Hello again, moviegoers!
For the next theme in my monster- fest, and kind of transitioning from the Bruce Campbell theme of the last few days, I will now be looking at several horror- comedy films (Don’t worry, I’ll start doing some more straight- up scary ones in about a week).
I’ll begin tonight by looking at 1951’s ‘Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man.’ I would have started with the magnificent ‘Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein,’ but I was unable to find it.
In this, Abbott and Costello play two private investigators. A champion boxer named Tommy Nelson accused of killing his manager hires them to try and prove his innocence. To try and further avoid capture, he also enlists the aid of a scientist who was willed the invisibility formula that the first invisible man, John Griffin, invented, and asks the scientist to help him become invisible to better avoid the police. The scientist refuses, due to the formula’s tendency to drive its users insane, but Tommy injects himself with it anyway, turning invisible. When Abbott and Costello learn the truth about the manager’s murder (He was killed by gangsters after Tommy refused to take a dive), they agree to help him.
As a way of getting close enough to gain proof about what happened, they have Costello pose as a boxer to enter into a big match with the gangsters’ prizefighter, Rocky Hanlon. Tommy uses his invisibility to help Costello win the match, the gangsters go to jail, Tommy’s name is cleared and it’s a happy yet funny ending.
There are only a couple problems I have with this movie. The first is that it isn’t as laugh- out- loud funny as their previous film, ‘Meet Frankenstein,’ was imo. The second is that for a little bit, there was a small subplot about the gangsters’ moll, Boots Marsden, attempting to seduce Costello to get him to throw the fight, but that never goes anywhere, they could have done more with that.
Although it’s not as funny as ‘Meet Frankenstein,’ it still has plenty of funny moments. In the beginning, Costello’s the only one who knows Tommy’s invisible, and of course nobody believes him (Though Abbott comes around rather quickly), which provides for some good laughs. Also, there’s a lot of physical comedy, usually relating to Tommy doing weird stuff while he’s invisible and Abbott and Costello trying to cover for him. As usual, Abbott and Costello play off of each other hilariously. William Frawley (Fred from ‘I Love Lucy’) is his usual gruff but amusing self as a police captain trying to catch Tommy while being consistently annoyed by Abbott and Costello’s antics.
The invisibility effects are once again very good, such as a scene when the invisible man is playing a game of poker with Abbott and Costello. The film’s highlight is definitely the boxing match. The physical acting from both Costello and the actor playing Rocky Hanlon in that scene is great, to make it seem like an invisible man is helping to keep Costello on his feet, block Rocky’s punches, and land enough of his own to help win the match. It’s another very funny scene.
And so, that’s ‘Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man.’
Come back later tonight to see me talk about another movie that’ll have you screaming with laughter!
