Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951)

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

Director:

Charles Lamont

Writers:

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

Stars:

Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Nancy Guild

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Bud Abbott	...	Bud Alexander
Lou Costello	...	Lou Francis
Nancy Guild	...	Helen Gray
Arthur Franz	...	Tommy Nelson
Adele Jergens	...	Boots Marsden
Sheldon Leonard	...	Morgan
William Frawley	...	Detective Roberts
Gavin Muir	...	Dr. Philip Gray
Sam Balter	...	Radio Announcer
John Daheim	...	Rocky Hanlon (as John Day)

Storyline

Boxer Tommy Nelson is accused of killing his manager. While detectives Bud and Lou investigate they come across an invisibility formula with which Tommy injects himself rather than face the police. This sparks an idea for trapping gangster Morgan by having Lou fight champ Rocky Hanlon, with Tommy's invisible help.

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Plot Keywords:

femme fatale | damsel in distress | deception | fight referee | police detective | 

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Taglines:

Hair raising... Howl raising... HILARITY!

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror | Sci-Fi | Sport

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 March 1951 (USA)

Also Known As:

Meet the Invisible Man

Filming Locations:

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

Box Office

Budget:

$627,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Several shots are from Universal's The Invisible Man Returns (1940): the scenes where the guinea pig is turned Invisible (reversed footage), the harness of the invisible guinea pig moving around its cage and the scene where the Invisible Man is unpacking a suitcase of clothes left outside in the woods. Even the plots of the two films are similar (a man wrongly convicted of murder becomes invisible to evade the police and catch the real killer).

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Goofs

At the end of the fight when Tommy knocks Rocky out, Boots yells, "Get up, Tommy!" from the audience (instead of "Get up, Rocky!").

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Quotes

Bud Alexander: [grabbed by the invisible man] Oh no! It's Tommy Nelson, Lou, he's here!
[grabs the air]
Bud Alexander: I touched him!
[gets slapped]
Lou Francis: I think he touched you back.

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Connections

Featured in Cinemassacre's Monster Madness: Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (2011)

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Soundtracks

Rock-a-bye Baby
(uncredited)
Music by Effie I. Canning

User Reviews

A Surprising Amount Of Laughs And Maybe A&C's Best

I only watched this once, but that's my loss. I should see this again. Although not a big fan of these guys, I thought this was their funniest film, along with Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein. Although the latter is considered their best and most popular movie, my vote just might go to this one.

This film was simply a lot of laughs from start to finish and the special-effects with the invisible man are good, too - even over 50 years later! The boxing scenes at the end of the movie are incredibly hokey but they are humorous as the "invisible man" helps Costello in the ring.

Sometimes silly, sometimes stupid but generally fast-moving, this film is highly- recommended for those looking for an innocent, old-time comedy with a surprising amount of laughs.