Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951)

Please don't spend money on this.

Don't Believe the Hype

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The origin of The Invisible Man films goes back to H.G. Wells'1897 short novel. In the early 1940s, Universal sponsored a series if films relating to The Invisible Man, after their initial offering in 1933. These include "The Invisible Man Returns" 1940, "The Invisible Woman" 1940, "The Invisible Agent" 1942, and "The Invisible Man's Revenge"1944. I haven't yet seen any of these, but "The Invisible Woman" is generally classed as a comedy, along with the present film, which includes a serious plot, sprinkled with typical A&C shenanigans. A related topic is free ranging ghosts and other types of spirits, whose bodies have been permanently lost through death. In contrast, The Invisible Man has a body and soul, but has achieved invisibility through human inventiveness or perhaps the dark arts. Furthermore, his invisibility is usually reversible. Being present in spirit but not body is a common human fantasy. Such a power could be used to escape from a bad situation, or to achieve a good desired result. On the other hand, it can be used to facilitate the accomplishment of evil deeds. This was true of Griffin: the invisible man in Well's novel, who became a true monster. In contrast, in the present story, Tommy is not a monster. Mainly, he wants to use his invisibility to help solve the murder of his trainer manager.. Toward this goal, he also enlists the help of A&C, recent graduates of Dogan's Detective Training class(DDT). In Wells' novel, it is Griffin who both discovers the formula, and uses it for evil deeds, whereas in this film, Tommy obtains his specific serum from his girlfriend's father, who is a doctor and experimenter. Expect A&C's standard repertoire of verbal humor, sight gags, and slapstick. An example of sight humor: Abbott tells Lou, holding a gun, to "Let him have it". Lou gives the gun to the bad guy! An example of verbal humor: In a restaurant, Abbott pulls invisible Tommy's Champaign glass toward himself. When the waiter queries, Abbott says "I'm a two fisted drinker". Probably, the climax of the film occurs with the boxing match between Rocky and Lou(Louie the Looper)plus invisible Tommy. Nobody can believe what they see, with Rocky being knocked around by a seemingly invisible force emanating from Lou. Tommy seemingly abandons Lou for periods during the fight, but comes back to finish off Rocky, whereas Lou was supposed to throw the fight, as pressured by the gangsters sponsoring Rocky. They come to 'get' Lou after the fight, but get taken themselves.Sexy blond, but bad, Adele Jenkins, as Boots Marsden, flirts with Lou, trying to get him to see things from the Gangster's viewpoint. The other woman in the story is bland Nancy Guild, as Helen Gray, Tommy's girlfriend... Sheldon Leonard plays Gangster Moran: Boots' boyfriend... William Frawley is occasionally present , as detective Roberts, who is looking for Tommy, and doesn't believe various tales of an invisible Tommy(why should he!). A recurring joke is that various people are sent to a psychiatrist when they report experiencing an invisible person.

To me, this is arguably the best of the "A&C Meet…" series. The boys get mixed up with a prizefighter accused of murder who escapes the cops and gangsters by turning invisible with the help of an experimental serum. Naturally, this leads to an array of amusing hijinks.The comic potential here is greater than in other A&C monster entries (…Meet Frankenstein; … Meet the Mummy; etc.) because the menace here has the power of invisibility. That means the menace can challenge the boys in public without the public knowing it. On the other hand, the other monsters can't mix in public without being seen which narrows the comic potential to haunted houses or other non-public spaces. For example, take the punching bag scene. It looks like Lou (Costello) has lightning speed rocking the bag when in reality it's the invisible boxer Tommy (Franz) who's doing it. There're a number of set-ups like this where the public is astonished by Lou's apparent powers, while actor Costello milks the comic potential.That's not to say the other monster entries are not funny to varying degrees. But the monsters are restricted in these movies to scaring everyone in over-the-top fashion, whereas being invisible greatly expands the possibilities, such as the nightclub scene with the poor flummoxed waiter (Syd Saylor) who can't figure out who's doing what.Anyway, the movie's consistently amusing and inventive. However, I wish we saw more of that great flashy blonde Adele Jergens (Marsden) and that great phony gangster Sheldon Leonard (Morgan). Seeing them together here resembles a match made in some cheap nightclub heaven. All in all, this is one of my A&C favorites among their many comedies.

I would place this film in the top five of Abbott and Costello's films and the best film they made in the 1950s. It gets very good marks for excellent special effect as well as a clever story. It's one of several "monster films" Bud and Lou made for Universal Studios--having also done movies with Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf-Man, Dr. Jekyll and the Mummy. All of these films were among their better films--great fun and a nice break from the usual Abbott and Costello formula. And speaking of formula, since this was made later in their careers, the original formula (including lots of song and dance numbers and a side romantic plot) was abandoned and the film was pure comedy.The film begins with the boys graduating from detective college. When Lou wonders how he managed to graduate, Bud says that he "slipped them a few bucks"! Their first case involves a desperate man that comes for help. Tommy is a boxer who is accused of murder. He's on the run from the police and hopes Bud and Lou can help. Bud is only concerned with turning him in for a reward and Lou is his usual nice but wimpy self--he just wants to stay out of trouble. Just before the police nab Tommy, he injects himself with an invisibility formula. Now it's a matter of the doctor coming up with an antidote before the formula drives him made. It's also a matter of proving his innocence so he's able to once again show his face! The movie has a lot of excellent invisibility special effects and these are done very well. About the only thing that is rather cheesy are the effects at the very end as well as the plot involving Lou posing as a pro boxer (with invisible Tommy taking pokes at his opponent). They didn't even try to do these scenes well and Lou obviously wasn't doing much of the punching. People said "wow he punches fast" but I just thought that looked a bit dopey. Still, considering how well made the rest of the film is, I can't complain. It's yet another one of the team's excellent Universal monster films and one any fan must see. Others probably will have a few laughs as well.

This another great bud Abbott and Lou Costello and because of all the same reasons it has great comedy in it the acting is good in it the actors are good in it it has a good story line to it and the effects are good in it everything is good in it. so i'm sure that you will not be disappointed with bud Abbott and Lou Costello meet the invisible man. so make sure that you rent or buy bud Abbott and Lou Costello meet the invisible man because it is a great bud Abbott and Lou Costello movie. so i'm sure that you will have a good time watching it and you will watch it over and over again.overall score ******** out of ********** ***1/2 out of *****