Review of Invisible Man, The

Introduction

I don`t care what anyone else might say, but being invisible is tres cool. Just think of all the things you could do! Boyhood fantasies aside, the Invisible Man story by H.G. Wells is something that`s been done quite a few times for cinema and television.

A few of these include James Whale`s 1933 film with Claude Rains in the lead and a 70s series with David McCallum in the starring role (co-produced and co-written by Steven "NYPD Blue" Bochco no less). In more recent years there was Paul Verhoeven`s somewhat restrained, but still enjoyable, Hollowman with Kevin Bacon getting all maniacal and the Sci-Fi Channel`s television series starring Vincent Ventresca. IMDb even turns up others that I hadn`t heard of: The Erotic Misadventures of the Invisible Man and The Terror of the Invisible Man. As you can see, there`s plenty of scope for new stories.

This classic British TV series however is a little more innocent in comparison to these Hollywood outings. For starters, most other adaptations have a mad scientist who goes a bit mental as he turns invisible and then they start to terrorise other people. In this DVD series, our central character, Dr Peter Brady, is a more congenial fellow and certainly not interested in misusing this infliction he has. As a result he ends up doing good deeds for those he comes across needing his help. For someone who`s trying to remain a discreet military project, he gets around a lot and does things on behalf of Queen and country. He became invisible quite by chance when a radioactive experiment went pear shaped.

One of the tricks to films with invisible characters is to make a convincing drama with someone that you can`t see; yet you can sense his/her presence and have all the tell-tale objects such as doors opening, giving you visual clues. Special effects weren`t as sophisticated in the 50s and I have to say that from what I see here, I`m impressed. Yes there are moments where you notice a crewmembers reflection, but there`s something charming about seeing this. Knowing that this series is b-movie style schlock, we can entertain the idea of wooden acting with extra ham and over dramatic musical cues.

It`s quite amusing to see what scrapes the Invisible Man can get himself into for each 25-minute episode. This 3-disc DVD box set contains 18 episodes from the first three series and runs for 450-minutes.

Video

Presented with a black & white 4:3 fullframe video transfer, The Invisible Man looks okay considering it was made circa 1956. Some scenes are a bit dark but it`s easy to see everything in the scene. There`s the usual array of dirt but not too much that can detract from viewing. If you look closely too, you`ll see the odd reflection of a crewmember in a window lending a hand to the `invisible` effects. This is classy b-movie stuff!

Audio

The series was made with a mono soundtrack and that`s been well preserved here. While there is some background hiss, it`s not that bad. Dialogue and sound comes clearly from the front and I didn`t expect anything special. The DVD delivers the sound well enough.

Features

When will companies realise that "interactive chapter points" does not constitute a special feature?

This 3-disc set comes packaged in a gatefold digipack and has no subtitles.

Conclusion

It`s strange to see how the Invisible Man is accepted in his society. He wears bandages with sunglasses all the time in public when he doesn`t want to be invisible and everyone seems to know him by name, Dr Brady, the invisible man. He`s a national figure! This fictional gentle society is at odds with what we might now see involving government conspiracies and the like. This is just one element of the series that makes you remember this is a 50s show. Continuity isn`t a strong point either be it with sound overdubs giving some actors slightly different voices, or replacing actors in close ups who can`t really seem to juggle. What second rate series would be complete without such detractions?

Despite my attraction to some old low-rate television drama, this one does wear my patience thin. For starters the short episodes are too short to tell a halfway decent story and secondly our Invisible Man is far too nice a character living with this problem. He doesn`t get up to any mischief at all so I can`t align my fantasies with his onscreen goings on. Come on, where`s the devil in you?

This series is aimed firmly at the audience or collector that loves old sci-fi television series. Well, it`s hard to call this sci-fi since there`s little if any science going on; it`s more a detective mystery type affair that gets wrapped up in a 25-minute episode. With no extra features the replay value of this box set is limited. How much can one stand all this pleasant behaviour?

If you have a certain affinity for 50s style over-dramatic acting and love the period then you might look at this. Anyone else curious enough should leave the Invisible Man on his own.