The Invisible Woman (1940)

     1940’s The Invisible Woman is the third in Universal Studios Invisible Man series and an outlier, being the only installment that never makes reference to any characters from the first film. Also, unlike the others, this entry is played for laughs. It’s an unabashed comedy. A scientist who has been relying on a rich playboy to fund his experiments learns that his cash cow has gone broke, but the two men figure if a machine that can turn a person invisible is proven to work their financial problems will be a thing of the past. The Scientist, Professor Gibbs, places an ad in the newspaper looking for a volunteer for his experiment. The only legitimate response is from a clothing store model who is sick of her treatment by her boss and customers. The experiment is a success, but before the Professor can fetch the playboy the girl leaves the lab in order to get revenge on her boss at the store by scaring the crap out of him. She does return but only in time for the invisibility effect to wear off. They agree that they must repeat the experiment in order to prove it’s success. Only, at the same time, a gangster has sent his thugs to steal the machine so he can use it for nefarious purposes.

     Trust me, it’s a comedy, and a somewhat naughty one for it’s time. There is a sense of titillation knowing that the girl must be nude in order to be totally invisible. It’s never overtly played that way, but we are reminded from time to time that she is naked, especially when she’s outside in very cold weather and she complains about it. The girl is played by Virginia Bruce, she was never a big star but was under contract with Universal and worked consistently throughout the 40’s and 50’s. Mostly in light fare, like romantic comedies. She’s not bad. Half of her performance is basically a voice role, since she is invisible for a great deal of the time. She also comes off like an independent woman before it was really a thing. The professor is played by “The Great Profile” himself- John Barrymore, in one of his later roles. He would pass away two years later due to his alcoholism. During production of The Invisible Woman he had such trouble remembering his lines that he placed papers and cards around the sets with his lines on them. If you look closely while watching you can see his eyes darting about glancing at his cheat sheets. In spite of that he’s still very funny. Very close to going overboard into total caricature, but just real enough to keep the fun from being really stupid. His partner and, formerly rich playboy, was played by John Howard, who had recently starred as the title character in the “Bulldog Drummond” series of films, with Barrymore co-starring with him there too. He’s not doing anything new playing the rich playboy. This was not a stretch for him, so he’s fine. Charles Ruggles, another well known comic actor of the time, played the playboy’s butler and he is the source of much of the physical comedy...falling from heights and fainting spells. That kind of thing. The gangsters are all tough guy character actors of the time, with one exception. One of the gangster’s thugs is played by Shemp Howard, who had yet to replace his brother Curly and join brother Mo as part of the Three Stooges on screen. There is one more fun piece of casting in this film. Margaret Hamilton, best known as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, plays the Professor’s confused housekeeper/secretary.   The special effects were ok, though I thought the previous two films looked better, The Invisible Woman won the Oscar for Best SPFX.

     As a light piece of comedy it’s fine. Unfortunately for a modern viewer, we’ve seen most of the gags before, in films actually made long after this one’s release. There is some nice stuff involving the girl driving her boss crazy and embarrassing a few snooty customers at the clothing store and I was a sucker for John Barrymore’s goofy Professor Gibbs. He gleefully eats up the scenery and I loved it. Margaret Hamilton has a few funny moments too. It was nice to see her not being frightening or mean. I wouldn’t call The Invisible Girl a laugh riot but it does succeed as a comedy, with no connection to the other Invisible Man movies. It was successful enough for Universal to go back to the “Invisible Man Well” two more times, not including an appearance in Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man in 1951. If you’re looking for some lighthearted silliness with a running time that barely goes over an hour (72 minutes) you could do worse than The Invisible Woman.

     I watched The Invisible Woman streamed on Peacock. It is available on DVD as an import for around $20, but doesn’t seem to have an American home video release, nor is it available to stream as a rental at this time.