The Invisible Man

I watched the 1933 Universal Pictures film The Invisible Man on Svengoolie. The movie is based on the H.G. Wells (The Island of Doctor Moreau, The War of the Worlds) book by the same name and stars Claude Raines (The Adventures of Robin Hood, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Wolf Man, Casablanca, Phantom of the Opera, Battle of the Worlds, Lawrence of Arabia, The Greatest Story Ever Told) as Dr. Jack Griffin who has found the secret of invisibility and given it to himself.

It seems that the drug he used Monocane not only works for invisibility, but unknown to Dr. Griffin, will drive him murderously insane. The science fiction/horror film was directed by James Whale (Journey’s End, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein)

and produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. (Dracula, Frankenstein, Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mummy, The Black Cat, Great Expectations, Bride of Frankenstein).

The movie stars Gloria Stuart (painter, author and actress. The Three Musketeer’s, Titanic), Henry Travers (guardian angel in It’s a Wonderful Life), Una O’Connor (Orient Express, David Copperfield, Bride of Frankenstein, The Adventures of Robin Hood) and Dudley Digges (The Maltese Falcon, Mutiny on the Bounty).

For in invisibility scenes, Raines would wear a black velvet complete body suit and they would shoot against a black velvet background. They would then superimpose him onto the normal scene.

Visual effects devised by John P. Fulton (parted the Red Sea in the Ten Commandments), John J. Mescall (camera tracking expert) and Frank D. Williams (he developed and patented the traveling matte shot used for the invisibility scenes).

This was Universal’s most successful horror movie since Frankenstein. I enjoyed the movie, the effects are amazing for 1933, and I’ll give it 3.8 out of 5 stars. For more information read Wikipedia, IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.