Wedged between his fantastic Frankenstein movies, director James Whale made this highly entertaining and darkly hilarious gem, considered part of Universal’s Monster Movie Collection, The Invisible Man. I had never seen this before until now, and I have to admit it’s one of the most fun classic black and white movies I’ve ever seen. The storyline hooks you from the opening scene, and the pace never slows down during its 71-minute running time, leading toward a brilliant ending that feels far ahead of its time.

Claude Rains, in his film debut, is almost never seen, but he makes a huge impression as the Invisible Man, who comes across a cottage / restaurant to stay for a little while as snow pounds down outside. The caretakers find the man a little odd, given his heavy clothing and the amount of bandages on his face. His secret is soon discovered, and the Invisible Man has to go further into hiding to keep from revealing his secret to more people. However, he takes a certain manevolent joy in messing with others and murdering those who wrong him. His taking the law into his own hands make way for dire consequences.

The film shares many similarities to the Frankenstein story, and it’s almost if James Whale wanted to take elements from that 1931 film and improve on them in this film. This film, like Frankenstein, is about a mad scientist who takes God and science into his own hands. Like Frankenstein, there is a scared fiancee (here played by Gloria Swanson, 64 years before Titanic) longing for her missing love. Like Frankenstein, the hero (who could also be considered the antagonist) gets his comeuppance. All of the developments of the narrative are fascinating, and while it’s a little predictable to see where this story is going, there is moment after moment of sublime entertainment that make the journey worthwhile.

The most astonishing aspect of the film is Claude Rains’ performance. Considered an average actor before being cast in the film, Rains was picked mainly for his voice. James Whale saw a ton of actors and mostly picked Rains due to his large, haunting voice. His voice is indeed quite specific and intense. But there’s a lot more to what he’s doing here. He fully becomes this character to the point where you almost believe you can see the person buried beneath the clothes. He is so mad and focused as this guy that you have no choice to be worried for all those who double cross him.

Another tremendous aspect of the film is its startling special effects, which are absolutely way ahead of its time. The shots of Rains undressing and revealing nothing underneath the clothing is pretty cool. Same with shots of items getting tossed off of tables and thrown out the window,. A scene in which a bike goes rolling down the street all by itself looks great. But how about a scene in which the Invisible Man looks into a mirror as he disrobes? Huh? What? Wow!

I loved this movie, as much as any movie I’ve seen in the last year. It succeeds as both an entertainment and a morality tale, with director Whales reveling in the dark humor of it all. Filled with tremendous performances from both its leading man and its large ensemble of memorable character actors, The Invisible Man is probably the best classic Universal horror thriller, next to The Bride of Frankenstein. I want to see it again!