The Invisible Man (James Whale, 1933)

 

The Invisible Man (James Whale, 1933)

Cast: Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, William Harrigan, Henry Travers, Una O’Connor, Forrester Harvey, Holmes Herbert, E.E. Clive, Dudley Digges, Harry Stubbs, Donald Stuart, Merle Tottenham. Screenplay: R.C. Sheriff, based on a novel by H.G. Wells. Cinematography: Arthur Edeson. Art direction: Charles D. Hall. Film editing: Ted J. Kent. Music: Heinz Roemheld. 

Of all the superpowers, including strength, speed, and flight, I think invisibility may be the most desired – and the most dangerous. The only obvious inconvenience is that for it to work, you’d have to be naked. (And as Claude Rains’s Dr. Jack Griffin suggests, you’d have to have a completely empty intestinal tract.) But the H.G. Wells novel and the 1933 film based on it seem to be designed as a warning to be careful what you wish for. The potion that gives Dr. Griffin his superpower also drives him mad, freeing him from any inhibitions against mayhem and murder. This may be my favorite among the classic Universal horror movies, more polished than Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931), less campy than Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931). Its chief flaw is that the part given to Gloria Stuart as Griffin’s girlfriend calls for her to do little more than fret and shriek. She does both well, but the role adds nothing to the narrative or the suspense. Much better are the gaggle of character actors assembled to play the villagers freaked out by the Invisible Man, especially the invaluable Una O’Connor as his landlady, whose own fretting and shrieking almost seem like a parody of Stuart’s. This was Rains’s American film debut, the more remarkable in that his face is seen only at the end of the film. He’s forced to do all of his acting with his voice, which would not have been familiar to the original audiences though it’s certainly recognizable to us today. It was enough to launch one of the great film careers. 

The Old Dark House (James Whale, 1932)

The Old Dark House (James Whale, 1932)

Cast: Raymond Massey, Gloria Stuart, Melvyn Douglas, Boris Karloff, Ernest Thesinger, Eva Moore, Charles Laughton, Lilian Bond, Elspeth Dudgeon, Brember Wills. Screenplay: Benn W. Levy, based on a novel by J.B. Priestley. Cinematography: Arthur Edeson. Art direction: Charles D. Hall. Film editing: Clarence Kolster. 

The title itself has an air of gleefully giving away what you're about to see. It's an old dark house and it's the only refuge from a storm that has Philip and Margaret Waverton (Raymond Massey and Gloria Stuart) and their friend Penderel (a slightly pudgy Melvyn Douglas) seeking shelter for the night. And when the disfigured butler Morgan (Boris Karloff, who else?) answers the door, you settle in for an evening of mostly tongue-in-cheek scary moments. The travelers are reluctantly invited in by Horace Femm (Ernest Thesiger) and his sister, Rebecca (Eva Moore), and just as reluctantly given dinner. Their meal of roast beef and potatoes -- the line "Have a potato" has never been funnier -- is interrupted by another pair of shelter seekers, Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton) and his companion Gladys (Lilian Bond). They're an odd couple but not a spooky one: He's an uncouth industrialist who earned his knighthood and she's a chorus girl. But she's not his mistress, she explains to Penderel as the two of them start to hit it off together. She and Porterhouse just like one another's company, she says, and he likes to appear "gay" -- in the older meaning of the word, though you can be sure that director James Whale knew the current meaning, since he and Laughton and Thesinger were. There's also a centenarian in the attic and a madman in a locked room, and of course the lights go out and everyone finds themselves in some kind of peril. The Old Dark House was thought to be lost for a long time, but it was discovered and restored, for which we all should be glad. 

Gold Diggers of 1935 (Busby Berkeley, 1935)

Cast: Dick Powell, Gloria Stuart, Alice Brady, Adolphe Menjou, Hugh Herbert, Glenda Farrell, Dorothy Dare, Wini Shaw. Screenplay: Manuel Seff, Peter Milne, Robert Lord. Cinematography: George Barnes. Art direction: Anton Grot. Film editing: George Amy.