A strange, bandaged man seeks refuge from a winter storm in a country inn. He extends his stay and begins conducting secretive research in his guest room. When the inn owner elects to evict the man over his bad temper and rude manners, the stranger strips off his bandages and reveals that he is invisible. He begins maniacally torturing the town and the police, evading every trap laid for him. Doctor Arthur Kemp is visited by the invisible man and learns he’s a research partner who went missing, named Dr. Jack Griffin. Griffin tries to force Kemp into being his “visible” partner as he researches to find the invisibility antidote—while also terrorizing the world into submission. Will Griffin become an invisible crown floating on a throne over the world’s people? Or will the police “see through” his plans and bring an end to his reign of terror? Tune in to find out!
I honestly liked “The Invisible Man” far more than I ever expected to. A pair of glasses and a bandaged face never seemed all that terrifying to me, but Griffin’s bodycount is higher than most movie monsters and his ambition seems to be the most insatiable of the batch. I loved the playful, evil-joy Griffin exerted as he relished in the possibilities of his invisibility. And the special effects were actually pretty top notch and carried further than just a hat on strings. I also liked that the film patches potential plot holes, like explaining how eating works or acknowledging that Griffin carries out his evil exploits in the nude (LOL). I found Flora Cranley, the dumb damsel, to be one of the less-well-aged parts of the film. And I felt the flick resolved a bit cheaply. But perhaps that’s the point: even the smartest, most overpowered villains are bound to slip up and lead to their own doom—if only they were wise enough to see it.