Review #225: The Invisible Man (1933)

This review was originally written in October 2022.

Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #79: The Invisible Man (1933)

I can't help but notice that a shockingly large number of these classic horror films seem to revolve around a tortured academic who is engaged to a respected mentor's daughter, possibly while a close friend/science partner also has eyes for the protagonist's fiancee. (Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, and the Mummy all share that framework.) I know cinema was still figuring out the ability to tell complex stories back then but it seriously feels like all of these movies started with a checklist they had to go down before they were allowed to become popular.

The Invisible Man has a relatively simple premise: Dr. Jack Griffin is a tortured academic who is engaged to a blah blah blah, I already gave that spiel. But he's made a groundbreaking discovery- a cocktail of chemicals that, if regularly injected into a living subject, will turn the person fully invisible! However, Griffin learns firsthand that this discovery doesn't come without a cost, as it turns him into a megalomaniacal villain intent on causing mayhem and havoc everywhere he goes. Will his associates find a way to reverse his transformation, or will the police smoke him out and make him pay for his crimes first?

I have to say, this film is actually pretty darn good. The main character is terrifying through and through, the secondary characters set up his plight and have clear goals and motivations, and the special effects really sell the Invisible Man. I know this kind of technology is over a hundred years old by this point, but the scene near the beginning where Griffin removes his disguise and reveals nothing underneath looked fantastic, and I'm sure was even more breathtaking back in the 30s when this movie came out!

The only thing that really detracted from the film, though, is how completely inept EVERYONE was in this movie. I get that the idea of an invisible person was probably something completely foreign to the people making this film (compared to nowadays, where everybody's seen multiple movies and TV shows where invisibility has played a part) but come on, the scenes where Griffin runs around clowning on people that are actively trying to catch him and nobody is able to do a single thing correctly, are just silly. The police form an arm-linked perimeter around Kemp's house with the express purpose of blocking and catching the Invisible Man. But when one of the men gets lifted off the ground and swung around in circles for like thirty seconds, what do they do? Do they rush in and grab at the spot where the invisible person is obviously standing? Nope, they just remain where they are, arms still linked. When an officer gets his nose tweaked by an invisible human obviously positioned directly in front of his face, does he grab at the air directly in front of him? No, he just remains where he was with arms at his sides and complains to the nearby captain (who also does nothing). The police in this film are downright terrible at what they do, including the climax, where the invisible man is shot. Because logistically speaking, whoever shot him was firing a gun in the direction of a line of his fellow officers, at a target they couldn't see. Good thing they hit their target!

Anyway, this film was pretty fun and had some fantastic special effects. More of these types of movies, please!

Overall Rating: 7/10 Derailed Trains

Money Conversion: In this film, the police offer a reward of £1,000 for information leading to the capture of the Invisible Man. Taking conversion rates and inflation into account, this is over $100,000 in today's money!