The Invisible Woman

What a strong cast for such a silly and stupid (but still decent) movie! Classic movie fans know these names: John Barrymore, Virginia Bruce, John Howard, Charles Ruggles, Oscar Homolka, Shemp Howard, Edward Brophy and Margaret Hamilton.

They are all here in this female version of The Invisible Man. Actually, as stupid as it can get, it also provides a number of funny scenes so I guess it served its purpose.

It's only 73 minutes long, but it should have been shorter as the gags wear thin after 40 minutes. Ruggles almost steals the show as the butler. He provides most of the humor in a real slapstick manner. As in a lot of these old comedies, some of this stuff is really corny but I did laugh out loud at a couple things.

Bruce and John Howard are attractive leads and Barrymore is effective as the typically-portrayed-in-classic films eccentric scientist. It was also fun to see Shemp Howard, of Three Stooges fame, play a gangster, although a Stooge-like goofy one.

The special effects were good in their day but not now. In fact, the DVD is sharp enough that you can see the outline of Bruce's head when she's supposed to be invisible!

A model named Kitty agrees to become a guinea pig for an eccentric scientist and his experiment. He intends to use a machine he's developed to make Kitty invisible. It works, but the experiment draws the unfortunate attention of a mob boss who has nefarious notions for the professor and his machine.

I think anyone who's written about The Invisible Woman begins by pointing out the obvious - it's a comedy - actually, a screwball comedy. There's not a single element of horror to be found. Other than the fact that The Invisible Woman was made by Universal, includes some nice special effects, and has the word "Invisible" in the title, this movie has nothing at all in common with its predecessor, The Invisible Man. Instead, The Invisible Woman features a light, engaging, breezy tone that worked on me. Thanks in large part to a fantastic cast (including John Barrymore, Virginia Bruce, Shemp Howard, Margaret Hamilton, and plethora of other familiar faces) most of the comedy works - highlighted by Kitty's revenge on her boss. I might not have laughed out loud, but I had a smile on my face the whole time. The film's pacing is also a plus. The 72 minute runtime flies by. And while this may have been a "B" film with a "B" budget, you'd never guess by looking at it. Like a lot of Universal's output from this period, The Invisible Woman looks far better than it has any right. The cinematography is on point.

So, comedy that works, solid acting, snappy direction, nice cinematography - sounds like a winner. If the film were a bit less predictable, I'd easily rate it higher. Still, a 6/10 from me.

6/10

Agreeably played for low farce by a most accomplished cast led by those supreme farceurs Charlie Ruggles (who has all the best lines) and John Barrymore (who just manages to snare all the best "business" from Ruggles—who gives him a great run for his money), The Invisible Woman is smoothly directed with lots of great visual effects for those who dote on this sort of thing. Adding to the fun, Charles Lane has a colorful role which he makes the most of, but Maria Montez is along purely for decorative value as part of an eye-appealingly feminine crowd and doesn't have a single line, alas. Not one! It's the lovely Virginia Bruce who makes all the running, while John Howard stands on the sidelines, looking nice and stylish as the straight man. Comic gangster Oscar Homolka and other players do a few turns with three stooges (Shemp Howard, Ed Brophy and Donald MacBride), but the film's funniest scenes occur in the middle section of the movie when the invisible Virgina tangles with the irascible Lane.

Director: A. Edward Sutherland, Story: Curt Siodmak, Joe May, Cast: Virginia Bruce (Kitty), John Barrymore (Prof. Gibbs), John Howard (Richard Russell), Charles Ruggles (George), Oskar Homolka ('Blackie'), Charles Lane (Mr.Growley)

For this third installment in the Invisible Man series,Universal decided to do a comedy with a little twist. This time the invisible man is a women! Otherwise this film had no relation to the previous two. Not a horror but a rather lightweight,amusing little film.

John Barrymore plays a simple minded professor who has just created an 'invisible machine'. Rich playboy Richard Russell is financing the professor's 'research' so the professor has to convince him that he can actually make people invisible. Of course he thinks he is crazy! All the professor needs is a human volunteer so he puts an add in the paper. Lovely model 'kitty',played by Virginia Bruce, wants to teach her mean boss,Mr Growley, a little lesion so she answers the add. Things get a little more complicated when a group of thugs hiding out in Mexico see the add. Blackie ,the leader, sends his nitwit sidekicks to try to get the machine. I enjoyed this film and got quite a few laughs watching it. It is available on the Universal Legacy Series Invisible Man film set.

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (Universal, 1940), directed by A. Edward Sutherland, is an original story by Curt (billed Kurt) Siodmak and Joe May that has nothing to do with either the H.G. Wells story "The Invisible Man" nor the original 1933 motion picture from which it was based. In fact, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN is a comedy, a screwball comedy in the 1930s tradition, with an dose of science fiction and character types thrown in. The title role belongs to the attractive blonde, Virginia Bruce, while much of the praise for comedy goes to that "ham actor" himself, John Barrymore, in one of his several character performances, sporting glasses, white hair, mustache and a comical expression on his face, co-starring as a nutty professor who invents things, with one machine in particular he's been working on for ten years.

As for the plot, the screenplay goes through the process of character introduction, the first being Richard Russell (John Howard), a millionaire playboy with a handful of débutante girlfriends and a large selection of their photographs residing in a mansion with George (Charles Ruggles), his loyal servant. Following another one of his all night parties, Dick learns from his family lawyer, John Hudson (Thurston Hall), that because of his extravagances he is now flat broke. Professor Gibbs (John Barrymore), the second introduced character, has his laboratory near the Russell mansion with Mrs. Jackson (Margaret Hamilton), his housekeeper of 12 years, as his assistant. Unable to acquire the $3,000 needed for his latest experiment, Gibbs places an ad in the Daily Record newspaper asking for a subject willing to become invisible. Kitty Carroll (Virginia Bruce), the central character and the third to be introduced, is seen as a poor working girl in need of extra money. Working as a model for the Continental Dress Company at $16.50 a week, she and the other girls are at the mercy of the mean and demanding Mr. Growley (Charles Lane), whose greatest pleasure is bossing the girls and threatening to fire them whenever possible. Unhappy under those conditions, Kitty walks out after a customer tears her dress, hoping to some day carry out her threat by kicking Growley "right in the pants." She gets her chance after becoming a willing subject to Professor Gibbs by stepping into his machine that makes her invisible. With that done, it is up to Kitty to rescue Gibbs from the clutches of Foghorn (Donald MacBride) and his two stooges (Edward Brophy and Shemp Howard) wanting to use his machine to make their boss "Blackie" (Oscar Homolka) invisible so he could return to Russia unseen. Then the fun really begins.

In the tradition of creative special effects by John Fulton, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN comes off best with its quota of laughs during its first half with the invisible Kitty Carroll getting even with her employer (Lane) and scaring his snobbish clients responsible for nearly having her lose her job, while the second half revolving around the love-hate relationship between Kitty and Richard along with the comic henchmen stealing the invisible machine and kidnapping the professor where he is held hostage in Blackie Cole's hideout in Mexico, gets a little tiresome, though redeemed afterwards by some silly, though well-paced climax.

Aside from the amusing Charlie Ruggles making his scenes count, fainting on cue, with Margaret Hamilton unfortunately having little to do, there's Donald MacBride hilariously talking soprano (like "Jenny Lind") after walking through the invisible making machine that backfires on him. Others in the cast taking on lesser roles are Anne Nagel, Mary Gordon, Edward Conrad and Kathryn Adams. Look quickly for a young Maria Montez, not long before making her mark in a series of Technicolor South Seas adventure tales mostly opposite Jon Hall, as one of the models.

Unlike THE INVISIBLE MAN, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN spawned no sequels, nor is it relatively known in spite of it being part of "The Invisible Man" video and later DVD package over the years. Unseen (no pun intended) on cable television for quite some time, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN did have some revivals on the Sci-Fi Channel (late 1980s), American Movie Classics (1989-90) and Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: February 3, 2012). For anyone looking for a change of pace in regards to science fiction or comedy, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN is certainly one to consider. (**1/2)