tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227751790693713235.post8674178221192793580..comments2024-03-22T14:48:09.697-04:00Comments on Dell on Movies: 31 Days of Horror: The Invisible Man (1933)Dellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05634519605152190304noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227751790693713235.post-21820308965018836752020-10-31T09:49:56.919-04:002020-10-31T09:49:56.919-04:00Yup. It adds to that slapstick feel.Yup. It adds to that slapstick feel.Dellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05634519605152190304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227751790693713235.post-8724400500110024792020-10-31T03:33:08.836-04:002020-10-31T03:33:08.836-04:00The thing I've always found most amusing about...The thing I've always found most amusing about this movie is how much he laughs when he's invisible. Like, you're kind of giving yourself away, dude.Sean Mullinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12168731461094847132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227751790693713235.post-88817632759749921772020-10-29T08:42:05.858-04:002020-10-29T08:42:05.858-04:00She was excellent in Titanic. Obviously, I have so...She was excellent in <i>Titanic</i>. Obviously, I have some catching up to do on the rest of her work.Dellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05634519605152190304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227751790693713235.post-19063173290051621512020-10-28T23:07:39.596-04:002020-10-28T23:07:39.596-04:00I'm not surprised you aren't familiar with...I'm not surprised you aren't familiar with Gloria Stuart. Though she was a favorite of James Whale and appeared in several of his films besides Invisible Man including The Old Dark House she was never a major star more of an important leading lady throughout the 30's. But she grew dissatisfied with the parts being offered and being happily married with a young child she retired from acting for the next 30 years turning her focus to her passion for the creative physical arts (painting, printing and the like). She returned to acting after her husband passed away in the 70's in small roles as a sort of hobby but by the time Cameron approached her she had more or less retired again. <br /><br />She wasn't first choice for Old Rose. Cameron wanted an experienced actress who had achieved some level of fame but one who hadn't been a huge star with the baggage that carries and first offered the part to Fay Wray who long retired said no. He then turned to Ann Rutherford, who had held about the same level of recognition as Stuart but at MGM (her greatest claims to fame were as Polly Benedict Mickey Rooney's steady girlfriend in the Andy Hardy series and she had played Scarlett's youngest sister Carreen in Gone with the Wind) but also like her had retired to a happy marriage and motherhood and also demurred. The only other serious contender after Ann passed was Marguerite Chapman who had been a B level star in the 40's & 50's but she was too ill to accept and die shortly afterwards. Then the casting director of the film approached Gloria and Cameron felt a connection with her instantly. She's one of the best parts of this version of Titanic so it worked out very well and she received an Oscar nomination to boot!joel65913https://www.blogger.com/profile/14526657073681774683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227751790693713235.post-54274276308062340852020-10-28T10:09:35.631-04:002020-10-28T10:09:35.631-04:00Your dad was 51 when you were born. Wow! I'm a...Your dad was 51 when you were born. Wow! I'm almost 50 and cannot imagine my wife and I having a new baby. Anyhoo, this is the first time I've heard it called a dark comedy. It makes sense. Had I approached it like one, I may have liked it a bit better. Then again, maybe not, since my main gripe is where it started. The problem with cgi is that it has become the go to. It's used on things unnecessarily. I just watched the new version of <i>The Witches</i> and for some odd reason, they have a cgi cat. The cat has exactly one scene less than a minute long where it does anything noteworthy, the rest of the time it just walks or trots from one spot to another and/or hisses. Instead of using a real cat for that and only going digital for the extraordinary thing it needs to do in that brief (and dark) scene, they just went with a computer generated rendition that's pretty easy to spot. Sigh.Dellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05634519605152190304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227751790693713235.post-27857065823097870282020-10-28T06:50:42.922-04:002020-10-28T06:50:42.922-04:00I. With Joel I. His critique of this film. I remem...I. With Joel I. His critique of this film. I remember my dad saying that when he saw this in the theatre( yup he was 20 at the time...51 when I was born), he so enjoyed the film and he didn’t consider it so much a horror film but more a dark comedy. I think, due to Rain’s brilliant performance, this is why the invisible man, in other films is more of a jokester( not the nutjob from the recent film). The special effects was excellent and makes me long for the time when CGI was not the go to effects that so many use today. It is short and I do long for more but I still love this film.Birgithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09439720285857050428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227751790693713235.post-58907683293136965502020-10-27T22:23:14.521-04:002020-10-27T22:23:14.521-04:00Exactly! It may be accurate to the source material...Exactly! It may be accurate to the source material, but that doesn't mean it's what works best for the film. Also, the book could get away with it easier because it's a full novel which has a lot more space to build than a 70 minute movie.Dellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05634519605152190304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227751790693713235.post-53961544416075337302020-10-27T22:01:46.594-04:002020-10-27T22:01:46.594-04:00I get what you're saying about Universal. The ...I get what you're saying about Universal. The problem with that is that a number of the other monster movies from the same era were more successful at telling their stories. I don't get the same sense of lacking when watching them (the ones I've seen). <br /><br />Agreed, Rain's did a whole lot to help this movie along.<br /><br />I'm not so familiar with Stuart, but she seems pleasant enough. I wish she had been given more to do.Dellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05634519605152190304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227751790693713235.post-28697778492708270802020-10-27T17:29:39.412-04:002020-10-27T17:29:39.412-04:00I agree with you that the story is lacking. This n...I agree with you that the story is lacking. This needed half an hour at the start to sell the whole thing. However, I think it's accurate to the source material, which starts in the same place if memory serves.<br /><br />Still, I want to see the descent into madness rather than starting at the bottom of the slide.SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227751790693713235.post-38049206432404509472020-10-27T16:28:02.753-04:002020-10-27T16:28:02.753-04:00I'd agree that the story could have been more ...I'd agree that the story could have been more fleshed out but you have to remember that Universal at the time was a sausage factory turning out a vast amount of product as rapidly as possible to fill their theatres. The fact that they spent the money for decent special effects in and of itself is a little surprising, they weren't MGM or Paramount which were still "factories" per se but ones that were willing and able to lavish money on production design. <br /><br />Horror however was Universal's bread and butter at this point (even it would falter over the next couple of years with the studio coming close to bankruptcy until a fortuitous set of circumstances led to them signing Deanna Durbin in 1936. Her musicals proved to be so enormously popular and profitable they save studio.) so they were willing to be a bit more risky. Again his character could be more incisively drawn but with Claude Rains's voice doing so much of the heavy lifting the lack of his physical presence isn't felt as keenly as a it would be with a less adept actor in the role. <br /><br />I don't love it (but you know me how many horror films do I really love anyway?) for its age though it is an entertaining and impressive flick. Love seeing Gloria Stuart in her early films, she's very different from Old Rose in Titanic but you can still see a connection and she was a lovely actress. Not as forceful as say Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck but not a pallid blank either. joel65913https://www.blogger.com/profile/14526657073681774683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227751790693713235.post-21615878406826998792020-10-27T02:43:14.943-04:002020-10-27T02:43:14.943-04:00Rains is great, and they made great use of their t...Rains is great, and they made great use of their tools as far as visuals go. The story itself knocked it down a bit for me.Dellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05634519605152190304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227751790693713235.post-81789368013968673532020-10-27T02:14:49.286-04:002020-10-27T02:14:49.286-04:00I saw this film a few years ago and thought it was...I saw this film a few years ago and thought it was really good with what they had to use at the time. Plus, I think Claude Rains was awesome in this.thevoid99https://www.blogger.com/profile/03055459287396592446noreply@blogger.com