Time: 70 Minutes
Cast:
Gloria Stuart as Flora Cranley
Claude Rains as Dr. Jack Griffin
William Harrigan as Dr. Arthur Kemp
Henry Travers as Dr. Cranley
Una O’Connor as Jenny Hall
Forrester Harvey as Herbert Hall
Dudley Digges as Chief of Detectives
Director: James Whale

Working in Dr. Cranley’s laboratory, scientist Jack Griffin was always given the latitude to conduct some of his own experiments. His sudden departure, however, has Cranley’s daughter Flora worried about him. Griffin has taken a room at the nearby Lion’s Head Inn, hoping to reverse an experiment he conducted on himself that made him invisible. But the experimental drug has also warped his mind, making him aggressive and dangerous. He’s prepared to do whatever it takes to restore his appearance.

The Invisible Man is a horror movie from the early 1930s, and one of the early Universal horror films. It’s not as well known compared to the likes of Dracula and Frankenstein, but it does deserve to be regarded on the same level.

The Invisible Man was definitely a challenging project to take on back then, considering it’s a special effects heavy film where you can’t see the leading man, but they really pulled it off. Despite it being a horror movie, I really didn’t find it to be scary or tense at moments. It is however a lot of fun, and uses its dark comedy to its advantage.

Generally, the movie has some good performances, ranging from over the top to serious. However, the star of the show is Claude Raines as the titular The Invisible Man. His character of Jack Griffin has a pretty weak character motive, but really pulls off this role. Again, it’s difficult when you don’t see him for most of the movie, but he still elevates the movie with his maniacal, theatrical and darkly comic performance. He has a great presence, even with his voice alone.

James Whale directed this quite well. For a movie made in the early 1930s, they managed to pull off a lot. There are some great practical effects and visuals which do very well at making the audience buy into the idea of an invisible man.

The Invisible Man (1933) is a horror classic, creative, well directed, darkly funny, and with a great performance from Claude Raines. Probably one of the more underrated of the Universal Monster movies.