''I failed. I meddled in things that man must leave alone..." - Jack Griffin, The Invisible Man
H.G. (Herbert George) Wells is considered to be one of the most prolific science-fiction writers of all time next to the likes to Jules Verne (whose novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea I reviewed before here: https://studiesofflicksnnovels.blogspot.com/2019/07/novel-review-twenty-thousand-leagues.html). Some of his most famous works are The Time Machine (1895) and The War of the Worlds (1898). H.G. Wells' concepts have influenced the sci-fi genre vastly, and has even contributed to horror through the character of Griffin, better known as the Invisible Man. The Invisible Man was originally released as a novel in 1897 and was adapted into a film of the same name by Universal Pictures in 1933, with the character joining the cast of Universal Classic Monsters alongside Count Dracula and the Frankenstein's Monster. The film was directed by James Whale of Boris Karloff's 1931 Frankenstein and stars Claude Rains as the title character.
The story of the Invisible Man is quite simple: Scientist Dr. Jack Griffin (simply known as Griffin in the novel) discovers how to become invisible. It's eventually discovered however that monocane, one of the main ingredients of the drug (as it bleaches organisms), has the side effect of inducing insanity in whomever ingests it. Driven mad by the effects of the drug, Griffin plans to use his newfound invisibility to commit crimes as he desires and in general cause chaos. He is eventually caught and shot. As he lays dying in hospital, Griffin regains his sanity as he turns visible again and tells his lover Flora that he ''meddled in things that man must leave alone..." before dying.
The first thing I'm going to discuss regarding this film is the OUTSTANDING special effects. In 1933, the movie industry still wasn't all that well-developed due to the relatively recent introduction of films (or "moving pictures") to society and technology being not all developed. Despite the challenges presented, the special effect of the floating clothes, weapons, things being knocked down, etc. were so flawlessly done that I frankly think it's just as good as any CGI special effects they could've pulled off in the 21st Century. I'm 100% certain but I'm fairly sure they used wires (for the scene where the Invisible Man is running around nude) and some sort of combining of two different shots when he is wearing clothes. The special effects seriously work brilliantly and are so well timed with the other actors' movements and reactions that it's seriously believable that there could've been an actual invisible man. The special effects ALONE are worth watching the movie for if you're even mildly interested in it because it is seriously mind-blowing.
The plot overall was very well-paced and interesting. The movie is only about an hour and ten minutes (or 71 minutes) so the pacing was pretty fast-paced all the way through and all of the scenes were very well done. Not a single scene felt like a filler to pad time or anything and they all had some purpose in either character development or the plot. The story was fairly simple and nothing in it was very difficult to understand and there were some plot twists in it that were actually very well executed and managed to surprise me a couple of times.
The acting is another point of interest I'm going to focus on. Overall, the acting was very solid. There were few actors here and there who seemed like overacting and kind of annoyed me (although that just could've been what constituted good acting back then), but the main cast gave a very solid performance. Claude Rains gave a phenomenal performance as Griffin, which was very impressive considering he had nothing but his voice to work with the movie until right at the end. As the Invisible Man, he really gave off the impression of being a complete madman; his voice had the right amount of raspiness that really gave off the impression of a maniac. Claude Rains' evil laugh was absolutely genius and was actually quite terrifying; Mark Hamill apparently took inspiration from Rains when doing his voice for the role of the Joker, and I think it was a VERY smart idea. Rains could also portray a sympathetic character very well. Despite being a madman because of the drug for most of the movie, in his dying moments his sanity returns, and as Griffin talks about how he never should have tried to become invisible, I could definitely feel the pain and regret in his voice as he realizes that everything he did was evil, and it really made me sympathize with a character who was largely really loathsome for most of the movie.
Overall, The Invisible Man was an outstanding movie. Despite being an older movie with a much lower production value and resources, it's actually better than most recent films. It's got a great plot, great pacing, sensational special effects, and a really great cast. I think the fact that this movie was barely over an hour actually helped in its favour. It could cut right to the chase and make the viewer solve the mystery of the invisible man with the characters; it also meant that there was no need for "filler scenes", meaning that the film never dragged or got boring and pointless in places just to pad the runtime. From start to finish basically everything was plot relevant and the few scenes that weren't were there to build the mood and the tense atmosphere, which worked amazingly well for the movie. This film, in my humble opinion, is way better than most movies you'd find in theatres nowadays mainly because of how straightforward and concise it all is.
For my next review, I'm actually going to change it up a bit and do a review of a TV show. Specifically Doctor Who. I've been really getting into the show recently and I want to essentially once in a while, as a special Doctor Who Review, review an incarnation of the Doctor (both Classic and Revived Era are fair game). In these reviews I'm going cover the overall characterization of the Doctor, their companion(s), villains, and overall story arc. These reviews are going to be a "once-in-a-while" special, so they won't be too frequent.
For my first ever Doctor Who Review next week, I shall be reviewing the first Doctor of "New Who" and my personal favourite, the Ninth Doctor, portrayed by Christopher Eccleston. As always, thank you for reading my blog, and I always will enjoy hearing from all of you, so if you have any comments, feedbacks, opinions, suggestions, etc., please feel free to comment, and I WILL respond to ALL comments!
