ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN

(1951)
With Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Arthur Franz, Nancy Guild, William Frawley, Adele Jergens, Sheldon Leonard
Directed by Charles Lamont
Black and White
Reviewed by JB

    One of the best of the post-MEET FRANKENSTEIN films, A&C MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN never matches the fun of that film, but it does have a solid story, a strong cast, excellent special effects and enough good Abbott and Costello nonsense to make it one of their standout films of the second half of their movie career.

    Reportedly, the original script was a straight sequel to previous INVISIBLE MAN films, but was rewritten as an Abbott and Costello vehicle to capitalize on the success of ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN.  It's a tale of a boxer, Tommy Nelson, who wants to clear his name after being accused of murdering his manager, so he visits a doctor who just happens to have the same formula as the original Invisible Man (the doctor even has a picture of Claude Rains on the wall).  While he is invisible, Nelson can easily shadow several suspects, but his invisibility comes with a price; the longer he remains invisible, the more mentally unstable he becomes until he reaches full blown insanity.  Not the greatest story ever told, but good enough so that even the addition of Bud and Lou into the script doesn't turn the film into a slapdash affair like AFRICA SCREAMS or the later ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS.  The boys are not given their usual routines to do; instead, they have to carry the story as comical detectives helping Tommy's cause. They do work in several fun comedy sequences, including a great scene in which a psychiatrist attempts to hypnotize Lou but instead, Lou accidentally hypnotizes him... and everybody else who happens to walk into the room! 3 - JB

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Bud and Lou's character names in the film are Bud Alexander and Louis Francis.  In real life, Bud and Lou were actually named William Alexander Abbott and Louis Francis Cristillo.

SEE YOU SOON, HONEYBUNCH!

Character actor William Frawley had appeared with Bud and Lou already in their first film ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS.  When making ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN, Frawley was a mere two years away from the role that would make him famous all over the world - landlord Fred Mertz on TV's I Love Lucy.

I WANNA MAKE SURE YOU'RE NOT PEEKING

Midway through the movie, Bud, Lou and the invisible Tommy Nelson play a friendly game of poker.  In real life, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were high-stakes poker fiends, and always had a game going on between scenes.

THE GUY GOT WORK

According to the Internet Movie Database, character actor Syd Saylor, who plays a waiter, appeared in 427 movies and television shows from 1926 to 1963, often uncredited.  Even accounting for the inevitable errors on IMDB, that's still a hell of a career!

Abbott and Costello     The Age of Comedy