doors magically opening and actors pretending they've been hit or strangled and the effects are quite shoddy. Krenner's a decent villain at least and his ultimate plan is amusing, as is some of the dialogue and
Spoiler alert
the hilariously brutal ending
[close]
, but it's a very slight movie which just doesn't have enough invisible mucking about. 5.4/10