The New Invisible Man

Retired Major Henry Rodman has called in the police to investigate a murder he saw committed in neighbor's home. It seems the good Major likes spying on his neighbors with binoculars. March of the Queer Complaints Department is there because the Major insists that the murder was committed by a disembodied pair of gloves. They investigate and even though another neighbor swears he too heard shots, they find nothing amiss at the young couple's home. The wife laughs it off as just being the imagination of a batty old man. After Ames is also taken in by the gloves trick, March explains how it was all done. Although a clichéd bit of magic, it was still pretty nifty. But the episode is a fairly pedestrian one and aside from the Major, none of the characters are particularly interesting or memorable. However, as usual, Karloff's performance still makes it an entertaining show.

Major Henry Rodman is insistent that through his binoculars he witnessed a murder.

A subsequent search of the property revealed absolutely nothing. It's a very neat idea, one I'm surprised hasn't been used multiple times over in successive years, maybe it has, and I just haven't see it.

A very different production, for the reasons given by other reviewers, it has the intriguing if intrusive music, and a definite film like quality throughout, it is just liken watching a short film.

What on Earth was Major Rodman hoping to see in that window?

It's a super clever and very unique, it's an episode I thought that had some real quality to it, Karloff was excellent as always.

Enjoyable. 7/10.

"The New Invisible Man" was the last, and by far the weakest, of the three pilot episodes that formed the basis for the feature film "Colonel March Investigates" ("Hot Money" and "Death in the Dressing Room" were the others, with production resuming a year later, in December 1953). The queer complaint comes from Major Henry Rodman (Roger Maxwell), who claims to have witnessed a murder through a neighbor's window, depicting a pair of gloves that shoot a man dead. A more eccentric neighbor, Baron Novakov (Bernard Rebel), confirms that he definitely heard two gunshots, not the sound of a car backfiring. Colonel March and Inspector Ames (Ewan Roberts) call upon the young couple who reside there, Jim Hartley (Anthony Forwood) and his wife Betty (Patricia Owens), who show off a portrait of the murder victim, Jim's uncle, who has been deceased for four years. Seeing no corpse, no blood, and no evidence of wrongdoing, the Major apologizes for his apparently crazy story, but Colonel March refuses to give up easily, buying time until the pieces fit the puzzle. It's hardly a stretch to admit that invisibility is not involved in the underwhelming solution. Lovely Patricia Owens is best remembered for her starring role in 1958's "The Fly," retiring ten years later (she died in 2000).

Despite the excellent title, THE NEW INVISIBLE MAN is one of the weaker episodes of the Colonel March TV series and certainly the weakest of three episodes stitched together for the feature film anthology COLONEL MARCH INVESTIGATES. The story is a simple locked room murder case with a bizarre twist; a witness to the crime saw a pair of disembodied hands committing the crime.

The story is let down by some insufferably stuffy characters and a lot of padding that seems to drag things out endlessly even though the running time only clocks in at 25 minutes. Karloff and Roberts are on autopilot here, although there is a nice little role for Patricia Owens, the actress best known for her role in THE FLY. I did enjoy the eventual reveal, which is a clever twist, but the journey to that point is a distinctly average one.

Major Henry Rodman, a peeping Tom insists that he saw a pair disembodied gloves shoot a gun from the house opposite.

It is certainly a queer case for Colonel March. A young couple, the Hartley's live opposite. Jim Hartley has a puzzle box and that piques Colonel March's interest in the case.

There is a simple explanation as to what the Major saw. It does take a bit of a leap as to what the Hartley's up to and the unnecessary risk that the Colonel takes.

If it was not for the Major having a peep, it would had been Colonel March of the River Thames.