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La femme invisible

Original title: The Invisible Woman
  • 1940
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 12m
IMDb RATING
5.9/10
3.7K
YOUR RATING
John Barrymore, Virginia Bruce, Oscar Homolka, John Howard, and Charles Ruggles in La femme invisible (1940)
Home Video Trailer from Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Play trailer0:39
1 Video
99+ Photos
Body HorrorSupernatural HorrorComedyHorrorRomanceSci-Fi

An attractive model with an ulterior motive volunteers as guinea pig for an invisibility machine.An attractive model with an ulterior motive volunteers as guinea pig for an invisibility machine.An attractive model with an ulterior motive volunteers as guinea pig for an invisibility machine.

  • Director
    • A. Edward Sutherland
  • Writers
    • Curt Siodmak
    • Joe May
    • Robert Lees
  • Stars
    • Virginia Bruce
    • John Barrymore
    • John Howard
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.9/10
    3.7K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • A. Edward Sutherland
    • Writers
      • Curt Siodmak
      • Joe May
      • Robert Lees
    • Stars
      • Virginia Bruce
      • John Barrymore
      • John Howard
    • 51User reviews
    • 39Critic reviews
    • 56Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 1 win & 1 nomination total

    Videos1

    The Invisible Woman (1940)
    Trailer 0:39
    The Invisible Woman (1940)

    Photos137

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    Top cast23

    Edit
    Virginia Bruce
    Virginia Bruce
    • Kitty Carroll
    John Barrymore
    John Barrymore
    • Professor Gibbs
    John Howard
    John Howard
    • Richard Russell
    Charles Ruggles
    Charles Ruggles
    • George
    • (as Charlie Ruggles)
    Oscar Homolka
    Oscar Homolka
    • Blackie Cole
    Edward Brophy
    Edward Brophy
    • Bill
    Donald MacBride
    Donald MacBride
    • Foghorn
    Margaret Hamilton
    Margaret Hamilton
    • Mrs. Jackson
    Shemp Howard
    Shemp Howard
    • Frankie
    Anne Nagel
    Anne Nagel
    • Jean
    Kathryn Adams
    Kathryn Adams
    • Peggy
    Maria Montez
    Maria Montez
    • Marie
    Charles Lane
    Charles Lane
    • Growley
    Mary Gordon
    Mary Gordon
    • Mrs. Bates
    Thurston Hall
    Thurston Hall
    • Hudson
    Eddie Conrad
    Eddie Conrad
    • Hernandez
    Harry C. Bradley
    Harry C. Bradley
    • Want-Ad Clerk
    • (uncredited)
    Kernan Cripps
    Kernan Cripps
    • Postman
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • A. Edward Sutherland
    • Writers
      • Curt Siodmak
      • Joe May
      • Robert Lees
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews51

    5.93.6K
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    Featured reviews

    dougdoepke

    Bouncy Madcap

    Delightful comedy from start to finish, with plenty of bounce and throw-away lines. Of course, invisible people can be the stuff of horror, but there's plenty of shtick in the idea, as well. For example, the Topper series (1953-55) made good comedic appeal in TV's early days, while Abbott and Costello spoofed the idea in maybe their best " A&C Meet__" (1951).

    Here, it's a first-rate cast, including some of Hollywood's most colorful lugs— including, Ed Brophy, Donald McBride, Shemp Howard, and mugging it up comedically, John Barrymore. Seems Barrymore's invented a fade-away gizmo that he wants patented, but first has to get seed money from playboy John Howard. Then too he needs to hire a human guinea pig to prove that the gizmo works, and that's dress-model Virginia Bruce who's out for revenge against her cruel boss (Lane). Naturally crooks get wind of the invention and want to hijack it. So, amusing mayhem ensues.

    Note the lengths the script manages to avoid that awful word "naked". Instead a number of Code euphemisms are employed. Still, the shtick makes funny use of Bruce's being naked when invisible. In fact, the writers go to some lengths making her occasional lack of clothes realistic— e.g. she gets cold up at the cabin. Anyway, the well-timed gags fly thick and fast, along with expert pacing from director Sutherland. At the same time, Charlie Ruggles almost steals the show as the impeccable butler. All in all, this Universal production amounts to a genuine sleeper despite the darkish title, and definitely deserves more frequent revival.
    7bkoganbing

    An Opportunity To Become Invisible

    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.
    BaronBl00d

    The Horror in This One Is........Invisible

    Universal film billed as a part of its Invisible Man series has little except the title to do with that film and The Invisible Man Returns. This film is a comedy all the way with Virginia Bruce playing a woman who volunteers to be invisible for scientist John Barrymore so he can let his money man John Howard patent the product and become wealthy again after years of womanizing and eventual bankruptcy. Very light fare here, but in the typical Universal way very entertaining. John Barrymore gives a good performance as a very thick slice of ham. At one point, he is talking to a mouse like an overbearing Shakespearean stage trouper. Barrymore also has some wonderful verbal assaults with his house maid, played by Margaret Hamilton from The Wizard of Oz fame, and Charlie Ruggles, who does an outstanding job as a butler lacking courage. Much of the film is silly patter with Bruce exacting revenge on her mean boss played with the usual flair that only Charles Lane can create. Decidedly a notch below the first two installments of The Invisible Man series and The Invisible Agent, but the film was fun nonetheless. Where else can you see such a great cast with Barrymore, Lane, Ruggles, Hamilton, Bruce, and even Oskar Homolka(very interesting seeing him young!) and even Shemp Howard! The best part for me was watching Barrymore try to convince Bruce about the negative effects of drinking, even at one point saying, "dissipate and disappear!" What an actor!
    zpzjones

    Cooky Sci-Fi Romp which anticipates later B-Movie Genre

    This is the Great Profile's(John Barrymore's) next to penultimate film. It's an enjoyable romp through some sci-fi shenanigans. A wonderful cast co-stars & supports ie: Carol Bruce, Charlie Ruggles, Margaret Hamilton, Charles Lane, Oscar Homolka, Shemp Howard...S-H-E-M-P H-O-W-A-R-D! and even a young unknown Maria Montez before all of the 'Ali Baba' type technicolor spectaculars. You really have to look at the row of models at Carol's job to spot Maria. I really enjoyed this film. It's like the serious original with Claude Rains but albeit with comic twists thrown in. The whole family can go to the theater and have some laughs. The techniques for making Carol Bruce invisible are really well done here but it should have been expected as Universal made the classic original in 1933. Someone mentioned that this could be remade with Charlize Theron. I agree. And it could also be remade with Barrymore's own granddaughter Drew. This movie has a pretty good A list cast. Barrymore was still a name to reckon with. The flick IMHO sort of anticipates the B-movie cheese factor sci fi movies soon to come in the 50s & 60s and even kiddie Saturday morning 70s fair like the Sid & Marty Krofft's 'Dr Shrinker'.
    rudy-30

    Wonderful comedy with an excellent cast.

    This movie is a winner all the way. Mad Scientist Barrymore with Margaret Hamilton as his housekeeper invents an invisibility formula for his patron. When a model, Virginia Bruce, gets a hold of it, all havoc breaks loose, from revenge on her tyrannical boss, Charles Lane, to Oskar Homolka and Shemp Howard, two villains trying to steal the formula for themselves. Charles Ruggles also provides hilarity as the butler/chauffer.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Margaret Sullavan, who owed Universal one picture on an old contract, was originally assigned the starring role. With more attractive roles being floated her way, she balked at appearing in the film, feeling it was beneath her. After she failed to appear for the rehearsals, the studio slapped her with a restraining order preventing her from working anywhere else. Eventually, she agreed to fulfill her contract by appearing in Back Street (1941) and Virginia Bruce stepped into the role.
    • Goofs
      Virginia Bruce was dressed in black velvet and shot against a black background as part of the special-effects process of making her appear invisible. When the Invisible Woman is undressing in front of a startled Mr. Growley, her black velvet-clad arms are visible whenever they cross in front of her legs or torso.
    • Quotes

      Richard Russell: Stop breathing down my neck.

      George: It's the breath of pleasure, sir. And perhaps a touch of garlic.

    • Connections
      Edited into The Invisible Woman (1966)

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    FAQ17

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • December 27, 1940 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • La mujer invisible
    • Filming locations
      • Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Universal Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $269,062 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 12 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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    John Barrymore, Virginia Bruce, Oscar Homolka, John Howard, and Charles Ruggles in La femme invisible (1940)
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