Claude Rains is considered to be one of the most iconic actors of Classic Hollywood, despite his best known roles being in films in which he played supporting characters. Somewhat ironically, his best known starring role and the one that actually launched his career in Hollywood is the one in which he almost never appears throughout the whole film. It was the title character of The Invisible Man, 1933 science fiction horror film directed by James Whale, nowadays considered to be one of the great early classics of the genre.
The film is based on the eponymous 1897 novel by H.G. Wells, British author who is considered one of the fathers of literary science fiction. Plot begins one snowy night when mysterious stranger (played by Rains) arrives in Iping, village in south of England, and takes room in the inn owned by Herbert Hall (played by Forrester Harvey) and his wife Jenny (played by Una O’Connor). The stranger is completely bandaged and wears black glasses, and apart from strange looks makes Halls and other inn patrons uncomfortable with his bad temper and desire to be left alone. He apparently turns room in some sort of chemistry lab, which, together with late payment of bills, make Halls demand that he leaves. He reacts by physically assaulting Herbert and when the police Constable Jaffers (played by E. E, Clive) is called to intervene, it is revealed that the stranger is actually invisible and quite adept and using this ability to cause all kinds of damage, injury and mischief in the village. Things further escalate when he kills police inspector, which leads to massive manhunt. It is later revealed that the Invisible Man is actually Dr. Jack Griffin, scientist who worked as the assistant to Dr. Cranley (played by Henry Travers), scientist whose daughter Flora (played by Gloria Stuart) used to be his fiancee. Griffin, working alone and in secrecy, actually discovered drug that could make him invisible, but failed to discover antidote that could bring him back to normal condition. Furthermore, the drug had the side effect of making the person not just invisible, but insane. Dr. Arthur Kemp (played by William Harrigan), another Cranley’s assistant, is contacted by Griffin who, driven by megalomania, wants old colleague to help him conduct campaign of murderous terror that should help him conquer the whole world.
The Invisible Man was produced by Universal Pictures, which, thanks to classics like Dracula and Frankenstein made two years earlier, established itself as the Hollywood studio specialised for horror films. Like those two films, it was based on the literary classics of the genre and, like Frankenstein, it was directed by James Whale. Film was actually quite faithful to the literary source, which could be explained with Wells being still alive during the production and often very critical of the ways cinema of his time handled science fiction. More importantly, Whale, who had began his career in British theatre, has brought his old associated, famed playwright R. C. Sheriff, to write the screenplay. His work resulted in a film that efficiently mixes mystery, suspense, horror and dark comedy, especially in the scene when the murderous mayhem produced by insane and seemingly unstoppable invisible killer is accompanied by his sarcastic commentary. What began as series of pranks escalate into sadistic violence, ending not only with very cruel murder, but also with train derailment resulting in large number of innocent people killed, making The Invisible Man a horror film with the largest body count in history of Classic Hollywood. Whale, on the other hand, tries to give the film a bit of realism, mostly through the character of unnamed no-nonsense Chief Detective (played by Dudley Digges) that tries to catch Griffin. Whale directs film with great skill and, like most of horror films made in early 1930s, keeps quick pace and wraps everything within seventy minutes.
But the greatest achievement of the film is very convincing depiction of invisibility. The optical effects were primitive, but also very expensive and took much of the budget, but the result is impressive even now, when we are accustomed to CGI. The Invisible Man also tries to approach the phenomenon of invisibility in somewhat realistic manner and some of its practical but unpleasant aspects are discussed by characters, like Griffin’s food being visible until it is digested. Griffin can be invisible only if he is naked, which limits his antics only on periods of fair and relatively warm weather, which is something rare in England. The very mention of nakedness would likely have those scenes cut out from the film, if he had been produced only few months later, with enforcement of strict MPAA Production Code.
Just like Bela Lugosi’s refusal to play character under heavy makeup had allowed Boris Karloff to become star in Frankenstein, Karloff’s refusal to play invisible character has allowed Rains to shine. He can be seen only at the end, while in other scenes he simply borrows his regal voice, successfully portraying character brought to murderous lunacy. The other members of the cast aren’t that effective. Otherwise dependable character actress Una O’Connor falls into too much hysterics during the early scene, while Gloria Stuart (who would decades later became famous as old version of Rose in Titanic) doesn’t add much with weak and almost redundant semi-romantic subplot. The Invisible Man, despite those flaws, became big hit and part of so-called “Universal Horrors”. In subsequent years Universal produced series of semi-sequels with very vague connection with this film. The Invisible Man nevertheless became part of popular culture and was, among other things, spoofed in one of the more memorable gags in 1987 comedy Amazon Women on the Moon. In 2020 an eponymous remake with strong feminist overtones, starring Elisabeth Moss, was produced.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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