My evening's dip into the risky treasure vault of B-film drifted towards sci-fi: The Amazing Transparent Man (1960). Some fairly respected people were involved in this obviously very low-budget production. The director was Edgar G. Ulmer, who made at least one poverty-row masterpiece: Detour (1945). Jack Pierce, who was Universal Studios' makeup guru in the 1930s horror films did the makeup in this one. Obviously a variation on The Invisible Man (1933), Pierce's presence points out both the similar themes, and the sad decline in the quality of films he was working on later in his career. The film's score, by Darrell Calker is... while not quite great... interesting. It uses an ostinato in the bass, which is systematically worked to death throughout the film-- inverted, retrograded, and all the other usual countrapuntal tricks, not usually expected in a film score-- particularly not in a score for a Z-grade sci-fi. The fine-print in the poster above right indicates that some William Castle-esque shenanigans were pulled on the theatrical audience during the showing of the film. I didn't have any invisible people goosing me while I watched it, though. I just had to sit back and take it for what it was...The plot concerns Joey Faust (any relation? Never explained), a top-notch safe-cracker who is broken out of prison by a mad ex-general who has blackmailed an ex-Nazi scientist into creating a technique for invisibility and plans to take over the world with an invisible army. Yes, the film is as ridiculous as would be expected given that plot. But, clocking in at a trim 58 minutes, this one really moves along. It packs a lot of story, and never pauses long enough to get boring. I've always thought that was one thing that made Gilligan's Island successful-- sure it was predictable, low-brow humor, but man did they pack those 25 minutes with story! So, this film is to sci-fi what Gilligan is to comedy:
No real quality to speak of, but it zips by so fast it's fairly painless. Like ripping off a bandage. It's over before you realize it. Now that didn't hurt, did it?... If you've a mind to, catch it yourself at the Internet Archive. Five stars out of Ten from me. Perhaps I had better pause here before ending this post to remind my audience that, while I don't care whether men are transparent or not, I prefer solid women. (For example, the opaque lovelies on the left, Usagi Minagi and Honoka Kitazawa in Pocha Friends: Minagi Usagi Kcup / Kitazawa Honoka Jcup; July 2007; TIA-503.) Nice and solid!
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