The invisible agent
| Movie | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| German title | The invisible agent | ||
| Original title | Invisible agent | ||
| Country of production | United States | ||
| original language | English | ||
| Publishing year | 1942 | ||
| length | 79 minutes | ||
| Rod | |||
| Director | Edwin L. Marin | ||
| script | Curt Siodmak | ||
| production | Frank Lloyd , George Waggner | ||
| music | Hans J. Salter | ||
| camera | Lester White | ||
| cut | Edward Curtiss | ||
| occupation | |||
| |||
| chronology | |||
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The Invisible Agent is a US American mix of comedy and spy film from 1942. The script is loosely based on the novel The Invisible by HG Wells .
action
The real name of the printer, Frank Raymond, is Frank Griffin and he is the grandson of the Invisible Man . Two spies, the Japanese Baron Ikito and the German Conrad Stauffer, want to force Frank to give up his grandfather's invisibility formula. But Frank can escape the two. He meets the US agent John Gardiner who wants to secure the formula for the US government. Frank thinks the formula is too dangerous, but when the US enters the war, he changes his mind. Frank makes sure he'll be the only person using the formula.
Frank jumps over Berlin with the parachute. He is supposed to expose German sabotage plans that affect the American ammunition industry. As invisible, he can avoid German patrols and his contact, the undertaker Dr. Go to Schmidt. Schmidt sends him to the double agent Maria Sorenson. That evening Maria has an appointment with Gestapo officer Karl Heiser. Maria hoarsely tells that Hitler ordered a secret attack on the United States. But he does not tell the exact time after the invisible and drunk Frank destroyed the romantic evening.
Stauffer and Ikito return to Berlin that same night. Stauffer asks Heiser about the missing parachutist. He also wants to examine Heiser's interest in Maria more closely. Stauffer goes to Maria with Heiser, where he puts the officer under arrest. As a reason, he cites that Heiser took away his work and his girlfriend. Stauffer suspects Maria of hosting Frank. He tells her that he has plans to attack the United States in his office. Frank goes to Stauffer's office and, despite his invisibility, is arrested and interrogated there. Frank manages to set the office on fire and escape with a list that includes every German and Japanese spy in the US. Frank hands the list to Schmidt and goes to the prison where Heiser is arrested. He wants to help Heiser to freedom if Heiser reveals the exact plan to him. Hoarse agrees and says that a squadron of suicide planes will fly to New York that night.
At the same time, Schmidt was arrested and interrogated by Stauffer. Frank only finds Maria in Schmidt's house. He accuses Maria of being a German spy. Ikito and some Japanese appear and take Frank and Maria prisoner. Ikito wants to get Frank to Japan, but when Stauffer and his men arrive at the Japanese embassy, Frank and Maria escape. Ikito realizes that he has brought shame to his country for failing and kills Stauffer, after which he commits suicide. Frank and Maria hijack a German plane and bomb the runway after take-off to prevent the suicide planes from taking off. The German machine was shot down over England, but Frank and Maria were able to save themselves by parachute. Frank becomes visible again in the hospital. He learns that Maria is a British spy named Goodrich.
criticism
The lexicon of international films sees the work as a “mixture of espionage thriller, melodrama and over-the-top farce, which aims to enlighten and at the same time entertain with the familiar genre patterns in the service of anti-fascist propaganda work during the Second World War. At best, the film is interesting from this film-historical aspect; the motif, which has already varied in earlier films, cf. "The Invisible One" and its successor films are exhausted and without inspiration. "
The New York Times felt the film was an aberration of taste. The author has turned the fantastic idea of an invisible agent in Germany into a fairy tale that irresponsibly mixes cheerful and awkward comic satire with melodramatic sadism.
Awards
1943 Bernard B. Brown and were John P. Fulton in the category Best Special Effects nominated for an Oscar.
background
The premiere took place on July 31, 1942. In Germany, the film first appeared on August 7, 1986 as part of a TV premiere in the third WDR program .
The film, produced by Universal Pictures , had a budget of approximately $ 322,000. The film grossed just over a million US dollars worldwide.
Milburn Stone (Doc Adams from the TV series Rauchende Colts ) can be seen in a small role as a German officer .
Web links
- Invisible Agent in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Invisible Agent. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 23, 2017 .
- ↑ Critique of the New York Times (Eng.)
- ↑ gross profit