"The Invisible Man" (1933) and the Depiction of Violence in Early Cinema

I had a chance to watch "The Invisible Man" from 1933 recently and I came away from it with mixed feelings. This is typical of how I have felt with all the Universal monster movies I've seen, which to this point includes The Mummy, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and Dracula. Maybe I'm bringing my own expectations to these "classic" films but there always seems to be something lacking for me.

I thought Claude Raines did an excellent job playing the titular character, even though you never see his face throughout the film. His voice acting and physical presence gave his character the necessary gravitas to make you fearful of what he might do next. Speaking of fear, that was one element that was heavily played up and though I had read the novel by H. G. Wells a few years ago, I forgot how violent and insane the Invisible Man becomes.

The most notable incident for me was the derailing of a train carrying hundreds of people, who all die in a crash caused by the Invisible Man. The other murders he commits are all of a singular variety and never more than two people at a time. However, this utter disregard for that many lives of innocent men, women and children, firmly planted me on the side of the law and at that point I wanted to see the Invisible Man get his.

While this is in keeping with the story and the tale they were trying to tell (men should not attempt to meddle with science for their own gain and power) it still felt off to me. If such an incident occurred in film today it would have been given much more weight by the filmmakers. I will concede the fact that the production did not have the budget nor the resources for the kind of practical special effects necessary to make this scene any more grand than it already was and I don't fault them for their depiction of the scene. I think it has more to do with the brief amount of time given to the incident itself.

The scene with the train derailment happens and then there is a brief aftermath scene with a bunch of police seated around a table saying something to the effect of "we must catch him now!". After that the incident is never mentioned again and none of the other characters bring it up either. This lack of focus on a truly horrible event took away from the film in my opinion and it would have been more effective if the Invisible Man had addressed it himself and gave some reasoning (derived from madness but reasoning nonetheless) behind why he did it and how he felt afterwards. The complete absence of these things left me wanting.

I still enjoyed the film overall, except for that horrible, screeching woman that runs the inn/bar where the Invisible Man takes up shop. Her unrelenting shrieking was so horrible that every time she was on screen I had my thumb over the Mute button. Aside from her, I found the rest of the film and Raines's performance entertaining. The ending was a bit anti-climactic but the final scene ended on a touching note so there was good and bad in this film and that's what I'm learning to expect from the Universal monster films. I'm curious to see how I feel about The Wolf Man as that will complete my viewing of the main batch of films. I have a feeling that one might end up being my favorite of the lot. Only time and my Netflix queue will tell.