The Invisible Woman

This movie is a winner all the way. Mad Scientist Barrymore with Margaret Hamilton as his housekeeper invents an invisibility formula for his patron. When a model, Virginia Bruce, gets a hold of it, all havoc breaks loose, from revenge on her tyrannical boss, Charles Lane, to Oskar Homolka and Shemp Howard, two villains trying to steal the formula for themselves. Charles Ruggles also provides hilarity as the butler/chauffer.

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.

This is the Great Profile's(John Barrymore's) next to penultimate film. It's an enjoyable romp through some sci-fi shenanigans. A wonderful cast co-stars & supports ie: Carol Bruce, Charlie Ruggles, Margaret Hamilton, Charles Lane, Oscar Homolka, Shemp Howard...S-H-E-M-P H-O-W-A-R-D! and even a young unknown Maria Montez before all of the 'Ali Baba' type technicolor spectaculars. You really have to look at the row of models at Carol's job to spot Maria. I really enjoyed this film. It's like the serious original with Claude Rains but albeit with comic twists thrown in. The whole family can go to the theater and have some laughs. The techniques for making Carol Bruce invisible are really well done here but it should have been expected as Universal made the classic original in 1933. Someone mentioned that this could be remade with Charlize Theron. I agree. And it could also be remade with Barrymore's own granddaughter Drew. This movie has a pretty good A list cast. Barrymore was still a name to reckon with. The flick IMHO sort of anticipates the B-movie cheese factor sci fi movies soon to come in the 50s & 60s and even kiddie Saturday morning 70s fair like the Sid & Marty Krofft's 'Dr Shrinker'.

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