The Body Disappears

...For I have never seen such a physically nondescript and dramatically bland actor as Mr. Lynn. And yet Warner Brothers gave him a pretty good build up in the late 30s and early 40s, including unbelievably having him play a character that Priscilla Lane prefers over the enigmatic brooding John Garfield in "Four Daughters". But I digress.

Here Lynn plays wealthy sportsman Peter DeHaven who is to be married the next day, and this is his bachelor party. He likes to play all kinds of corny jokes on his friends and fellow party goers, like exploding cigars and hand buzzers. And then he passes out from drinking too much. Three of his friends and fellow medical students decide to carry him over to the Medical College dissecting room, lay him out on a slab, and place a lily in his hand. They figure he will freak out when he wakes up the next morning, thus repaying him for all of the jokes he played on them.

Meanwhile, eccentric chemistry professor Shotesbury is testing a potion that is supposed to bring dead animals and people back to life. He has just been successful at bringing a monkey back to life, and decides to move abruptly to human testing. So he goes to fetch a body from the dissecting room which turns out to be Peter. He gives what he thinks is a dead person the injection, and Peter comes to. Shotesbury thinks he has succeeded when a previously unknown side effect of the drug appears - invisibility of both the monkey and Peter. Complications ensue, not the least of which is that the police figure that something criminal has befallen Peter when he turns up missing the day of his wedding.

Edward Everett Horton is really the lead here as the confused professor of chemistry. Interesting note here - this film was released the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. I originally thought the film was released in 1943, the middle of the war, mainly because it is an object lesson in how to make a movie when there are no leading men to be found. All of the younger men have very small supporting roles with just a few lines. The lead is actually a 55 year old man, Horton, and Jane Wyman as his daughter. Lynn's voice is present during the entire film, but most of the time Lynn is not physically present at all - he is invisible. Actually anybody could have been playing Lynn's part when you can't see him.

This one is actually pretty funny for what is obviously a Warner Bros. B effort of the time. Horton is comically befuddled as always, workhorse Willie Best is funny and gets to flex his comic muscles here more than in most of the films he was in, and the plot has some interesting twists and turns. Also this film has something I thought I'd never see in the production code era - Actor Willie Best driving around New York City with Jane Wyman's bra on his head. Watch this one for the fun of it all and in spite of one rather obvious plot hole towards the end. See if you can find it.

I'd recommend this one. It was unexpectedly entertaining.

(1941) The Body Disappears COMEDY

It has yuppie and jokester, Peter DeHaven (Jeffrey Lynn) engaged to be married and having a bachelor party with his friends, George "Doc" Appleby (Herbert Anderson), Terence Abbott (DeWolf Hopper) and Jimmie Barbour (David Bruce). When as soon as it was time to leave, the only person who was passed out was Peter. Because Peter earlier played some jokes on his friends, while he was passed out they decide to put one on him by letting him sleeping it off in the college morgue. It is during then Professor Reginald X Shotesbury (Edward Everett Horton) instructs his assistant, William (Willie Best) to go into the college morgue next door to carry a body out into his lab, and it happens to be Peter DeHaven. The professor then pricks a needle into him calling his discovery a breakthrough, and it was at this point Peter disappears or turns invisible- hence the title "The Body Disappears". This was also during the time, the professor's daughter, Joan Shotesbury (Jane Wyman) happens to come home too. She becomes his eventual love interest.

Very amusing comedy with many gags that involves Peter's invisibility. It begins to be routine and it gets better.

E.E. Horton, the pro, was already 55 when he made this one... he's still in pretty good shape, and this caper movie required a lot of energy! if you haven't seen him in my favorites "Lost Horizons" or "Top Hat", you gotta rent those! The first 1/2 hour is fast paced, and things move right along. You don't have time to get bored. Pretty good special effects too, as the Professor and Willie turn Peter DeHaven (Jeff Jynn) invisible.... of course, his daughter Joan (the lovely and talented Jane Wyman) catches them, and now they have to explain what they are up to.... and these crazy goings on threaten to interrupt the wedding of DeHaven and Christine Lunceford (Marguerite Chapman). AND, it's got invisible monkeys, too! Fun, if you can keep up with it. A little silly, but what the hey. We don't hear much about this one, probably because it was released ONE day before Pearl Harbor Day, December 1941.... Directed by Ross Lederman, who was married to "Doris Warner"... I wonder if that's the same Doris, daughter of Harry Warner... This WAS a Warner Brothers film....

In addition to the original "Invisible Man" and its later sequels, Universal Studios made some comedic versions of the Invisible Man stories. "The Invisible Girl" was a comedy starring John Barrymore, there was "Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man" and here we have "The Body Disappears"...yet another comedy using the same invisibility gimmick.

The story begins in a courtroom and the story is told through flashbacks as the folks testify. Apparently, they believe someone killed Peter (Jeffery Lynn) and they explain how he's not dead...just invisible. What follows is a silly story that is extremely enjoyable and cute...and well worth seeing.

Due to a prank at his bachelor party, Jeffrey Lynn, who is a rich guy known in the society circle and who passed out drunk, gets put in the college science lab/morgue by his friends! When scientist, teacher, and eccentric Edward Everett Horton needs a body for experiments, he and assistant Willie Best takes Jeffrey Lynn's body. Jane Wyman is Horton's daughter who knows of Lynn and meets him, kind of. The side effect of the serum to bring Jeffrey back to life is that he disappears. And, the plot and the laughs take it from there. Miss Wyman and Jeffrey Lynn are fun in their roles and are very easy on the eyes, but this film really belongs to Mr. Horton and Willie Best who are great in their over-the-top portrayals. Despite the fact blacks were at times reduced to being afraid of ghosts, etc. and made fun of during this era in films, Willie Best is just great and you don't really feel at all that he is the butt of any meanness towards him. If anything, he is laughing along with everyone else. And, Mr. Horton seems to be enjoying himself very much in this madcap story which of course defies believability. It's a nice change to see him shine without the presence of Fred and Ginger. And another thing, Jeffrey's clothes don't disappear, so that means in order that no one sees clothes walking around by themselves that Jeffrey Lynn is, well,.... With a crazy ending and last scene, this is one invisible man you just have to see for yourself.