Saturday Movie Review – “The Amazing Transparent Man”

This week’s review is of a stinker that somehow just doesn’t quite stink enough.

Cast, Crew, and Other Info

Marguerite Chapman as Laura
Douglas Kennedy as Faust
James Griffith as Major Krenner, who screams like a girly girl
Iven Triesault as Dr. Ulof

Written by Jack Lewis
Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

Complete information is

available from the IMDB.

Buy it in a cost effective “50 Sci Fi Classics Collection” from Amazon.com
or Amazon.ca. This isn’t the first movie we’ve reviewed from this set, and it won’t be the last.

Past movie reviews can

be found here.

Premise

A madman plans to create an invisible army, and his first guinea pig is a criminal, not a soldier.

High Point

I do have to give them credit for recognizing that lead isn’t this magical impervious metal, but rather that it just lets less radiation through than other materials.

Low Point

Pretty much everything else about the movie.

The Scores

This is by no means original. Several previous invisible man movies covered pretty much all aspects of this story, and they did a better job. I give it 2 out of 6.

The effects weren’t particularly good or groundbreaking, but they weren’t terrible either. I give it 4 out of 6.

The story feels stretched out to fill time, and the movie’s only 57 minutes long. The plot and motivations are weak, and the only unpredictable elements are those that make absolutely no sense. I give it 2 out of 6.

The acting from Triesault isn’t too bad. The acting from everyone else is quite bad. I swear there are times the actors read from cue cards for minutes at a time. I give it 3 out of 6.

The emotional response is hampered primarily by the fact that the movie is just plain boring. I give it 1 out of 6.

The production includes a decently made lab (considering it’s in the upper floor of an old country house, which must have some incredibly strong floors given the thickness of the lead door up there.) Everything else was poor. This isn’t a case of someone going through the motions of taking established, boring camera and lighting decisions from start to finish, but rather a case of someone making bad decisions in these areas from the beginning to the final shot that suddenly starts breaking the fourth wall in a weak attempt to make the film seem poignant. The girl who has been held prisoner for months is found to have a smile on her face and perfect hair, for example. I give it 2 out of 6.

Overall, this movie is just plain bad, though not quite bad enough to enjoy laughing at. I give it 2 out of 6.

In total, The Amazing Transparent Man receives 16 out of 42.