We’ll begin with a reign of terror, a few murders here and there, murders of great men, murders of little men – well, just to show we make no distinction. I might even wreck a train or two.
We’ll begin with a reign of terror, a few murders here and there, murders of great men, murders of little men – well, just to show we make no distinction. I might even wreck a train or two
Today on the Classic Movie Reviews Podcast, we are taking on The Invisible Man 1933, starring the great Claude Rains in his first speaking role. This film is based on H.G. Wells’ “The Invisible Man,” written in 1897. I believe this is the fourth film we have talked about based on Wells’ writing. The film has a decent 7.7 rating on iMDB.com[1]. It does slightly better on rottentomatoes.com with 100 percent on the Tomatometer and 85 percent audience approval[2].
New York Times film critic Mordaunt Hall said of the film: “The story makes such superb cinematic material that one wonders that Hollywood did not film it sooner. Now that it has been done, it is a remarkable achievement.”[3] In 1933, the year of release, The Invisible Man 1933, was placed on the list of the ten best films in the New York Times[4].
I don’t feel the technical mastery of this film receives as much appreciation as it should. Now any kid with a green sheet and a computer could enact most of the effects. However, at the time this film was made, it was groundbreaking. I talk a little bit about how they did it at the end.
Actors – The Invisible Man (1933)
This movie was directed by James Whale. Whale had already directed Frankenstein 1931 and would later direct Bride of Frankenstein 1935. Also from Bride of Frankenstein 1935 was the hysterical Una O’Connor as pub co-owner Jenny, E.E. Clive as Constable Jaffers, and in a small uncredited role Dwight Frye as a reporter.
Of course, Claude Rains was Dr. Jack Griffin, aka The Invisible Man. Rains was first covered in The Wolf Man 1941. Gloria Stuart, Old Rose, has the role of Flora Cranley. She was first covered in the John Ford directed The Prisoner of Shark Island 1936. The father of Flora and the employer of Dr. Jack was Henry Travers, as Dr. Cranley. Naturally, the voice took me back to Angel Clarence from It’s A Wonderful Life 1946.
Holmes Herbert was the Chief of Police. He was first covered in The Verdict 1946. Dudley Digges was the Chief Detective. We first encounter him in the original The Maltese Falcon 1931. Harry Stubbs played Inspector Bird, who we first encountered in The Mummy’s Hand 1940.
Two small uncredited parts were handled by Walter Brennan as the Bicycle Owner who we first saw in The Buccaneer 1938 and the wonderful John Carradine as the ink suggester who we first covered in the horrible Billy the Kid Versus Dracula 1966.
New
William Harrigan played the sneaky and cowardly Dr. Arthur Kemp. Harrigan was born in 1886 in New York City. He was mostly a stage actor and was active on Broadway. He is known for a few roles that include Nix on Dames 1929, The Invisible Man 1933, ‘G’ Men 1935, with James Cagney, The Farmer’s Daughter 1947, and Flying Leathernecks 1951. Harrigan died in 1966.
Story – The Invisible Man (1933)
It is a snowy night in Iping, England. A man, completely covered from head to toe and carrying a suitcase, arrives that The Lion’s Head Pub. Inside the pub, they are sing, drinking, and playing darts. You know, all the stuff they were doing at ‘The Slaughtered Lamb’ in An American Werewolf in London 1981.
When the walking man comes in, everyone goes silent, just like in the Lamb. The mysterious man’s face and head are completely bandaged. The locals back away as the stranger asks for a room and a fire.
The stranger is Dr. Jack Griffin (Claude Rains). The bar owner calls his wife Jenny (Una O’Connor). She looks at the man as if she has just seen Frankenstein. Jenny calls Mille (Merle Tottenham) to prepare the room. The two ladies take Dr. Jack to his room.
Jenny builds a fire, and Mille lights the lamp. Dr. Jack asks about his luggage at the station, and Jenny says she will send for it in the morning. Dr. Jack asks for food before closing the drapes.
In the pub, the men are speculating that Dr. Jack is some kind of criminal. Jenny brings the food up, and Dr. Jack asks for a key and to be left alone. Jenny goes back with the mustard and busts into the room without knocking. Dr. Jack has taken the bandages off on the lower half of his face. Jenny sees that his jaw is missing. Dr. Jack quickly covers his jaw with a napkin. He gets snotty and says he doesn’t want to be disturbed. Jenny is about to have a stroke. Downstairs she tells the entire pub that he is completely bandaged to the top of his head.
In another part of England, Dr. Cranley (Henry Travers) is working in his laboratory/office. Flora Cranley (Gloria Stewart), who is his daughter, comes in. She is rebuked by Cranley for disturbing his work. She only wants to know about Dr. Jack, who has been gone for over a month. Dr. Arthur Kemp (William Harrigan) comes in, and they discuss Dr. Jack, who worked for Cranley but also conducted his own experiments. Flora gets upset and runs out. Dr. Kemp tries to comfort her. He tells that Dr. Jack was meddling in things men should leave alone. He runs Dr. Jack down. Kemp says the work he and Cranley are doing on food preservatives is very important. Like Clark Griswold. Anyway, Dr. Kemp wants to kiss her. She reacts badly.
Above the pub, Dr. Jack has converted his room to a laboratory. He mumbles that there must be a way back. Jenny brings him some food, and he tries to send her away. She pushes in, and he shoves her out. She drops the tray and runs, screaming down the stairs. Jenny tells her husband that she wants Dr. Jack out. Besides being rude, Dr. Jack is behind on the rent.
The husband goes up just as Dr. Jack is lamenting that the foolish woman, Jenny, has cost him a week’s work. He again says there must be a way back. The owner hands him the bill, and Dr. Jack takes on a pleading turn. The owner begins packing Dr. Jack’s stuff, and the Dr. goes crazy, beating the man and throwing him down the stairs. Jenny is crying and screaming while one of the pub men goes to get the police.
Constable Jaffers (E.E. Clive) is told of the two assaults. He enters the pub and draws his billy club. Jaffers goes upstairs flanked by a mob of pub men. Jaffers tells Dr. Jack that he has committed assault and must be arrested. Dr. Jack becomes indigent and says, alright if you want to know who I am. He pulls off his fake nose and then his goggles. He takes off the bandages, and they see the missing head. All the time, Dr. Jack is crazy, laughing. Jaffers and all the men run downstairs. Jaffers says that Dr. Jack’s problem is that he is invisible and that if he takes his clothes off, they will never catch him.
Jaffers and some pub men go back to Dr. Jack’s room. He is just a shirt running around and laughing. They try to catch him, and he drops the shirt. He taunts them, saying an invisible man can get away with anything. He shows them the chemical and tells how to use it. Now that you know my plan, Mr. Bond, I leave you here to die alone.
Jaffers shuts the door, so he can’t escape. Dr. Jack opens the window and jumps out. When Jaffers goes to the window, Dr. Jack chocks him. He punches and pushes the others before heading downstairs, where he knocks over a clock and opening the door. He knocks glasses from the hands of pub men and finally exits the pub. He steals a bike, attacks people, and causes general mayhem. Jaffers calls it in, but they don’t believe him at first. Newspapers spread the word of the invisible man.
Finally, Cranley and Kemp begin inspecting Dr. Jack’s original laboratory. Cranley finds a list of chemicals. On the list is monocaine. He explains that it is produced from a flower that grows in India. The flower sucks the color out of everything it touches. They tried using it bleaching clothes, but it dissolved the clothes. It was injected into a dog and turned the dog white and made the dog insane. Cranley says the dog experiment was only in German books and not in English, so Dr. Jack might not know how bad the stuff is. Cranley swears Kemp to silence. That evening Kemp is in the den when the garden door opens and closes. The radio talks about the people in Iping are having a mass delusion. Dr. Jack turns off the radio and tells Kemp he is there. When Kemp sees the invisible man moving stuff he becomes alarmed. Jack tells Kemp he wants food, and he wants to work on his medical problem. He sends Kemp for glasses, clothes, and bandages. Jack says he will kill Kemp if he doesn’t help. Kemp is forced to help.
The Chief Detective (Dudley Digges) arrives at the pub. He doesn’t believe the story is true, but he begins the investigation.
Back a Kemp’s house, Jack is fully covered. This calms Kemp a bit, and the two men sit to talk. Dr. Jack says he worked on the experiment for five years. When he began fading, he left for Iping. He says he was working on an antidote. Dr. Jack says the drugs have amped up his brain, and he wants to set the world right. He says he needs a normal partner. His plan is to murder a few people and cause general mayhem like wrecking trains. He orders Kemp to go to Iping to retrieve his notes. Dr. Jack strips off his clothing and gets in the car with Kemp.
The Chief Detective is interviewing everyone that encountered the invisible man. The man that had the bicycle taken from him is a very young and uncredited Walter Brennen. Kemp and Jack stop the car a short distance from the pub. Jack will throw the books out the window to Kemp. Jack opens the door, and Jenny thinks it is children playing pranks. Jack makes his way to his room and begins tossing books to Kemp.
The Chief Detective pronounces that the entire matter is a hoax. He begins to sign a paper, but the ink well starts moving. Finally, the ink is thrown on the officer’s face. Jenny screams that he is here. Glasses and mugs begin to fly around the room. When everyone else has run outside, the invisible man chocks the Chief Detective. Before going to the car, he smashes the officer with a stool.
That same night Cranley goes to see Inspector Lane (Donald Stuart), but a newspaper boy comes down the street with a headline saying, “Invisible Man Slays Policeman.” Cranley turns back without reporting his former colleague.
Back at Kemp’s place, Jack explains that undigested food can be seen in him for an hour after he eats. He also says that fog, snow, rain, and soot give his form away. Kemp keeps going along for fear of Dr. Jack. Jack gets unbandaged for bed and retires.
Chief of Police (Holmes Herbert) organizes a 20-mile search with a search party consisting of 1000 men. The men begin beating the brush with sticks and look for tracks. Radio announcements are made calling for more searchers and that the public should lock all doors, windows, and buildings. A 1000-pound reward is offered for his capture.
Finally, Kemp mans up and calls Cranley telling him that Dr. Jack is the invisible man. Cranley says he will come in the morning and for Kemp to keep Jack there. Flora comes down, and Cranley tells her where and what Jack is.
Men call the police with ideas for the capture. One man, an uncredited John Carradine, suggests that they throw ink on him.
Kemp calls the police and tells them that the invisible man is in his house. The policeman says he will need 100 men to surround the house. Flora is determined to go help, Jack. Jack comes to the door where Kemp is located. He forces him to unlock the door and then sends him to bed. On the way upstairs, they see Cranley and Flora walking up the sidewalk. Jack goes to prepare himself while Kemp lets the two inside.
Flora goes to see Dr. Jack and is a little shocked by his wrapping. He is playing the lady’s man and says he did it all to get money for her and him. He plans to sell his formula to the highest bidder so they can sweep the world with invisible armies. Jack rants and trash talks Cranley. She tells him that there are bad side effects from using monocaine. As he rants, he sees police and dogs surrounding the house. He sends Flora away.
The police link hands and make a big old ring around the rosy as they move towards the house. In Kemp’s room, the invisible Jake says he will kill Kemp by 10 PM the next night. Jack taunts the police and finally gets through their line. Then a pair of pants and suspenders chase an old woman down the road.
Kemp is freaking out that he is going to be killed. The Chief of Police questions Cranley and Kemp, but they clam up. Kemp tells that suspect is indeed Dr. Jack. During the day, Dr. Jack attacks one of the search parties. He later knocks out a switch operator and derails a train. He steals a cash drawer at Lloyd’s Bank and hands it out in the street. Twenty men from search parties have been killed. A reporter (an uncredited Dwight Frye) asks the Chief of Police what his plans are. He doesn’t tell the reporter, but they clear the room with a net to make sure the invisible man is not with them. The plan is to try and catch him near Kemp’s house.
The Chief of Police has 20-men with spray paint guns, they have the net, and have put earth on top of the wall. Dr. Jake was there listening to their plan. They dress Kemp like a cop and try and sneak him out. At 10 PM, Dr. Jack announces that he is in the car before killing Kemp by running the car off a cliff.
Dr. Jack sleeps in a barn to stay warm. The farmer sees the hay moving and hears Dr. Jack snoring. He goes to the police station and reports that the invisible man is in his barn. A strong snowstorm hits at the same time covering the ground with powder.
The police surround the barn and set the barn on fire. Dr. Jack is forced out by the fire. The police begin advancing. The Chief of Police sees Dr. Jack’s footprints in the snow and shoots him.
At a hospital, a doctor reports that he is very near the end. Flora is brought up, and Dr. Jack continues to ask for her. The doctor says that as he dies his body will come back. First, the skull and then the face of Dr. Jack form. This is the only time Claude Rains’ face was shown in the movie. He is dead for meddling in things men should leave alone.
I’ll be right back with conclusions and the World-Famous Short Summary following a word from our sponsors.
Summary – The Invisible Man (1933)
If I were asked who the number one classic Universal horror killer was, I would probably have said Dracula or the Wolf Man. It turns out that the top slayer was, in fact, The Invisible Man[5]. Dr. Jack it seems killed 4 people on screen, another 18 in the search parties (minus the two shown on screen), and derailed a train killing 100 people. This brings him to a total of 122 kills in the film. Suck it, Dracula.
As I said earlier, this movie was really groundbreaking, considering when it was made. Now, most of the effects can be created with a green cloth and some digital keying software. But when no one has done it before, it is pretty impressive.
The visual effects were created by John P. Fulton, John J. Mescall, and Frank D. Williams. For a scene when the Invisible Man was naked, they used wires to move objects and make clothes dance. This technique is at least as old as filmmaking. However, when they wanted Dr. Jack to take off his clothes, they came up with something very interesting. They had Claude Rains or his stunt double dress in a black velvet outfit, and they shot him against a black velvet background[6][7]. This is essentially pre-digital green screening. They would then shoot the location and matte the film together. Amazing.
For trivia’s sake, there was one large error at the end of the film. I missed it. Did you? When Dr. Jack left the barn in the snow, the prints were of shoes instead of bare feet.
World-Famous Short Summary – Why make an actor of Rains’ quality be invisible for the entire movie?
I hope you enjoyed today’s show. You can find connections to social media and email on the site at classicmovierev.com or in the podcast show notes.
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[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024184/
[2] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1010695_invisible_man
[3] Hall, Mordaunt (November 18, 1933). “Movie Review – The Invisible Man”. The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Archived from the original on December 2, 2015.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invisible_Man_(1933_film)
[5] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024184/trivia
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invisible_Man_(1933_film)#Special_effects
[7] David J. Skal. Now You See Him: The Invisible Man Revealed!, Universal Home Entertainment, 2000.
