The Invisible One (1933)

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Movie
German title The invisible
Original title The Invisible Man
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1933
length 70 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director James Whale
script Philip Wylie , RC Sherriff
production Carl Laemmle, Jr.
music Heinz Roemheld
camera Arthur Edeson
cut Ted J. Kent
occupation
synchronization
chronology

Successor  →
The invisible one returns

The Invisible Man (original title: The Invisible Man ) is an American horror film by director James Whale from 1933 based on the novel of the same name by HG Wells . The film made the actor Claude Rains famous for his distinctive voice.

action

A strange man comes to the country inn of a snow-covered village. He is completely hooded, complete with bandages and dark glasses. It is the young scientist Dr. Jack Griffin, who invented an invisibility serum and tried it on himself. The problem is, however, that Griffin has not yet found a way to reverse the effect, i.e. to become visible again. In order to be able to research in peace, he stays in the inn. None of his acquaintances and friends knows where he is - not even his fiancée Flora.

Griffin cannot speak of calm. His unusual appearance caused a sensation, the host couple Hall became suspicious and he defaulted on renting the room. Eventually the situation escalates, there are injuries, the police are called in. Griffin reveals his secret in order to escape and kills a police officer while trying to escape.

The serum has an unpleasant side effect that Griffin does not know: it changes the person's character towards evil. Griffin feels superior, terrorizes the village and repeatedly evades arrest. He becomes more and more unscrupulous and commits more murders. He even derailed a train, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Despite a committed chief inspector, the police cannot stop Griffin at first, even with sophisticated investigative techniques. When an old farmer heard Griffin's loud snoring in a barn and alerted the police, they surrounded them and set the barn on fire. The Griffin, who then flees, cannot escape unhindered due to his footprints in the snow and is struck down with several shots. In the clinic he dies under the eyes of his fiancée and is finally seen dead again.

background

The studio's first choice for the title role was Boris Karloff . But Whale wanted someone with a special voice. So he was able to hire the British theater actor Claude Rains , whom he wanted for the role from the start. Claude Rains, who had never been in front of the camera apart from a silent film that appeared in 1920, became known through this film, although his face can only be seen on the screen for a few seconds. His voice was distinctive enough to make an impression. Except for the scene in the bar, which was played by a double, Rains played Dr. Griffin. Rumors surfaced that Rains was only present in the final scene. His passages were recorded before and after the shooting.

The special effects implemented by John P. Fulton, which are still impressive from today's perspective, were in part revolutionary at the time. For example, a forerunner of the process can be seen here, which is still used today in a blue box . The "invisible" image components were covered with black velvet. Fulton later described the scene in which Griffin takes off his bandages in front of a mirror as the most difficult. For this purpose, four individual sequences were superimposed.

synchronization

The film was dubbed in 1950 and was also shown in German cinemas. A second dubbed version was created in 1984 for a television broadcast by WDR at the Bavaria Atelier in Munich, the dialogue book was written by Marcel Valmy , and Günther Sauer directed the dialogue . As part of the Monster Collection , the film was also released on DVD for the German market in 2004 with the 1984 dubbed version by Universal.

role actor Voice actor (1984)
Dr. Jack Griffin, the invisible one Claude Rains Rolf Becker
Flora Cranley Gloria Stuart Viktoria Brams
Dr. Arthur Kemp William Harrigan Horst Naumann
Dr. Cranley Henry Travers Holger Hagen
Chief commissioner Dudley Digges Klaus Höhne
Constable Jaffers EE Clive Fred Klaus
Police chief Holmes Herbert Jochen Striebeck
Villager ??? Gernot Duda

reception

The film premiered on November 13, 1933 in the United States and was released in 1934 in Austria. In Germany, however, it did not appear in cinemas until after the end of World War II, on June 23, 1950. The film is now considered a classic of the horror genre, which has also been received in other works: In Science Fiction / Double Feature , the opening song of the musical The Rocky Horror Show and the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show , tribute is paid to the film and its leading actor.

For the film-dienst , the film is “a fantastic horror film made with great skill, the joke of which, from today's point of view, results more from the completely naive display of trick technology. First and foremost interesting in terms of film history, especially since this 'classic' of the genre has become a model for numerous other 'Mad Scientist' subjects ”. The rororo Filmlexikon wrote in 1978: “The special features of James Whale's horror film classics are the extraordinary trick work and the superb humor that sometimes borders on slapstick.” Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz rated the film in the dictionary “Films on TV” as "Successful" (rating: 2½ stars = above average). On the other hand, the Catholic film criticism was negative in 1963, stating that the invisible was "a very outdated and meaningless colportage."

Frederik Pohl wrote in Science Fiction Studies in Film in 1981 : “ The invisible comes as close to perfection ... as a film can come close to it. Of the three really big SF films that spawned the 1930s, it is possibly the best. But also the one always mentioned last: Although it was very successful - with critics and at the box office - it has never enjoyed the endless number of remakes and variations like Frankenstein or King Kong [...] and never has a cult movement brought to life."

The film was released on DVD on May 6, 2004.

Awards

Sequels and remakes

A total of five sequels of the invisible were filmed, in which John P. Fulton was responsible for the special effects. The only exception was In Sherlock Holmes' Footsteps , when Fulton's longtime collaborator David S. Horsley took over the job.

A remake of the same name , staged by the director Leigh Whannell , was released in February 2020.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Invisible One. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on May 11, 2017 .
  2. ↑ World premieres according to IMDb
  3. ↑ The Invisible One. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 11, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ↑ Wolfram Tichy, Liz-Anne Bawden, et al .: rororo Filmlexikon. Volume 1: Films A - J (OT: The Oxford Companion to Film ). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1978, ISBN 3-499-16228-8 , p. 307.
  5. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 858.
  6. ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . Handbook V of Catholic Film Critics, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 450.
  7. ^ Frederik Pohl, Frederik Pohl IV: Science Fiction Studies in Film . New York 1981; quoted from Ronald M. Hahn , Volker Jansen, Norbert Stresau: Lexikon des Fantasy-Films. 650 films from 1900 to 1986 . Heyne, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-453-02273-4 , p. 871.
  8. ↑ The Invisible on prisma.de