Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man

Infobox Film
name = Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man


caption = "Abbot and Costello Meet the Invisible Man" Theatrical Poster
director = Charles Lamont
producer = Howard Christie
writer = Frederic I. Rinaldo
John Grant
Robert Lees
Hugh Wedlock Jr
Howard Snyder
starring =Bud Abbott
Lou Costello
Nancy Guild
Arthur Franz
music = Erich Zeisl
cinematography = George Robinson
editing = Virgil Vogel
distributor = Universal Pictures
released = March 19, 1951
runtime = 82 min.
language = English
budget = $697,000
country = United States
preceded_by = "Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion" (1950)
followed_by = "Comin' Round The Mountain" (1951)
imdb_id = 0043255

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.

It was released on DVD on August 3, 2004.

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 prove 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 character names of Abbott and Costello are Bud and Lou's real first and middle names.

Trivia

*Abbott and Costello crossed cinematic paths with the Invisible Man prior to this movie. In the final scene of 1948's "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein", Vincent Price, who played the invisible man in "The Invisible Man Returns", can be heard in a cameo appearance as the character.
*After filming was completed, Abbott and Costello made the first of nineteen appearances on "The Colgate Comedy Hour".
*William Frawley, several months away from starring in the television series, "I Love Lucy", previously appeared with Abbott and Costello in their first film, "One Night in the Tropics".
*It can be noticed that when the invisibility serum is first introduced, the doctor references John Griffin as the creator and behind him is displayed a picture of Claude Rains, both references to the original Invisible Man movie of 1933.

pecial Effects

The impressive special effects for this film, which depicted invisibility and other optical illusions, were created by David Horsley, who also did the special effects for "The Invisible Man Returns", "The Invisible Woman" and "Invisible Agent".

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 Boots 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

DVD Release

External links

*imdb title|id=0043255|name=Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man