Directed by Charles
Lamont, written by Robert Lees, Frederic I. Rinaldo and John Grant, based on
the novel by H.G. Wells
Starring Bud Abbott, Lou
Costello and Nancy Guild
1951
The Invisible Man’s back,
this time as a prize fighter falsely accused of murder who turns to the
invisibility formula in an attempt to escape the cops and remain invisible at
least long enough to find the real killer. Luckily Abbott and Costello are on
hand as recent graduates of private detective school, ready to help solve the
case. Still, most of the action revolves around Abbott getting roped into a
boxing match, and his invisible boxer friend helping him out.
How do you judge an
Abbott and Costello movie? None of them are as good as the best one, ABBOTT AND
COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. You might say they’re only as good as their
monster, but here’s a problem – the Invisible Man allows for lots of cool sight
gags, but we’re not treated to one of the classic invisible men (like Claude
Rains or Vincent Price). Conversely, in that MR. HYDE movie, Jekyll/Hyde is an
odd choice for a Universal monster (because he’s not one) but horror legend
Boris Karloff does play the character, so that’s nice.
I will say, though, if
you view this movie as the last in the series of INVISIBLE MAN movies, it’s
less jarring and fits in better than say FRANKENSTEIN or THE MUMMY, because the
INVISIBL MAN series is so insane and varied, with comedy entries, horror
entries, action/adventure entries, that it doesn’t seem that far out of left
field for Abbott and Costello to suddenly show up.
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