The Bloody Pit #188 - THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE (1944)

Troy and I return to the Universal Horrors of the 1940’s to check out the fifth and last of the Invisible Man series. THE INVISIBLE MAN’S REVENGE (1944) is sometimes seen as a strong final entry but both of us find far too many loose ends and discordant elements to fully enjoy the film. I must caution you that we spoil this one completely early on and I find myself cursing more than normal as we discuss the questions the movie throws in our faces. Sorry about that.

 

This is an interesting film but mostly for the wrong reasons. We try to pinpoint all the spots where the original, nastier version of this story peeks through the softened final product. The amazing Gale Sondergaard is a victim of the alterations to the story and disappears after only two scenes – we were displeased by this! The timeline of the Robert Griffin character is confusing and neither of us can work out how he carried around a piece of paper with his name on it for five years but didn’t know his own identity. I spend time marveling at how unlikable Griffin is throughout the story. Jon Hall does a great job in the role but he is playing a man with no redeeming qualities and a hair-trigger propensity for violence. This is our hero? Following on from the previous sequels we get the series’ now standard irritating ‘humor’ culminating in a dart competition that goes on forever. Both of us found this to be the weakest of the Universal Invisible Man cycle and would be curious to find fans of the film to defend it.

 

If you do want to stick up for THE INVISIBLE MAN’S REVENGE drop us a note at thebloodypit@gmail.com – we really are interested in hearing a defense of this one. 

Poster Art and Lobby Cards for THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933)

Beyond Naschy #36 - ORLOFF AND THE INVISIBLE MAN (1970)

We return to the Beyond Naschy series with guest Bob Sargent making the choice of film this time out.

ORLOFF AND THE INVISIBLE MAN (1970) is not a movie that is often called out as a favorite of even the most hardened Euro-Cult horror fanatics. In the past it has been mistaken as a Jess Franco effort with the director’s name, Pierre Chevalier, suspected of being another of the prolific filmmaker’s many pseudonyms. This appears to not be factual but anyone stumbling across this movie unaware couldn’t be blamed for making that assumption. It shares many of the standard tropes and oddities of one of Franco’s color gothics from the period which makes it a good companion piece of Franco’s EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN (1973) and DRACULA, PRISONER OF FRANKENSTEIN (1972). It even sports Franco’s original Orloff actor Howard Vernon as ‘Professor’ Orloff who has somehow created an invisible man for the usual mad scientist reasons. The film’s story is a mish-mash of prematurely buried daughters, accidental murders and greedy servants who are not above a bit of graverobbing. Add to that one of the strangest rape sequences in cinema history and some obviously missing story pieces and you have an entertaining if often confusing 76 minutes.

We talk about the cast and crew, including their various Naschy connections. We discuss the missing scenes that can be glimpsed in the French trailer for the film and in the extras included on the old Image DVD. We find some moments of real beauty in the cinematography and some unintentionally funny scenes that just don’t work. The English dialog causes quite a few laughs as we quote some standout circular conversations. Part of our discussion centers on the term ‘guilty pleasure’ and how each of the three of us feel about applying that overused phrase to our love of Euro-Cult cinema. As you might expect, there are more than a few verbal trips down barely connected cinema paths with the final forty-five minute mailbag section becoming a memory lane remembrance of our late friend Craig Ledbetter.

If you’d like to add you voice to the show naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send your thoughts and questions. Troy and I are very happy that Bob has joined us again and with a little luck we will have around for the rest of this year’s shows! Thanks for listening. 

The Bloody Pit #123 - INVISIBLE AGENT (1942)

We return to the Universal Invisible Man series of movies for a wartime adventure!

 

As the United States entered the World War effort in 1942 Hollywood joined in with dozens of films bent around the changed state of political events. A number of the movies produced at the time could be seen as propaganda pieces and INVISIBLE AGENT (1942) certainly fits that description. Picking up with the grandson of the original Invisible Man the story is a mixture of many elements. Our main character is pressed into service for the Allied fighting forces after Pearl Harbor turns him from isolationist to intelligencer. Parachuting into Germany our transparent hero searches for a list of infiltrated undercover Axis agents and then discovers a plot to bomb New York City! How will he warn the American Defense Department in time to stop the massacre of millions? And can he escape from the clutches of the dastardly Nazi army that seems to know he is lurking about? 

Troy and I pull this exciting film apart, examine its flaws and then rave about how much we love it. Sporting two excellent villains played by Sir Cedric Hardwick and Peter Lorre the movie manages to generate some real menace when they are onscreen. Both actors are so good as antagonistic German and Japanese representatives that watching them dance around each other waiting for a mistake is delicious. In fact, the only real problems we find with the film is the unfortunate need to indulge in some silly, out of place Nazi-humiliation scenes that are played for cheap laughs. I would argue that this sequence could have been best left out. Luckily, the movie has more than enough action to keep an audience riveted as the race to stop the Axis baddies ramps up to a special effects laden climax that is fantastic!

 

If you have any comments or suggestions thebloodypit@gmail.com is the address to use to make your feelings known. Thank you for listening and please rate and/or review the podcast wherever you catch the show. 

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What I Watched In March

Leigh Whannell’s remake/reimaging/adaptation/whatever of THE INVISIBLE MAN is one of the best science fiction horror films of recent years. As the screenwriter he chose a brilliant way into the tale shifting the focus from the title character to his victims which allows the invisible person at the center of the story to remain offscreen as we learn about him from other characters. The picture we get is one of a near psychotic paranoid control freak intent on getting his way at every turn. Being the very wealthy inventor of sophisticated surveillance technology, it has been easy for him to have his way except for one glaring spot in his life – he can’t make his girlfriend do more than fear him. In fact, his controlling nature has done so much harm to her mentally and physically that as the film begins she is executing an elaborate plan to escape from their shared home. Once away from him the film becomes a smart, perfectly directed tale of terror, murder and the madness that comes from feeling stalked by something that isn’t there. Or is it?

Whannell’s most ingenious decision in crafting this story is in rethinking the drive of the man at the center of the action. In the 1933 film an ambitious man succeeds in creating an astonishing breakthrough but is pushed to madness by it. This film is about a man who is so successful in such a profitable way that his madness is tolerated and even encouraged. Instead of his scientific breakthrough/discovery slowly driving him mad, it was his madness (or at least his personality disorder) that allows him to accomplish the breakthrough around which the film revolves. It is his ‘madness’ that pushed him toward this discovery meaning that his flaws created the capability to achieve his incredible accomplishment but it is also what will be his downfall. Just changing the focus from the title character to victim wasn’t considered enough to craft a new tale. Whannell wisely saw that the kind of person that could create such a next level project would have to be slightly cracked from the beginning. That insight makes THE INVISIBLE MAN (2020) more than just a clever horror film – it is also a scary look inside a disordered mind. It’s nice to see a movie think several steps beyond the standard twist endings a good thriller can provide and nail each and every one. Bravo!

The List 

PANTHER SQUAD (1984) – 3 (Jack Taylor is great in this mess) 

DINOSAURUS! (1960) – 4 (not great)

THE INVISIBLE MAN (2020) – 9 

THE MAGIC SWORD (1961) – 6 (rewatch on Blu) 

DANGEROUS CARGO (1977) – 6 (Greek crime film) 

UPGRADE (2018) – 7 (solid, scary sci-fi thriller) 

THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR (1929) – 6 (creaky but well done mystery) 

THE STRANGE DOOR (1951) – 8 (rewatach on Blu) 

THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY’S TOMB (1964) – 7 (rewatch on Blu) 

GIGANTES PLANETARIOS (1966) – 3 (terrible but amusing Mexican SF/comedy) 

THE FALCON AND THE CO-EDS (1943) – 7 (very good/artful entry in the series) 

EXTERMINATOR 2 (1984)- 6 (rewatch on Blu) 

THE EYES OF ORSON WELLES (2018) – 9 (excellent subjective look at the great man’s art)

X THE UNKNOWN (1957) – 7 (rewatch) 

DAVID HARDING, COUNTERSPY (1950) – 6 (the radio show on the big screen!)

The Bloody Pit #76 - THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (1940)

With THE INVISIBLE WOMAN Troy and I finally complete the first year of the decade in our look at the Universal Horrors of the 1940's. Released two days after Christmas in 1940 it signifies the first time since DRACULA'S DAUGHTER that a female character top lined one of these movies. It also represents the first time the producers sharply shifted the series' genre from the established norm set by the previous two films. Yes, this is a comedy! And a broadly silly one at that. As with all comedic films, your mileage will vary with your enjoyment of the frantic antics being the only guide through this mad tale of working girl revenge, slapstick gangsters and dotty old scientists. It's a real mixed bag, folks.

We start the show with a brief discussion of the newly released remake of SUSPIRIA and a few comments on the new HALLOWEEN film as well. Then we jump into a breakdown of what we liked and disliked about the third in the Invisible Man series from Universal. Since this film is such a departure from the first two we speculate on the possible reasons for changing the serious tone of the earlier entries. Then we delve into the farcical plot details and the high level of talent in the impressive cast. Our frustration with the story padding becomes evident right about the time we start talking about the faux Three Stooges running around as gangster minions. One of them is even played by Shemp Howard! And I am happy to report that both of us are able to refrain from pointing out that the film's eventual romantic couple are named Kitty and Dick! I suspect the scriptwriters had to find their amusements someplace. 

We end the show with a fun, lengthy email from a listener and you can send your missives to us at thebloodypit@gmail.com as well. This letter even included a beer review! We can reached over on The Bloody Pit Facebook page as well and we'll be glad to hear from you. The song at the end of the episode is from Troy's band The Exotic Ones and is appropriate for this film. Thanks for downloading and listening!

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Universal's Classic Invisible Man Trailer (and it's sequels)

MISTER SUPERINVISIBLE (1970) on YouTube!

I don't know if I can so much recommend this film as warn you about it. If you of a certain age you might have some memories of the various Disney kiddie feature films starring Dean Jones. He was in THAT DARN CAT! (1965), THE UGLY DACHSHUND (1966), THE MILLION DOLLAR DUCK (1971) and, or course, THE LOVE BUG (1968) and a couple of its sequels. He became a household name for a decade or more because of these films and they were both popular and profitable. So it was not difficult to figure that European producers would try to mimic this successful formula and who better to make this effort as well as possible than Antonio Margheriti? 

Podcast on the way! 

Universal's Invisible Man Movie (and its sequels) Poster Art

I have always thought of the Mummy as the most neglected and derided of the classic Universal monsters but it has been pointed out that actually that crown belongs to the Invisible Man. I wonder why? No recurring actor? No continuing storyline? The descent into silliness? I enjoy the original and its four sequels but I don't find myself wanting to revisit them very often.