In Henry’s Night In (1969) we find mild-mannered, henpecked Henry using his newfound power of invisibility to perverted ends.
Indeed, it’s original working title was “Pajama Party in a Haunted House” which actually made more sense as it actually related to the plot. The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966) was the last of the AIP beach party films, and really doesn’t qualify as an Invisible Man movie – as there’s nothing invisible about this film. As you might imagine, it’s pretty campy and low quality, but a lot of fun. It’s so low budget and hurriedly made, it became fodder for Mystery Science Theater 3000 over three decades later.Įl Asesino Invisible (AKA Neutron Traps the Invisible Killers) was released in Mexico in 1965, featuring those beloved Lucha characters. The titular character is a safecracker who uses the ability to commit crime. The Amazing Transparent Man (1960) marked the entry of the Invisible Man into the sixties – and if this was an indication of things to come, we’re in trouble. In which the Invisible Man story starts to lose its mojo and degenerates into silliness A pretty campy, low-budget affair – and a bad omen for the invisibility genre for the coming decade.
His reanimated body warns humanity that unless we stop nuclear testing, the world is going to end. prancing around in the buff, thinking he’s invisible).Ī unique angle here: a nuclear physicist is killed in a radioactive accident, and his body is possessed by an invisible alien (!). A couple decades later, in Amazon Women on the Moon, this problem is brilliantly satirized (with Ed Begley Jr. In the case of The Invisible Boy, are we to have a young boy presumed nude? The film slyly gets around this by having an electro-magnetic field surround Timmy, and everything within it becomes invisible, including clothes.īut the implied nudity problem would continue to be a hurdle. So, in order to be truly invisible the person must shed his or her clothes, otherwise they’ll look like floating suits – which could be used for comedic purpose as in The Invisible Woman…īut this presents a problem – when truly invisible, we are to assume he or she is fully nude an idea that didn’t quite sit well with mid-century sensibilities.
So far, it’s been pretty established that clothes are unaffected by the invisibility power. It’s pretty terrible – but brings to focus a big problem with the invisibility trope… the issue of whether clothes become invisible. Timmy tries to evade his mother and uses Robby the Robot to make him invisible.
In 1957, MGM took a stab at the Invisible Man with The Invisible Boy. There is an inherent problem here – even with CGI, you still have the challenge of showing action and interaction with his/her surroundings with a character that is unseen! I’m not quite sure if it has ever been done really well, or whether it’s even possible – but the very idea is so compelling, studios keep on trying. While the Universal films were a bit more adept at capturing invisibility, it still comes off as rather fake and clunky. The special effects are horrible – at one point, they just put him in a big suit, hoping he’ll be hidden among the folds. The film also serves to illustrate how intrinsically hard it is to make an Invisible Man movie. However, unlike the Universal comedy, the character goes mad and tries to poison a population’s water supply! With a uniquely Mexican spin, containing strong Catholic overtones, the Invisible Man in this movie believes he’s a spirit messenger of “the highest judge.” It actually follows the same plot as the Abbot & Costello film where the protagonist uses the ability to clear his name. The Mexican take on the Invisible Man, El Hombre Que Logró Ser Invisible, was released in 1958.
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