65. The Invisible Man

James Whale, 1933

No, no, no. Not The Hollow Man. No, not Memoirs of an Invisible Man, either. No, baby, this is the original. This is Claude Rains in the finest film performance you never see. On a cold winter night, the wind howls outside, whipping snow around the tiny English village of Ipping. Suddenly, the door to the inn bursts open and a man enters. He wears a thick coat and hat. Despite the night, he wears dark tinted glasses that cover both fronts and sides. His nose is shiny and bright pink and his face is wrapped in bandages. No one knows his name. All they know is that he is a scientist who suffered a horrible accident. He stays at the inn for many months, experimenting night and day with his chemicals, never seeing anyone. Before long, the curiosity of the townsfolk is piqued. They most know the man’s secret. Badgering him over an unpaid rent bill and a frightened land lady, the people and their constable confront the scientist. At length he screams in his deep, commanding voice, “You’re crazy to know who I am, aren’t you? All right! I’ll show you!” He lifts his hands and begins to undo the bandages, reveal a horrifying nothing underneath. There is no deformity. In fact, there is no head at all. As the scientist removes his clothes, we see the same is true for each body part. The man really is invisible. The year is 1933. We are 44 years before Star Wars, 60 years before Jurassic Park. Hell, The Wizard of Oz won’t come out for another six years. And yet, there it was, a man disappeared on film. It was no simple trick. We see the Invisible One, as he is credited, in several full body shots as he undresses. Of course, there is a trick: rotoscoping, but that trick is incredibly convincing, especially for 1933. The sole flaw in the process is that you cannot see the back of the Invisible One’s collar through his neck, otherwise the illusion is convincing and hardly improved upon in the intervening years. We may be able to make realistic dinosaurs run around, thus improving on movies like The Lost World, but the best we can do for The Invisible Man is fill in the back of his collar. I imagine that the audience reaction was a lot like that of audiences at The Phantom of the Opera, when Chaney finally removes his mask. They had to have gone batshit. This is a movie with incredible effects from a time when movie effects were unheard of, especially effects this good. Oh, we’ve all seen the footage of Rains pulling away the bandages now. We aren’t shocked anymore. But to see that for the first time in a simpler age of film and film effect. That had to be mind blowing.

Of course, the effects are far from the only thing I love about this movie. Claude Rains, in what I understand is his first real screen role, is terrific. You only see his face in the final seconds of the film, as he lies unconscious. The rest of the time he is either bandaged or invisible. Yet, the man has such a command over his voice, which is a damned impressive, commanding voice at that, that he gives a performance dripping with love, hatred, rage, arrogance, and mania. It is an amazing performance and it is done without the aid of his face. The direction is terrific. Everything looks great. The film was directed by James Whale, the director of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, and, arguably, one of the two best horror directors of his day, along with Todd Browning. The adaptation of H. G. Wells’ novel is impressive. Really the only change is to add cars to the story. Otherwise, the village of Ipping remains as quaintly English as it does in the novel. The supporting cast is great, check out Clarence from It’s a Wonderful Life as the Invisible One’s old boss! This is easily my favorite of the Universal Horror films.