“People Who Live In Transparent Bodies Shouldn’t Be So Suspicious”
With the attack on Pearl Harbor less than a year earlier, 1942’s Invisible Agent provided some much needed patriotic propaganda for the United States. Like the film The Invisible Woman (1940) before it, Invisible Agent abandons the horror elements of most of Universal’s Monster films and takes the Invisible series in a different direction. While The Invisible Woman was basically a science fiction comedy, Agent was an espionage film with a little comedy tossed in for good measure.
In the film, German and Japanese agents attempt to acquire the invisibility formula created by Dr. Jack Griffin, the first Invisible Man, from his grandson, Frank Raymond (John Hall), who works in a print shop. When their attempt to buy the formula fails, they try to force Raymond to give it to them. Raymond escapes and makes a deal with the United States and the Allied Powers to help them battle the Axis Powers, but only if he is the only person allowed to use the formula.
Raymond soon finds himself in Germany working with trusted spies against the Nazis. His mission is to find a list of Axis spies working in the United States. Assisting him are Arnold Schmidt (Albert Basserman), an Allied sympathizer who makes coffins in a small German town, and Maria Sorenson (Ilona Massey), an agent that is deep within the S.S. fold.
While at Sorenson’s home, Raymond eavesdrops on a conversation between her and Gestapo Standartenfuhrer Karl Heiser (J. Edward Bromberg), the jealous second-in-command of Gestapo Gruppenfuhrer Conrad Stauffer. Heiser wants to take over Stauffer’s command and he is also interested in Sorenson. There’s a hilarious sequence involving Raymond and Heiser at a dinner table that ends in Raymond damaging Sorenson’s plans to gain information from Heiser.
Eventually a trap is set for Raymond by Stauffer, who fails to capture him and also manages to lose the list of Axis spies. The uneasy peace between the Gestapo and Japanese agents in the area falls apart, and things go sideways quickly.
As more events unfold, Raymond begins to doubt where Sorenson’s loyalties lie. He reluctantly brings her with him in order to escape to England. The Japanese forces, led by the sinister Baron Ikito (Peter Lorre), and Stauffer’s forces (now led by Heiser, watch the film to see how he takes control) attempt to stop Raymond and Sorenson from escaping. Not only does the pair of spies have the Axis agent list, they also have information about a Nazi strike against New York City. Do they escape Germany? Are Raymond’s doubts about Sorenson true? Watch Invisible Agent to find out!
This is actually a very good film. Raymond’s invisibility is played up for humor a little bit too much at times, but audiences are quickly jarred out of the funny moments by some rather serious and deadly sequences. The movie portrays Nazis as idiots and they draw a lot of laughs from viewers, especially Heiser, but viewers are quickly reminded of just how sinister the Nazis really were during WWII. It’s the grounded moments in this film that make it not only a unique Universal Monsters film, but a solid espionage movie as well.
Many members of the cast have appeared in other Universal Monster films. Massey, Bromberg, Hall, Hardwicke, and Holmes Herbert, who portrayed Sir Alfred Spencer in the film, all had roles in at least one other Universal Monster film. Peter Lorre probably had the most prolific career of the entire cast, having appeared in multiple popular films including M (1931), Casablanca (1942), and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954). He was also the star of seven Mr. Moto films released between 1937 and 1939. I highly recommend checking out Lorre’s work, even films in which he had smaller roles. The man was brilliant.
Also of note is a brief appearance by Key Luke as a Japanese surgeon. You might remember him from the Green Hornet serial from the 1940’s or the 1970’s series Kung Fu. Younger folks like myself probably known him best as Mr. Wing from the Gremlins films.
Check out Invisible Agent. It’s a really good film with a decent mixture of humor, action, suspense, and drama.
Thanks for reading. More horror will be headed your way tomorrow!
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