1940’s THE INVISIBLE
WOMAN, directed by A. Edward Sutherland, is actually a comedy and not a horror
film, but since it is the second sequel in the otherwise horror-oriented
INVISIBLE MAN series from Universal, it’s getting the Horrorfest treatment this
year.
THE INVISIBLE WOMAN stars
Virginia Bruce in the title role as a department store model who responds to an
ad from a scientist (John Barrymore) seeking a human subject to test his
invisibility machine on. This time there’s no mention of the Griffin family
from the other films, so this scientist has independently come up with a new
way to turn people invisible.
Bruce uses her new-found
invisibility to get revenge on her annoying boss and improve working conditions
for her fellow department store models. This time around the invisibility does
not have the side effect of driving the invisible person mad, but it does work
with alcohol, for some reason, and so the invisible subject is able to return
themselves to invisibility after having a little drink.
The bulk of the movie is
made up of a group of gangsters attempts to get the invisibility machine and
the scientist’s attempt to prove to his financial backer (John Howard) that his
machine works.
Barrymore’s good as the
scientist who is more befuddled than mad but Howard as the leading man is a
little bland and the Invisible Woman herself is only okay. The best parts of
the movie are made up by the supporting cast, including Shemp Howard as one of
the gangsters in a non-Stooges appearance, Charles Ruggles as a butler who’s
scared of everything and the wicked witch of the west herself, Margaret
Hamilton, as the scientist’s pearl-clutching housemaid.
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