31 Days of Horror: The Invisible Man
Click to viewOh, boy! I read the abridged for children version of this book when I was itty bitty, along with the abridged for children version of Frankenstein, and I adored them both. I read the grownup versions of both books when I was older, and...well, frankly, abridging did wonders for Frankenstein. The original text was in desperate need of a good editor. But the full text of The Invisible Man was a much richer experience than the kids' version.
I think that's why I watched all the Frankenstein movies but somehow missed The Invisible Man. With Frankenstein, I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. But a bad version of The Invisible Man would just hurt.
I am really happy that I watched it tonight.
I was having some trouble liking any of the characters. Griffin is not meant to be likeable, of course, but he actually, gleefully, talks about all the invisible raping he's going to do, and I was...not okay with that.
Kemp might not have been evil, but he was a total dickface, with all his, "He cares nothing for you, Flora!" I mean, who goes up to a woman who's crying because her boyfriend is missing and maybe in peril, and just starts ranting about how his only love is science? Especially when the guy actually cares about her so much that he'll put his drug-addled megalomaniacal murder spree on hold just to make goo-goo eyes at her.
Speaking of Flora, I loathed her. I guess she was necessary to soften Griffin's character, but I really couldn't see any reason why he would like her. She mentioned that he liked to talk to her about his experiments, but her reaction to her father trying to talk to her with a beaker of chemicals in his hand was, "Oh, Father, put that horrid thing away!" so I can't imagine either of them got much out of the conversations. And her only other role was to have ~feelings, by which I mean that she was hyper-emotional in every scene, and also that she "just knew" that Griffin was in trouble through woman's intuition or something.
But, hell, I didn't have to like the characters. The acting was all top-notch. (Except for Flora, but I wouldn't have been able to stand any actress playing that part.) Claude Rains was fantastic. I really believed in all his swinging moods, which is made all the more impressive by the fact that he couldn't breathe in that invisible suit, and the poor man was claustrophobic. This must have been hell for him.
Besides that, Una O'Connell as Jenny Hall! I love that woman, absurd shrieking and all. You may recognize her from Bride of Frankenstein, or, if you’re really awesome, Witness For the Prosecution. Also, E.E. Clive as Constable Jaffers. Love! Hey, and Dwight Frye is there, too, and he’s full of ideas. 1930s character actors were the best character actors.
The running amok while invisible scene was amazing. As were the invisibility effects in general. The giggling shirt bit was every bit as good as the award winning effects in Bedknobs and Broomsticks almost forty years later. (Speaking of effects, nice train derailment and carsplosion. That's proto-Michael Bay right there.)
There are too many great little humorous touches even to mention. The movie does a great job of playing those comedic moments while still keeping up the tension and emotional grimness.
The end is brutal, just like in the book. I always felt so bad for him when I was a kid. I mean, no matter how insane and murderous you are, you shouldn’t have to be driven out of shelter to die naked in the snow. That was really upsetting to me as a child.
The movie's ending was made somewhat less powerful (ironically) by the fact that he lived long enough to go to the hospital and have a nice conversation with his girlfriend. (After being shot through both lungs. At what angle do you have to shoot a guy for the bullet to pass through both lungs and nothing else?)
Also, turns out Claude Rains was handsome!
My favorite scene: The "I'm invisible and I'm going to fuck with the townspeople!" scene. Yeah, I'm pretty much always drawn to the comedy.
My rating: 5/5