Review – The Invisible Man

Though greatly overshadowed by director James Whale’s other horror masterpieces (namely Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein), this one’s worth a look. Of course one of its major failings is that the good stuff is front-loaded. The scene in which Claude Rains removes his bandages and reveals nothing underneath is one of the great moments in horror cinema (not to mention an incredible special effects triumph at the time). But it happens in the first 15 minutes of the movie, and nothing after that packs the same punch. The story is a loose adaptation of a novel by H.G. Wells, here turned into the tale of a scientist gone mad with the power conferred by his invisibility formula. I loved this movie as a kid – I even went as the title character for Halloween one year – and even now its charm endures. Worth seeing