The film begins with a heavily-bandaged stranger arriving at a remote inn and demanding a room. He insists that he is to be left alone, only for the nosy innkeeper to keep interrupting his work. Tired of the intrusions, the stranger attacks the woman and her husband, and then later the police. He removes his bandages in a psychotic rage and escapes, randomly attacking the townsfolk as he flees. He is Dr. Jack Griffin, The Invisible Man, and as well as the obvious physical abnormality, his successful experiments have also driven him completely mad. As the police fret over their difficult search, The Invisible Man seeks out his old partner Dr. Kemp (Henry Travers), who he threatens to join him in his mad quest to reek havoc and live like a king.Adapted from the novel of the same name by H.G. Welles, James Whale's film has everything you could possibly want from an old horror film. It is massively entertaining, and doesn't waste a second of its rather slight 71 minute running time. The most impressive thing is without a doubt the absolutely stunning special effects. How they managed to achieve such technical brilliance back in 1933 is beyond me. But with technical triumphs you also need an interesting protagonist, which they have in abundance in Claude Rains. His Invisible Man is a complete manic bastard, and Rains plays him with such a ferocity and a strange likeability that I was actually rooting for him the whole way through. And everything is controlled to perfection by the ever-brilliant James Whale. One of Universal's finest achievements.
Directed by: James Whale
Starring: Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, William Harrigan
Country: USA
Rating: *****
Tom Gillespie
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