THE INVISIBLE MAN
US, 1933, 71 minutes, Black and white.
Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, William Harrigan, Henry Travers, Uno O’ Connor.
Directed by James Whale.
The Invisible Man is based on the novel by H.G. Wells. Wells had been disappointed with his adaptation of The Island of Doctor Moreau, filmed as The Island of Lost Souls. British director James Whale (Frankenstein, Show Boat) asked playwright R.C. Sherriff whose World War One trenches play Journey’s End he had filmed, to write the screenplay.
Claude Rains makes his American debut after his career on the British stage. Gloria Stuart who had appeared in Island of Lost Souls (and received an Oscar nomination for her role in the 1997 Titanic) is his fiancée. Henry Travers (who was to be Clarence the angel in It’s a Wonderful Life) is the invisible man’s colleague. Una O’ Connor, a regular of Hollywood films, overacts as the proprietor of the hotel where the invisible man hides.
The film is considered a classic, with James Whale’s ability to combine horror with touches of comedy. However, in retrospect Claude Rains also seems to overact, with the touch of hysteria.
John P. Fulton’s special effects are the key to the film, in 1933, finding ways in order not only to render the invisible man invisible, but show him in action, becoming gradually invisible. There was a sequel with Vincent Price, The Invisible Man Returns – and other variations on the theme including The Invisible Woman and, finally, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man.
1.The film considered a classic? Universal Studios in 1933, the horror tradition with Frankenstein, Dracula, The Old Dark House, Island of Lost Souls?
2.The production values, the re-creation of England, the inn, the roads and the storm, the car crash, the laboratories? The musical score?
3.The impact of the special effects, for the invisible man’s invisibility? Partial invisibility? For movement of objects around a room without any attachment?
4.H.G. Wells, his interest in science, the future, science fiction? The moral of the story – the parallel with Doctor Frankenstein, experiments, creating something monstrous and destructive?
5.The inn, the men singing, playing the piano, artificially? The gossip? Jenny Hall and her husband? The invisible man arriving, his demands, appearance, the room? Looking out the window, settling in, unpacking, the meal – and Mrs Hall glimpsing him?
6.The invisible man and his background, science, his injecting himself and becoming invisible? His desperation to do experiments, the intrusion of Mrs Hall? His angers? Trying to recover? His surly behaviour, with Herbert Hall and throwing him down the stairs? The police arriving, taking him away, his escape?
7.Doctor Kemp, collaborating with Doctor Cranley and the invisible man? The jealousy? His attraction towards Flora? Flora and her outpouring to him, his advances? Meeting with the invisible man, their discussions, the man’s vengefulness, in the car, the brakes, sending him to his death?
8.Flora, her love for her fiancé, his disappearance, her desperation, Doctor Kemp, her father? Meeting the invisible man, talking, hoping for a cure? Her grief at his death?
9.Doctor Cranley, the mystery of the man’s disappearance, consoling his daughter? The discussions, the possible remedy?
10.Jenny Hall and her husband, a harridan, treatment of the invisible man, her hysterical screams and cries? The henpecked husband, challenging the man, being thrown down the stairs?
11.The police, arrival, the confrontation, seeing the invisibility – and their fears?
12.Popular entertainment – with more emphasis on special effects than on the message of the scientist meddling with human nature?
