With the US release of Blumhouse’s THE INVISIBLE MAN this week, we’re going to take a look at films with characters that are hard to see. For this is…
Cheap creature features chasing bigger studios’ films with their bigger budgets have been a mainstay in filmmaking from its nascent days up until now (with companies like The Asylum). Hitching a ride on various trends or at least trying to exploit the semblance of similar ideas and plots, these movies would be churned out in a week before landing in drive-ins, then decades later on Saturday morning matinees on television, and decades more in the video store where their deceptive but impressive cover art would fool the unsuspecting.
Some end up finding brilliance despite their tawdry aims, some would be relegated to the dustbin of history, and others, like THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN, would have a mix of nostalgia and mockery. Director Edgar G. Ulmer, working from a script by Jack Lewis (BILLY THE KID VERSUS DRACULA), corralled some impressive names and some schlocky effects into this 1960 tale of sci-fi and spies—though it may be most known as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Former Army guy Krenner (James Griffith, THE KILLING), operating under delusions of being a Bond villain a couple of years too early, plans to conquer the world. How best to do this, though, when you’re former military and not particularly brilliant or well-resourced? With an army of invisible thugs, of course! So it is quite the lucky happenstance that as the movie starts Krenner has met up with Dr. Ulof (Ivan Triesault, NOTORIOUS), who is close to perfecting an invisibility machine. Mean Krenner forces the doctor to continue his work by holding the old man’s daughter, Maria (Cormel Daniel), as a hostage with the help of his henchman, Julian (Red Morgan, FOXY BROWN).
Ulof needs radioactive elements to improve the invisibility machine which are understandably rare and kept under guard in government facilities. Krenner busts super safecracker Joey Faust (Douglas Kennedy, DARK PASSAGE), out of prison to steal the materials he needs. Faust pulls the robberies using the invisibility power – but bristles working for the dictatorial Krenner. Soon everyone in the house, including Krenner’s girlfriend Laura (Marguerite Chapman, THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH) is working some kind of double cross or secret agenda; and it’s readily apparent that no one is particularly likable—so who’s going to be the treacherous victor?
While THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN is a talkfest, there’s just SOMETHING about Edgar G. Ulmer’s movies that interest me. He directed more than 50 movies; ranging from THE BLACK CAT for Universal Studios in 1934 to the highly regarded noir exercise DETOUR in 1945. His work ran the gamut from horror to comedy; from science fiction to pirate adventures. But his movies usually have abbreviated running times and modest budgets. Sure enough, AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN runs 58 minutes and was probably budgeted in the high five figures.
Nonetheless, I like this little melodrama. Ulmer only made three more movies before retiring; but his touch is still evident all over this. Sure, it’s low budget, it’s static, it’s talky—but I’ve seen it now like three times, and I have enjoyed it each time. I can’t defend AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN using the standard movie quality yardstick—but to me this works; it’s not an epic of production values and amazing effects – but it is a strong little sci-fi talkfest. The acting is decent; the effects are not bad considering the budget; and if you enjoy the kind of movies that used to play on your local TV channels on Sunday afternoons or late Saturday nights, then you would probably find enough entertainment here to warrant the time investment.
Tags: Cormiel Daniel, Douglas Kennedy, Edgar G. Ulmer, Invisibility, Ivan Triesault, Jack Lewis, James Griffith, Marguerite Chapman, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Red Morgan, The Amazing Transparent Man
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