The Amazing Transparent Man (1960)

The Amazing Transparent Man (1960)** (out of 4)A convict (Douglas Kennedy) gets busted out of jail by his girlfriend (Marguerite Chapman) and a scientist (Ivan Triesault) who has plans for the escapee. The scientist wants the master thief to break into a location and steal something that he wants. The way to pull it off? The scientist has come up with an invisible potion so the thief will never be seen but he has his own ideas for the robbery.Edgar G. Ulmer directed this ultra low-budget film that is obviously a take-off on THE INVISIBLE MAN. Ulmer's reputation has really grown over the years but I must admit that I've never been a huge fan of his,although there's no question he had talent and was able to do a lot with a low-budget. He certainly makes this film a lot better than it would have been in the hands of most B-movie directors but there's still no question that there's nothing too good here.The story itself is simple enough at at just under 60 minutes it certainly doesn't feel too long or forced. The best thing about the movie are actually the performances, which are slightly better than you'd expect. This includes Douglas who is very good in the lead role and is so good that you have no time liking him and cheering for him along the way. I thought Triesault also made for a good villain to hiss at. With that said, there's still not much here outside of some cheap B-movie fun. As long as you don't take the film too serious, it is some nice and cheap entertainment.

"The Amazing Transparent Man" has a good idea for an agreeable B movie viewing experience, but its potential for the most part is pretty wasted. For starters, though the movie runs less than an hour in length, it's clear that there is some blatant padding in its thin story in its first part. More than half of the movie goes by before the main character is first made into the title figure! What's really disappointing, however, is that the transparent man subsequently only has enough time to go on *two* (brief) rampages with his powers. So the movie not only fails to get to business quickly, when it does it's quite unsatisfying. If you are looking for unintentional amusement, though there are a few chuckles here and there (mainly with some cheap special effects), the movie is for the most part too stiff and serious to tickle the funny bone than much. Recommended only for serious fans of independent sci-fi cinema of this time.

Public enemy number one can't be seen to be believed. He gets out of prison through default (escaping!) and joins up with a gang of amoral scientists who want to use him as a part of a bank robbery ring. What could have been an update of the type of science fiction film that Boris Karloff had made twenty years before ends up being a mediocre crime drama with little excitement. A "B" cast includes 1940 starlet Marguerite Chapman playing. An aging femme fatale as if she was locked into the 1940 definition of a film noir bad girl. The only memorable element of this is an old man dying from uranium poisoning and the regret he has for the way his life turned out.

Netflix did the honor of suggesting I would like this 'Gem" based on my recently watching The Invisible Man - With Claude Rains which was made in 1933 - I was eager to see this to see what was going to be different or new in the last 27 years of Hollywood special effects. My favorite effect was when Faust said "I'll have to jump out" and the car shakes - so they don't have to worry about the car door opening. I know someone might say that the door opening would look suspicious - well so would a bouncing car ! I thought the best use of something turning invisible was the guinea pig -and I thought the whole 9 yards of flipping all the switches each and every time they turned him invisible was just about snore worthy. The People who say this is a fun romp of b-rated movies from the time, really must not have seen a lot of movies from the time. the music is generic. the sets are boring. the actors are wooden. and the first 45 mins of the hour long movie is the set up. which happens very slowly. in short, I am left to wonder if this movie was just as terrible when it was first shown at drive ins or if I just expect more due to the mass amounts of movies / shows (since its only an hour) today. Honestly I would believe it if I was told this movie is the reason drive ins started to die off.