Starring Virginia Bruce, John Barrymore, John Howard, Charlie Ruggles, Oskar Homolka
Directed by A. Edward Sutherland
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
An eccentric scientist perfects a method of turning someone invisible, and gets a dress model to volunteer to be his first subject.
While Universal made a more serious sequel to The Invisible Man the same year, they also fashioned this much more lighthearted comedy, with Bruce starring as the lady who's made transparent by John Barrymore, of all people. For me, a lot of the comedy falls flat, but have to admit laughing at a number of lines and situations. When Donald MacBride, playing a gangster's henchman named Foghorn, loses his voice, I don't think it's as funny as it would have been with an actor with a more booming sound, and Shemp Howard is sadly wasted in a limited role, although Charlie Ruggles fares better as John Howard's butler, the chief comic presence in the film. While Bruce gives a fine starring performance, with a sharp tongue and wit, some of the gender commentary is badly dated and a couple lines are pretty offensive. However, I'm sure there were women in the audience cheering when Bruce gets revenge on her cruel boss, and John P. Fulton's special effects are again marvelous.
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