There is a certain kind of selection process that goes into picking what movies to review. First off, I try to avoid the truly bad pieces of cinema: if I wanted to showcase the losers of the cinema world, I wouldn't go so quite into depth and would already have one hundred reviews set. Most of those direct-to-video. And most of those starring Shannon Tweed.
But since I don't, I review movies or television shows that interest me and hopefully some other people. Like I said before, there are so few true entertaining stories nowadays. Sometimes I've been recommended to them. Sometimes they just catch my eye. Or, most likely, I read the IMDB and a certain genre I'm interested in catches my eye and thus my attraction to one genre begets another. That is how I found this little gem.
A few months back, a MST3K episode/Universal Chopjob (like "Conquest of the Earth") lead to my fascination with an unknown '70s causality known as "Gemini Man." This lead to the new series "The Invisible Man" which involves a gland in the back of the head of a ex-thief and 'Quicksilver.' Which, then, lead me to stay up a little later then usual and catch the Sci-Fi Channel's regular showing of Cheese during Sunday Overnight. Hence, I fell into the Invisible movies of the early Universal genre.
At first, there was "The Invisible Man" with Claude Rains. Then "The Invisible Man Returns" with Vincent Price in an early starring role. Then a few others leading up to our focus today: "The Invisible Woman," which is VASTLY different then it's predecessors.
First off, the "Invisible" films were taken seriously as Science Fiction. The men were injected with a solution that caused them to lose their visibility and their minds. Insanity was a running theme in these flicks, along with gauze and gloves and wielding goggles. This film, however, is different for two things: Shemp and Nudity.
And no, Shemp is NOT nude. You can stop screaming now.
But this film doesn't not sway away from the fact that the heroine of this film, the Invisible Woman herself, spends most of her time stripping off behind bushes and making comments that state that fact. Considering this was made in the 1940s, I'm surprised this isn't a censored film that is only available from laserdisc dealers from Japan, along with "Song of the South." But since Universal Studios released it by itself along with the other genre films some time back....well.....
Anyway, the "Invisible Woman" is simple in terms of plot, like it's Universal counterpart "Captive Wild Woman." Our heroine, Kitty, takes up a sidetrack from her modeling career as a guinea pig for a stereotypical Goofy Scientist who didn't exactly apply for a woman but doesn't turn her down. Along with his housekeeper (played by Margaret Hamilton, better known as the Wicked Witch of the West), the Goofy Scientist gets Kitty to strip behind the veil of his Invisibility Machine and BLAM!, she's invisible. Of course, the audience gets their rocks off by having her show her shapely hourglass figure, silhouetted from behind the veil.
Afterwards, Kitty is invisible and naked. So, instead of waiting around the scientist's house, she shows her exhibitionist/vengeful side by going out a window to hassle her asshole of a boss. After she scares away possible clients, literally kicking his ass, and destroying the office, she comes back to the Scientist's house and finds him there, angry. Apparently the man he was supposed to show Kitty to got fed up with waiting and left for a fishing trip. So, Kitty makes it up to the Scientist by calling her boss and asking for the whole day off. But of course, her asskicking worked: her boss is now the friendliest guy on the face of the Earth (?). Thus, the plot moves forward.
The Scientist and Kitty arrive at the cabin where the Hero (the man who is possibly financing this whole project) is. The scientist tells Kitty to strip behind a bush because he doesn't want the Hero to see her. Kitty does, and the audience suddenly wonders how lonely this Goofy Scientist is. I mean, come on! "Come on, STRIP!" Wouldn't showing her face (from behind her veil) do the trick? Well, no, because the trick of having chromkey is expensive and having a naked woman running about makes the men stay to see the other flick. So far, this movie is just one big exhibitionist fantasy in guise of a Invisible Sequel.
Anyway, the Hero finds out while Kitty keeps helping herself to some alcohol to keep herself warm (having no clothes and such). Then Kitty and the Hero start talking and they start falling in love. Of course, since she's naked, I wonder about his whole 'attraction' to her....I mean, come on! But, since this is the '40s, I guess I'm supposed to buy this. So they do, just as some criminals lead by some Dick Tracy caricature with BIG eyebrows (with Shemp as one of the henchmen) invades the Scientist's lab and find that the Invisibility Machine is missing a component in order to make it work. So, off go the bad guys to the cabin!!
Morning comes and so does the audience. No, sorry....
Morning comes and Kitty finds she's still invisible, thanks to the alcohol she downed the previous night. This has an effect on the invisibility. But the Scientist cures her with a shot of the antidote, she becomes visible again, and meets the Hero face to face for about two seconds before Shemp and the other bad guys bust in and hock her and the Scientist with this line:
BAD GUY: And you're coming with us!
GOOFY SCIENTIST: But why me?
BAD GUY: Do you trust her with guys like us?
G.S.: No.
BAD GUY: That's why you're coming!!
So, the bad guys get Kitty and the G.S. back to their fortress where Kitty easily defeats them by drinking some more, which now triggers her invisibility. After doing a striptease, she defeats them all with a mallet (yes, a mallet, I swear to God). When the Hero shows up, Kitty decides that he ain't getting her without a fight. So, after shooting (!!) at the Hero and making like the bad guys are still holding her hostage in the best pulp magazine sense, the Hero busts in and beats the bad guys AGAIN. To top it off, Kitty feigns drowning in a reflecting pool and is 'rescued' by the Hero.
Several months pass. The Hero, Scientist, and Kitty are standing around a newborn. Is it Kitty's? Probably. Anyway, they are all watching it when it starts to fade out of existence. What caused it? Rubbing alcohol. "I guess it's inherited." the Goofy Scientist mutters. Hyuk, hyuk.
THE END. Then roll the 'Psychic Hotline' commercials.
RATING: The comedy is goofy. The premise is a bit hot for movies from this era of filmmaking. And the actors don't suck, including Shemp who is given a bit part before he joined the Stooges full time. Along with a short running time that nearly tops an hour, I give it three stars out of four. Not bad and keeps one's attention, even through that attention is like the slapstick: below the belt.