Shemp Howard Month: The Invisible Woman (1940) Review
I’ve mentioned previously that my favorite member of the Three Stooges is Shemp Howard. Shemp was a brilliant comic who was gifted at doing both verbal comedy and physical comedy at the same time, making him a bit more versatile than the other Stooges, who were very good in their own right. Since March 11 is his birthday, I’ve decided to celebrate by declaring March this year to be Shemp Howard month on this blog. Every Friday I will be posting a review of some movie to feature Shemp in it. So, let’s start off by talking about The Invisible Woman, Shemp’s first and only appearance in the Universal Monsters series.
Professor Gibbs (John Barrymore) has spent 10 years working on an invisibility formula with the support of rich playboy Richard Russell (John Howard). Needing to test the formula on a human subject, he puts out an ad and gets a willing volunteer in Kitty Carroll (Virginia Bruce), a fashion model who is fed up with her abusive boss and decides to get revenge on him with this formula. Things get further complicated when an exiled gangster (Oskar Homolka) sends some of his gang to retrieve the formula for his own benefit.
The tone of The Invisible Woman is much different from the previous entries in the Invisible Man series, something that is made quite apparent during the opening scene, which features the butler falling down a flight of steps. The fact that this is a comedy works against it. Not that there’s anything wrong with making a horror series a little more lighthearted, but it feels like just about everybody in this film is playing their part comedically. Even the main villain, even though he has Shemp, Edward Brophy, and Donald MacBride working for him as comic relief, plays his part as a pathetic boss that cries too easily...not exactly the most threatening or intimidating villain.
Some plot points don’t entirely make sense. For example, without giving too much away, there’s a scene where a character returns from Mexico where the main villain is, but it’s not entirely made clear how he got there, especially considering the truck he took to get to Mexico had already been taken back by others. Even the motivations of the main character are not entirely made clear. She quits her job before turning invisible yet she seems so concerned about getting back to her job later on despite her hatred for her boss.
This film is obviously not the film for horror fans and even comedically it tends to fall flat sometimes. There still are things to like about it, though. For one thing, Virginia Bruce does a really good job as the Invisible Woman. She’s got the very adventurous spirit to her character down well and sells the sarcastic aspect in addition to the occasionally insecure aspect that makes her more relatable. Also, when the comedy does work, it can actually be pretty entertaining. Shemp and Edward Brophy both occasionally get a laugh, though they unfortunately aren’t allowed to stand out as much due to the already overly-comedic tone. The same thing goes for Margaret Hamilton (best known as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz). Instead, a lot of the laughs are provided by Charles Ruggles as the butler, who does well at being comically scared, though his constant threats to resign can get kind of annoying.
The romance is generic, but passable, once again mostly due to Bruce’s performance. Overall, this film was an oddity, with a good cast but a flawed direction. It’s a film that is worth watching for a few really good elements, but probably will not hold the attention of that many viewers.
7 out of 10
Professor Gibbs (John Barrymore) has spent 10 years working on an invisibility formula with the support of rich playboy Richard Russell (John Howard). Needing to test the formula on a human subject, he puts out an ad and gets a willing volunteer in Kitty Carroll (Virginia Bruce), a fashion model who is fed up with her abusive boss and decides to get revenge on him with this formula. Things get further complicated when an exiled gangster (Oskar Homolka) sends some of his gang to retrieve the formula for his own benefit.
The tone of The Invisible Woman is much different from the previous entries in the Invisible Man series, something that is made quite apparent during the opening scene, which features the butler falling down a flight of steps. The fact that this is a comedy works against it. Not that there’s anything wrong with making a horror series a little more lighthearted, but it feels like just about everybody in this film is playing their part comedically. Even the main villain, even though he has Shemp, Edward Brophy, and Donald MacBride working for him as comic relief, plays his part as a pathetic boss that cries too easily...not exactly the most threatening or intimidating villain.
Some plot points don’t entirely make sense. For example, without giving too much away, there’s a scene where a character returns from Mexico where the main villain is, but it’s not entirely made clear how he got there, especially considering the truck he took to get to Mexico had already been taken back by others. Even the motivations of the main character are not entirely made clear. She quits her job before turning invisible yet she seems so concerned about getting back to her job later on despite her hatred for her boss.
This film is obviously not the film for horror fans and even comedically it tends to fall flat sometimes. There still are things to like about it, though. For one thing, Virginia Bruce does a really good job as the Invisible Woman. She’s got the very adventurous spirit to her character down well and sells the sarcastic aspect in addition to the occasionally insecure aspect that makes her more relatable. Also, when the comedy does work, it can actually be pretty entertaining. Shemp and Edward Brophy both occasionally get a laugh, though they unfortunately aren’t allowed to stand out as much due to the already overly-comedic tone. The same thing goes for Margaret Hamilton (best known as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz). Instead, a lot of the laughs are provided by Charles Ruggles as the butler, who does well at being comically scared, though his constant threats to resign can get kind of annoying.
The romance is generic, but passable, once again mostly due to Bruce’s performance. Overall, this film was an oddity, with a good cast but a flawed direction. It’s a film that is worth watching for a few really good elements, but probably will not hold the attention of that many viewers.
7 out of 10
Really not a horror film at all....and not supposed to be. Same with INVISIBLE AGENT, both films in the series using the invisible element to enter into other genres, in this case comedy. This is a nice, lighthearted comedy which uses invisibility well, and my two favorite elements weren't even mentioned. The idea of a woman is fun, and Virginia Bruce is a nice choice. Pretty girl with a likable, energetic performance. Yes, they also play up the sexy element too in the leg and foot scene. If you ever watch the documentary made about THE INVISIBLE MAN, it is stated these are the only code era films where you can get away with nudity. Kind of true, in a way, heh. The other element I love is John Barrymore. One of my all time favorite actors who can deliver any line with gusto, always puts a smile on my face. I realize he's towards the end here and probably wanted to do something other than a b programmer at Universal. He also looks much older than his late fifties due to years of alcohol abuse, but despite these things, he's still very enjoyable. Love the line where they do a close up of him and he says he never notices women. Hah! Definitely playing up to the irony of John Barrymore delivering that line. I'm sure the audience laughed at that line in 1940....I know I did. - Metaldams
ReplyDeleteI guess I probably should have talked a bit about Barrymore; he actually did do quite well as the eccentric inventor, and unlike Hamilton he is given a lot more lines.
DeleteDidn’t know about that documentary or the nudity fact, though it doesn’t really surprise me. The fact that they didn’t actually show anything technically meant that the code couldn’t forbid it, though I’m shocked that all the references to it got past the code.