I'm back with another Abbott and Costello movie, because the black and white aesthetic and the spooky monster themes are so perfect for Blogtober.
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello made 36 movies overall, often spoofing already-popular themes like here with The Invisible Man, the novel by H. G. Wells.
They made this one in 1951 and it's always a really lovely experience for me to see the style of the late 40s and early 50s, the things in the shops and especially the phone calls, which were put through by a switchboard operator physically connecting a line.
Abbot and Costello always start out in some sort of average role, usually recently out of or in between jobs and looking for work. This time they've just graduated from detective school and they're looking for a case.
They get a case from Tommy Nelson, who they learn from overhearing the police scanner is a boxer currently on the run and, if they believe his story, being framed for murdering his manager. He asks them for a ride to his girlfriend's uncle's house and laboratory, where as a method of getting away from the police he's made the bizarre choice to be injected with an invisibility serum that the mad scientist uncle has been developing.
However the uncle has some sense and is hesitant about using the serum, because it has a history of turning the user insane- either due to the compound itself or likely the dysphoria of not having a visible body. But there's no time for common sense, the police have arrived and Tommy makes the choice to inject himself, gradually fading to invisibility and stripping naked, leaving Lou in the room to explain to the police what has happened. I chuckled when they asked him how Tommy got away, and he answers "In installments."
Part of the duo's bit is that Bud is always made out to be the smart one, and acts like he is, but it's often Lou that catches on first and it's a groan to see him try to explain what's happening to a stubborn and disbelieving Abbot.
Their detective work has gotten them tied up with Tommy Nelson, now the Invisible Man, and they agree to help him prove his innocence and catch the real killers- the managers of his boxing rival Rocky, who had arranged for Tommy to throw the fight and killed his manager when it didn't go according to plan. Lou joins Tommy's gym as Louie the Looper and throws fake punches while Tommy stands behind him and invisibly throws real ones.
What's fun to see are the early SFX that's used to show clothes moving around seemingly without a body, and to make a cigar float through the air, but also this comically bad "hidden" recording device.
There are some head-scratching moments, though. The inspector comes by when Tommy is in a robe, and instead of removing it they cover him with a sheet. Another time, Lou pulls the trigger on a bad guy but ends up shooting water out of his pistol, but then the second time he squeezes he fires off a real bullet. It's some slapstick comedy I guess, but outside of invisibility it's definitely one of the farther reaches they make.
Anyway, they concoct a plan to catch the bad guys by having Lou fight Tommy's old opponent, Rocky. They do, and the same guys try to fix the fight as before, only this time Tommy will be invisible and he'll be fighting for Lou. Or at least, that's what he promises them. But as the fight approaches he becomes more and more difficult. His firecracker personality and possibly boxing CTE make him do some risky things that get them strange looks in public and the eye of the Inspector on them.
Fight night comes, and while they begin the night not knowing if Lou will end up facing Rocky alone in the end, Tommy does show up in the end (You'll see what I did there, and there..). The fight isn't thrown and Rocky's shady managers do show up for Bud and Lou but our heroes are saved by Tommy, who gets injured but is saved by a quick blood transfusion from Lou and an injection that reverses the effect of the invisibility. Aaaaaaand that's where I stopped being able to enjoy the movie.
I'll note here that obviously public perception of non-consensual physical contact was different when this movie came out. I understand that. I can enjoy the inventiveness and cartoon physics in Tom & Jerry while also being aware that the depictions of Mammy, the African-American housemaid look like something you would find in your grandma's attic and convince her to get rid of. But it still makes my skin crawl and these days it's not a bad thing.
There's a lot of controversy over the appearance of sexual assault in TV & film because of how uncomfortable and triggering of a subject it is. But it's also real life. If you want to read it from someone who puts it better, Kirsty at Through the Looking Glass put it super well and you can find all that here.
So, at the end of the movie, Lou starts to go a little invisible because he received a little of Tommy's blood during the transfusion. I'm no doctor so I can't say if that's supposed to happen but it sure sounds messed up. Lou takes off with Bud chasing after, yelling about becoming the best detective. Naked, he hops into an elevator full of nurses and gropes them all during the ride downstairs, where he flees the elevator and leaves Bud to deal with the angry, slapping nurses.
He's about to leave the hospital when he realizes he hasn't made the most of his invisibility around unsuspecting nurses yet, and grabs one to make out with. But the invisibility starts to wear off and the nurse opens her eyes to see a naked Lou grabbing her and kisses her, so she screams and hits him, because when he's visible is where it's creepy. She runs off and Lou is in the process of covering up his crotch with a towel when he realizes his feet have been put on backwards, making the blood transfusion even more questionable. He runs away in the wrong direction, and that's the whole weird, uncomfortable end.
I'm off to go find a bigger grain of salt to take this with, see you tomorrow.
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