Friday, October 7, 2016

Horror Countdown 2016: Invisible Agent (1942)

Invisible Agent (1942) dir. Edward L. Marin, Universal Pictures




In the early 40's there was a war on, so why not send the Universal Monster to fight?

Some years after the Invisible Man Returns, Frank Raymond (Jon Hall), the last living relative of Jack Griffin, runs a small print shop. A group of men enter his shop right before closing. Conrad Stauffer (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) and Baron Ikito (Peter Lorre) offer Frank a fair amount of money for some of his grandfather's (or father, the film seems a little confused) notes. When Frank refuses, the strangers nearly cut off his fingers before Frank manages to escape.

Frank isn't terribly patriotic, but almost being murdered by the SS and the attacks on Pearl Harbor quickly change his mind. The only catch is he'll be the invisible man, as he feels the risks are too great. Uncle Sam agrees and soon an invisible and naked Frank is air dropped behind German lines.

His mission is fairly straight forward-namely find the list of all Axis agents operating in the US and get back without being shot. Should be easy for an invisible man, right? Hooking up with double agent Maria Sorenson (Ilona Massey), Frank watches as she manipulates both Stauffer and his boorish second in command Heiser (J. Edward Bromberg). Sadly he gets Maria in hot water as he plays pranks on Heiser, tormenting the man during a quiet dinner and getting Maria under house arrest.

Stauffer learns of this and has Heiser arrested, although he mostly wants to draw Frank out into the open. Frank obliges, but in the process learns from a panicking Heiser than Stauffer is overseeing an German attack on New York City. The race to warn the Allies is on, but can Frank trust Maria? Can Stauffer trust Ikito? Can Frank get some pants on before he freezes to death?

Pretty good, and the special effects are decent. Lorre as the Japanese Baron is a bit much though. I'm a little disappointed other Universal Monster didn't join the fight.









No comments:

Post a Comment