Budd Abbott & Lou Costello e o Homem Invisível

Our intrepid bumbling duo deliver the goods in one of the better offerings on their considerable CV. Here they are freshly qualified Private Investigators thrust into a murder investigation with an invisible man. That alone should tell you that the fun flows at a very decent clip, so with that I just need to say that some of the sequences here are comedy gold. Like a scene at a restaurant that is excellent, or Costello pretending to work the ball in the gym, and a final reel of a boxing match that really gets the laughter flowing. Watching these guys act as if with a real invisible man is wonderful, and of course the effects team also deserve praise for doing such a damn fine job with the invisible man of the piece.

Not quite as good as...Meet Frankenstein, but it's darn near close. 8/10

Personally, I LOVED this one. Up there in A & C's top 3 (I'll let YOU figure out the other two) What made this so good...other than the great "invisible" effects (done by John Fulton who was responsible for those in Universal's original THE INVISIBLE MAN), were the boys themselves who almost moved away from slapstick to semi-straight roles here. Bud and Lou play a couple of newly credentialled detectives assigned to a murder case, the suspect being a boxer (Franz is great here) Lou's sequence in the boxing ring...with the assistance of his "invisible assistant" is a side splitter. The effects if anything, top the original film. Their attempts to prove his innocence make for a very entertaining hour and twenty two minutes.

Most A & C fans recall this one fondly.

could possibly be the second best movie a&c made besides frankenstein

To me, this is arguably the best of the "A&C Meet…" series. The boys get mixed up with a prizefighter accused of murder who escapes the cops and gangsters by turning invisible with the help of an experimental serum. Naturally, this leads to an array of amusing hijinks.

The comic potential here is greater than in other A&C monster entries (…Meet Frankenstein; … Meet the Mummy; etc.) because the menace here has the power of invisibility. That means the menace can challenge the boys in public without the public knowing it. On the other hand, the other monsters can't mix in public without being seen which narrows the comic potential to haunted houses or other non-public spaces.

For example, take the punching bag scene. It looks like Lou (Costello) has lightning speed rocking the bag when in reality it's the invisible boxer Tommy (Franz) who's doing it. There're a number of set-ups like this where the public is astonished by Lou's apparent powers, while actor Costello milks the comic potential.

That's not to say the other monster entries are not funny to varying degrees. But the monsters are restricted in these movies to scaring everyone in over-the-top fashion, whereas being invisible greatly expands the possibilities, such as the nightclub scene with the poor flummoxed waiter (Syd Saylor) who can't figure out who's doing what.

Anyway, the movie's consistently amusing and inventive. However, I wish we saw more of that great flashy blonde Adele Jergens (Marsden) and that great phony gangster Sheldon Leonard (Morgan). Seeing them together here resembles a match made in some cheap nightclub heaven. All in all, this is one of my A&C favorites among their many comedies.

Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man- ***

Here we are again, drawn into yet another Abbott and Costello movie. This time, the special effects out due the original Invisible man, and the humor from Abbott and Costello is at its best. This is one of the better films by them, most of the others are slow and somewhat boring. Here, its exciting and funny at the same time.

This is when Abbott and Costello are actually enjoyable to watch. Sure they overuse a lot of the same jokes, but at least there's some new ones too. I've never been a big admirer of Abbott and Costello, however there are a couple of their films that I really do love. I especially like their short skits, because they usually tend to be funnier. Here are some of my other favorites: Who's on First? Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein -Micah Knapp