Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Charles Lamont

Writers:

Hugh Wedlock Jr. (story) and
Howard Snyder (story) ...

Release Date:

7 March 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Sci-Fi | Sport

Tagline:

AS PRIVATE EYES...they're getting an Eyeful!

Plot:

Two bumbling private eyes help a man wrongly accused of murder who has become invisible to help clear his name.

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Manager | Invisibility | Private Detective | Hoodlum

Cast

Bud Abbott	...	Bud Alexander
Lou Costello	...	Lou Francis
Nancy Guild	...	Helen Gray
Arthur Franz	...	Tommy Nelson
Adele Jergens	...	Boots Marsden
Sheldon Leonard	...	Boots Morgan
William Frawley	...	Det. Roberts
Gavin Muir	...	Dr. Philip Gray
Sam Balter	...	Radio announcer (voice)
John Daheim	...	Rocky Hanlon (as John Day)
Paul Maxey	...	Dr. James C. Turner, Police Psychiatrist

Also Known As:

Meet the Invisible Man

Runtime:

82 min | Argentina:86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #15003) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Trivia:

This was originally intended to be a straight film in the Invisible Man series. After the huge grosses from Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), the script was rewritten to make it another thrill comedy with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. As it happened, Abbott and Costello met an invisible man in the earlier film, too, but it was a different character.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Tommy Nelson is hiring Bud and Lou, the radio broadcast describes Nelson as 5'11'' tall with brown hair. Moments later, Bud repeats the description, but says 5'10'' tall with sandy hair.

Quotes:

Det. Roberts: [Tommy Nelson is gone] How did he get out?
Lou Francis: Installments.
Det. Roberts: Installments?
Lou Francis: Yeah, he did a Gypsy Rose Lee, come here!
[they find Tommy's clothes lying about]
Lou Francis: That, that's all that's left of him.
Det. Roberts: Evidently Nelson changed clothes... what was he wearing when you last saw him?
Lou Francis: Air... nothing but air... and then he asked me how he looked.
Det. Roberts: Wearing air? What are you talking about?
Lou Francis: I went to shake his hand, his hand was gone, I looked up to speak to him, his head was gone. Then he took off his shirt, his body was gone, he took off his pants, his legs were gone! Then he spoke to me, I was gone.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Now You See Him: The Invisible Man Revealed! (2000) (V)

worth seeing (pun intended)

In "Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man", detectives Bud Alexander (Bud Abbott) and Lou Francis (Lou Costello) have to protect a man framed for murder. This becomes proportionally easier once the man gives himself an invisibility serum. Some of the best scenes are when Lou watches him disappear, when a cop sees (or, rather, doesn't see) the man driving a car, and even a scene where Lou accidentally puts a bunch of people to sleep. The end scene is also a shocker.

These movies sometimes seem like they were just excuses for everyone to goof off. If so, then they did well. This one was also helped by the fact that it didn't have any songs, which sometimes weakened A & C's movies. Really funny.

I guess that I'll have to see this again, now that I know that Fred Mertz appeared in it.