Movie Info
Movie Name: Invisible Agent
Studio: Universal Pictures
Genre(s): Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Action/Adventure/Romance
Release Date(s): August 7, 1942
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Hey, lady…good times ahead!
The war is raging and America needs a new hero. The grandson of the original Invisible Man lives in America and finds himself the target of Nazis and the Japanese. Frank Raymond (Jon Hall) has decided he must join the battle and brings his grandfather’s invisibility potion to help fight the Nazis. Parachuting into Nazi occupied Germany, Raymond finds himself allied with a woman named Maria Sorenson (Ilona Massey) whom he doesn’t trust in an attempt to uncover the attack plans for the enemy forces.
Directed by Edwin L. Marin, Invisible Agent uses characters originally based on H.G. Wells classic novel. The film follows Universal’s previous “Invisible” film The Invisible Woman in 1940. The movie as nominated for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects (losing to Reap the Wild Wind).
Take that Hitler scum associates!!!
The Invisible Man was a sci-fi monster movie. The Invisible Man Returns was less of a monster movie and more sci-fi. The Invisible Woman was a romantic comedy with a bit of a sci-fi twist. Here, we have a war propaganda romance film with a sci-fi basis.
Invisible Agent has a rather typical set up for a film from this period. You have the roguish hero facing Nazis and Japanese (one of the Japanese is played by professional creep Peter Lorre), and you have him falling in love with a woman who could be a spy for the Nazis. Through their adventure, Raymond stops the Nazis (who are all incompetent) and falls in love with Maria (who turns out is a double agent for the Allies)…it follows the path you expect it to and ends just as you’d expect it.
I had this horrible dream…You were there and you were there…and I was invisible!!!
The actors all are very stock characters. The great Peter Lorre doesn’t get to do enough in this picture and feels like he’s just stopping in for a cameo and his name. Ilona Massey gets to play the bombshell love and despite this not being a horror film, Massey got another chance to be a scream queen in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man in 1943. The lead Jon Hall is much more romantic lead than both Price and Rains…so he gets more visible screen time.
The effects still continue to be the hook of the Invisible Man movies. Despite their age (and yes there are “problems”) the invisible effect feels ahead of its time. Be it simply putting on shoes or the headless bodies, the Invisible Man character is fun…but the idea that he’s naked whenever he’s completely invisible is a bit weird.
Invisible Agent is another turn for a series that already make some different turns. The decision to make a war movie for the character at the time made sense. Invisible Agent was followed by The Invisible Man’s Revenge in 1944 which had a bit more of a horror aspect to it.
Related Links:
The Invisible Man Returns (1940)
