Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man

Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Charles Lamont
Produced by	Howard Christie
Written by	Frederic I. Rinaldo John Grant Robert Lees Hugh Wedlock Jr Howard Snyder
Starring	Bud Abbott Lou Costello Nancy Guild Arthur Franz
Music by	Erich Zeisl
Cinematography	George Robinson
Editing by	Virgil Vogel
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	March 19, 1951
Running time	82 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$697,000
Box office	$1,550,000[1]

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Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (also known as Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man (full screen title)) is a 1951 comedy horror film directed by Charles Lamont and starring the team of Abbott and Costello alongside Nancy Guild.

The film depicts the misadventures of Lou Francis and Bud Alexander, two private detectives investigating the murder of a boxing promoter. The film was part of a series in which the duo meet classic characters from Universal's stable, including Frankenstein, the Mummy and the Keystone Kops.

Plot

Lou Francis (Lou Costello) and Bud Alexander (Bud Abbott) have just graduated from a private detective school. Tommy Nelson (Arthur Franz), a middleweight boxer, comes to them with their first case. Tommy recently escaped from jail, after being accused of murdering his manager, and asks the duo to accompany him on a visit to his fiancée, Helen Gray (Nancy Guild). He wants her uncle, Dr. Philip Gray (Gavin Muir), to inject him with a special serum he has developed which will render Tommy invisible, and hopes to use the newfound invisibility to investigate his manager's murder and proved his innocence. Dr. Gray adamantly refuses, arguing that the serum is still unstable, but as the police arrive Tommy injects himself with it. Detective Roberts (William Frawley) questions Dr. Gray and Helen while Bud and Lou search for Tommy.

Helen and Tommy convince Bud and Lou to help them seek the real killer, after Tommy explains that the motive for the murder occurred after he refused to "throw" a fight, knocking his opponent out. Morgan (Sheldon Leonard), the promoter who fixed the fight, ordered Tommy's manager beaten to death while framing Tommy for the crime. In order to investigate undercover, Lou poses as a boxer, with Bud as his manager. They go to Stillwell's gym where Lou gets in the ring with Rocky Hanlon (John Day), the boxer who Tommy knocked out. Tommy, still invisible, gets into the ring with them and again knocks out Hanlon with the illusion that Lou did it, and an official match is arranged. Morgan urges Lou to throw the fight, but when the match occurs (with the aid of an invisible Tommy), Hanlon is knocked out yet again. Morgan plans Bud's murder which is thwarted by Tommy, who unfortunately is wounded in the battle. The protagonists rush to the hospital where a blood transfusion is arranged between Lou and Tommy. During the transfusion, Tommy becomes visible again. Unfortunately, some of Tommy's blood has apparently entered Lou,who briefly turns invisible, only to reappear with his legs on backwards.

Production

Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man was filmed between October 3 and November 6, 1950 and is a modified remake of the 1940 film The Invisible Man Returns. (The star of that film, Vincent Price, had made a vocal cameo as the Invisible Man at the end of 1948's Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.) The character names of "Bud Alexander" and "Lou Francis" are Abbott and Costello's real first and middle names.

The special effects, which depicted invisibility and other optical illusions, were created by Stanley Horsley, son of cinema pioneer David Horsley. He also did the special effects for The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Woman and Invisible Agent.

As an inside joke, a photo of the serum's inventor, Dr. John Griffin, is seen in the laboratory. It is a picture of Claude Rains, who played the role in Universal's first Invisible Man film in 1933.

When asked by a reporter whom he has fought in the past, Lou answers, "Chuck Lamont, Bud Grant." The film's director and screenwriter, respectively, are Charles Lamont and John Grant.

Cast

• Bud Abbott as Bud Alexander
• Lou Costello as Lou Francis
• Nancy Guild as Helen Gray
• Arthur Franz as Tommy Nelson
• Adele Jergens as Boots Marsden
• Sheldon Leonard as Morgan
• William Frawley as Detective Roberts
• Gavin Muir as Dr. Philip Gray
• Sam Balter as Radio announcer
• John Daheim as Rocky Hanlon
• Paul Maxey as Dr. James C. Turner
• James Best as Tommy Nelson (Franz's stand-in)

DVD releases

This film has been released twice on DVD, on The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume Three, on August 3, 2004, and again on October 28, 2008 as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection.

• 

  August 3, 2004

References

External links

• Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man at the Internet Movie Database