IMDb > The Invisible Woman (1940)
The Invisible Woman
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The Invisible Woman (1940) More at IMDbPro »

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The Invisible Woman (1940) -- An attractive model with an ulterior motive volunteers as guinea pig for an invisibility machine.

Overview

User Rating:
6.1/10   447 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 18% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Writers:
Curt Siodmak (story) &
Joe May (story) ...
more
Contact:
View company contact information for The Invisible Woman on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
27 December 1940 (USA) more
Tagline:
IT'S A Ghost-to-Ghost HOOK-UP! more
Plot:
An attractive model with an ulterior motive volunteers as guinea pig for an invisibility machine. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. more
NewsDesk:
(3 articles)
Secret Identity: Who Should Star In The 'Fantastic Four' Reboot?
 (From MTV Splash Page. 17 September 2009, 7:58 AM, PDT)

Fox to Reboot Fantastic Four (Already)
 (From BuzzFocus.com. 1 September 2009, 8:56 AM, PDT)

User Comments:
An Opportunity To Become Invisible more (18 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Virginia Bruce ... Kitty Carroll

John Barrymore ... Professor Gibbs

John Howard ... Richard Russell
Charles Ruggles ... George (as Charlie Ruggles)
Oskar Homolka ... Blackie
Edward Brophy ... Bill
Donald MacBride ... Foghorn
Margaret Hamilton ... Mrs. Jackson
Shemp Howard ... Frankie
Anne Nagel ... Jean
Kathryn Adams ... Peggy
Maria Montez ... Marie

Charles Lane ... Growley
Mary Gordon ... Mrs. Bates
Thurston Hall ... Hudson
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Additional Details

Runtime:
72 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)
Certification:
USA:Approved (PCA #6945) | Finland:S

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
In March 1941, Universal Pictures was distributing this film on a double bill with Trail of the Vigilantes (1940). more
Goofs:
Continuity: When the butler trips down the stairs he throws the tray twice. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
Attorney: Where is he? Where is he? Get up! Get up!
George: I am up. I was up. And I've been up all night. I would have stayed up if you hadn't knocked me down.
more
Movie Connections:
Featured in "Son of Svengoolie: The Invisible Woman (1940) (#1.63)" (1980) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful.
An Opportunity To Become Invisible, 2 February 2008
7/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

Watching this film, the minute I saw the opening credits and saw who was in the cast, I knew I would enjoy this and I was not disappointed.

Bela Lugosi was quoted as saying that when Abbott&Costello met Frankenstein some years later, it killed the classic horror genre that Universal was known for. If that was the case, I'm not sure how the genre escaped the executioner here.

The original film of The Invisible Man saw Claude Rains give one of his great performances as the scientist who becomes invisible, but with the terrible side effect of losing his mind. It's classic acting at its best.

In The Invisible Woman John Barrymore is the scientist who plays it like a cross between his own Oscar Jaffe in Twentieth Century and Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein. Barrymore really looks like he's having all kinds of fun with the part. But he's smart enough not to experiment on himself.

Barrymore is a pet project of playboy John Howard who spends as much money on him as he does settling with women with whom he's had various amours, much to the distraction of Thurston Hall his family attorney. Hall breaks the news to Howard just as Barrymore seems on the verge of a breakthrough. All this is making butler Charlie Ruggles start looking for other employment. That and what follows.

So much so he's advertised for a human subject in an oblique newspaper ad. Two parties respond to the ad, the first is Virginia Bruce who likes the idea of invisibility. She wants to use it to even some accounts with her boss Charles Lane. Lane runs a department store and Bruce is one of several models he abuses with petty tyranny. Her scenes where she does even accounts are some of the funniest.

But a second party is also interested, but he doesn't just want to become invisible. Oscar Homolka wants to steal the secret and return to this country from Mexico where he's been living as a fugitive. So he sends henchmen, Edward Brophy, Donald MacBride, and Shemp Howard to steal Barrymore's machine.

I should point out that unlike Rains's film and other invisible man pictures, Barrymore invents some Young Frankenstein like contraption which you go into and are bombarded with rays to become invisible. In the hands of amateurs the machine does have some interesting side effects and not the ones Claude Rains suffered.

The Invisible Woman is used as an example of how low Barrymore's career had sunk. Yet even when Barrymore is slowly destroying himself with substance abuse in real life, the man's comic genius is apparent even in a film like this. In fact he led the entire cast in one big orgy of overacting where all these colorful people try to top themselves in scenery chewing.

The Invisible Woman did get an Academy Award nomination for Special Effects, but lost to Paramount's I Wanted Wings.

Note in the cast Maria Montez as one of Virginia Bruce's fellow models who shortly would be obtaining short lived stardom in her own genre for Universal Pictures.

The Invisible Woman is a very funny picture, a really good satire on the horror film genre. Made on a dime so to speak, don't miss it if it's ever broadcast.

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