The cool thing about the
INVISIBLE MAN series is that the filmmakers chose to use the premise of an
invisible person in a bunch of different ways. The first two follow basically
the same formula, but then the third movie is a comedy and this fourth movie is
a spy/war/action movie in which yet another relative of the original Griffin
(Jon Hall) volunteers to help fight the Nazis.
This 1942 flick, directed
by Edwin L. Marin, was one of my favorites of Horrorfest 2018, mostly because
of its great premise. Hall parachutes behind enemy lines, meets up with a
beautiful informant (Ilona Massey) and battles Nazis (led by Cedric Hardwicke)
and the Japanese (led by Peter Lorre, who is a great villain but a terrible
choice for a Japanese guy).
Watching this movie, I
wondered if George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had it specifically in mind when
they were dreaming up RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, specifically in an early scene
in which Lorre and his Nazi pals show up to threaten and torture the
invisibility formula out of Hall in his print shop. Lorre, in black trench coat
and hat, hits upon the idea of using one of the print shop machines to chop off
Hall’s fingers. The details are different, but the way everything is set up and
how it pays off reminds me of the Nazis invading Marion’s bar in RAIDERS.
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