8/4/2007
For once, I’m going to tell you what you’re NOT gonna see on Svengoolie tonight. Yeah, bad joke- it’s “the Invisible Man.”
If you’ve never seen this flick before, you’re in for a real treat!
This is a classic that I feel doesn’t get as much lip service as the big names like Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf Man- but it deserves to be right up there with the best Universal monster flicks.
As with so many of these black and white classics, the film creates an atmosphere that really affects the viewer. Claude Rains plays Griffin, the unfortunate Invisible Man, for most of the movie as just a “voice-over “ actor- as the special effects make his invisible progress operate, we hear his voice a great deal of the time-but don’t see him. He appears on-screen as the well-wrapped griffin, but you only see his real face at the very end of the movie. This doesn’t keep him from giving a masterful performance, though- you have to be impressed by the drama he creates solely with his voice! This was actually Rains’ second movie role- and his first SOUND movie appearance!
We explain about how the effects were done in tonight’s show- including how director James Whale had Rains dressed in a head to toe black velvet suit under his other clothes, and then shot him against a black background to be super-imposed against the rest of the film. All the effects were really a breakthrough at that time, and established certain ways of doing effects for many years to come. Also, if you watch tonight, I’ll tell you who Universal Studios originally wanted to play the Invisible Man- though Rains was Whale’s first and only choice, wait until you hear who the studio wanted!
Rains is often depicted, usually in a still picture, in subsequent sequels, mentioned as the scientist Griffin who tested this strange drug “monocaine” on himself- and fought the madness that came with the invisibility.
I’m very happy to be able to present this movie again- having shown it as “Son of” back in the 80s. Claude Rains was a great actor- we saw him in “the Wolf Man” as Larry Talbot’s father, who out-acted his “son” easily- and his name deserves to be right up there with Karloff and Lugosi. I hope you’ll tune in for a film that wears the name “classic” well- about a guy who- most of the time- doesn’t wear anything!
If you’ve never seen this flick before, you’re in for a real treat!
This is a classic that I feel doesn’t get as much lip service as the big names like Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf Man- but it deserves to be right up there with the best Universal monster flicks.
As with so many of these black and white classics, the film creates an atmosphere that really affects the viewer. Claude Rains plays Griffin, the unfortunate Invisible Man, for most of the movie as just a “voice-over “ actor- as the special effects make his invisible progress operate, we hear his voice a great deal of the time-but don’t see him. He appears on-screen as the well-wrapped griffin, but you only see his real face at the very end of the movie. This doesn’t keep him from giving a masterful performance, though- you have to be impressed by the drama he creates solely with his voice! This was actually Rains’ second movie role- and his first SOUND movie appearance!
We explain about how the effects were done in tonight’s show- including how director James Whale had Rains dressed in a head to toe black velvet suit under his other clothes, and then shot him against a black background to be super-imposed against the rest of the film. All the effects were really a breakthrough at that time, and established certain ways of doing effects for many years to come. Also, if you watch tonight, I’ll tell you who Universal Studios originally wanted to play the Invisible Man- though Rains was Whale’s first and only choice, wait until you hear who the studio wanted!
Rains is often depicted, usually in a still picture, in subsequent sequels, mentioned as the scientist Griffin who tested this strange drug “monocaine” on himself- and fought the madness that came with the invisibility.
I’m very happy to be able to present this movie again- having shown it as “Son of” back in the 80s. Claude Rains was a great actor- we saw him in “the Wolf Man” as Larry Talbot’s father, who out-acted his “son” easily- and his name deserves to be right up there with Karloff and Lugosi. I hope you’ll tune in for a film that wears the name “classic” well- about a guy who- most of the time- doesn’t wear anything!
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