"The New Invisible Man" was the last, and by far the weakest, of the three pilot episodes that formed the basis for the feature film "Colonel March Investigates" ("Hot Money" and "Death in the Dressing Room" were the others, with production resuming a year later, in December 1953). The queer complaint comes from Major Henry Rodman (Roger Maxwell), who claims to have witnessed a murder through a neighbor's window, depicting a pair of gloves that shoot a man dead. A more eccentric neighbor, Baron Novakov (Bernard Rebel), confirms that he definitely heard two gunshots, not the sound of a car backfiring. Colonel March and Inspector Ames (Ewan Roberts) call upon the young couple who reside there, Jim Hartley (Anthony Forwood) and his wife Betty (Patricia Owens), who show off a portrait of the murder victim, Jim's uncle, who has been deceased for four years. Seeing no corpse, no blood, and no evidence of wrongdoing, the Major apologizes for his apparently crazy story, but Colonel March refuses to give up easily, buying time until the pieces fit the puzzle. It's hardly a stretch to admit that invisibility is not involved in the underwhelming solution. Lovely Patricia Owens is best remembered for her starring role in 1958's "The Fly," retiring ten years later (she died in 2000).
