The Amazing Transparent Man (1960)

hyped garbage

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Unusual blend of crime drama and science fiction. Not a bad premise: a escaped (actually kidnapped) con becomes a guinea pig for a old-world doctor's radiation-fueled invisibility experiments. The pacing is pretty good. The main setting, a dilapidated Victorian somewhere in the sticks of the Southwest, adds a creepy dose of isolation.Given the early Cold War's obsession with anything atomic, it's not hard to suspend disbelief as Dr. Ulof (Ivan Triesault) uses stolen radium to change an actual guinea pig, then Douglas Kennedy's Faust into a ghost-like invisible state. What's ludicrous is James Griffith's Major as the psychopathic criminal mastermind. Ulof looks nutty enough to fill both roles. The Major, who's about as military-looking as Anthony Perkins, just gets in the way. He's sort of a desk-job criminal trying too hard to act tough.At least Faust makes a fairly convincing criminal, although his swagger is a couple of pay-grades above his character. I assumed that the Major, whether he's fantasizing about his invisible army, or just out for some quick scores, would focus on using Faust to rob banks. After all, he needs money to finance whatever he's up to. Strangely, though, the robbery that occurs is Faust's idea. It might've been better to stay with the crime theme. In this low-budget territory, there clearly wouldn't be enough guys on the payroll to show an actual 'army,' not to mention the tons of special effects necessary to have some kind of invisible battle scene.The robbery is the best part of the movie. It's well-edited, convincing, even funny. The bag of money floating towards the exit is a great bit. Another good special-effect shows Faust becoming visible, making what seemed an easy heist suddenly problematic. Invisibility isn't a miracle; it's contingent, even dangerous. There's a bit of tragedy when Faust realizes that he will die from radiation.This is a rare instance in 50s-60s sci-fi when the authorities don't waste time denigrating and denying the problem. They don't assume there's a hoax, so they react appropriately. I wish the main characters were more sensibThe main problem with The Amazing Transparent Man is awful acting. I can't see what either Marguerite Chapman or the Julian character add to the movie. As noted in other reviews, Chapman's Laura is an airhead. She'll go along with the last person she talked to, or the one yelling the loudest. Julian is even dumber, and really has nothing to do. Griffith's role isn't interesting enough for him to warrant a side-kick. On the other hand, Ulof's daughter might've been given a bigger role.She could've taken Laura's place and still played Ulof's daughter. As someone has said, why doesn't Ulof make himself invisible and rescue his daughter? Then he does the same to her, he sabotages the equipment, and they both just split. The ending is pretty wild: the fight in the lab leads to the predictable explosion, with a mushroom cloud to top it off.There's some good stuff here, but The Amazing Transparent Man is just too dull between the bright spots.

Here's a scheme that could have done with just a little more thought: help professional safe-cracker Joey Faust (Douglas Kennedy) to bust out of prison, force desperate scientist Dr. Peter Ulof (Ivan Triesault) to turn the thief invisible, and then send him to steal enough radium to create an entire army of undetectable soldiers. This is the crazy plot hatched by Maj. Paul Krenner (James Griffith) which, unsurprisingly, doesn't go according to plan. Hardly the most reliable of chaps, career criminal Faust has his own ideas once he vanishes from sight, robbing banks with the aid of Krenner's sidekick Laura Matson (Marguerite Chapman).At not even an hour long, this low-budget early-'60s sci-fi/gangster B-movie doesn't really have time to drag, and consequently proves rather entertaining for the duration, with some decent performances from the largely unknown cast, a few enjoyable bargain-basement special effects, and a big dose of goofiness (the radium heist and a bank job where Faust becomes visible as he leaves are the film's highlights). The Invisible Man it most certainly isn't, but as a painless way to waste 58 minutes, The Amazing Transparent Man does very nicely (and is better than its current IMDb rating of 3.8 suggests).5.5 out of 10, rounded up to six for ending with an atomic blast!

Netflix did the honor of suggesting I would like this 'Gem" based on my recently watching The Invisible Man - With Claude Rains which was made in 1933 - I was eager to see this to see what was going to be different or new in the last 27 years of Hollywood special effects. My favorite effect was when Faust said "I'll have to jump out" and the car shakes - so they don't have to worry about the car door opening. I know someone might say that the door opening would look suspicious - well so would a bouncing car ! I thought the best use of something turning invisible was the guinea pig -and I thought the whole 9 yards of flipping all the switches each and every time they turned him invisible was just about snore worthy. The People who say this is a fun romp of b-rated movies from the time, really must not have seen a lot of movies from the time. the music is generic. the sets are boring. the actors are wooden. and the first 45 mins of the hour long movie is the set up. which happens very slowly. in short, I am left to wonder if this movie was just as terrible when it was first shown at drive ins or if I just expect more due to the mass amounts of movies / shows (since its only an hour) today. Honestly I would believe it if I was told this movie is the reason drive ins started to die off.

A crazed scientist (Ivan Trisault) invents an invisibility formula. An Army major (James Griffith) plans to use the formula to create an army of invisible zombies.Does this film rip off "The Invisible Man"? To some degree, of course. There is no possible way the creators did not know about that earlier film. But it goes its own way, too -- for one thing, the transparent man is not invisible from the beginning.The only person I know attached to this film is the makeup artist, Jack Pierce. That may explain why people have rated it so incredibly low. I am sure the cast was known in their day, but they are not known to me, and the fact this comes from a defunct movie studio suggests a lot. Director Edgar G. Ulmer is a legend in his own way, perhaps ironically.I appreciate that a guinea pig is used as a guinea pig, but beyond that, I do not know what to say. Even with its very short run time, it does not move quick enough in some scenes. The special effects -- which made "Invisible Man" a classic a few decades earlier -- are not nearly as good here. Perhaps author David Wingrove summed it up best when he said, "Its cheap-budget origins show throughout. Amazing claims too much for what is essentially a thriller involving an escaped criminal..."