Jun 061942
 
two reels

The grandson of the original Invisible Man, Frank Raymond (Jon Hall), has kept the invisibility serum secret until the attack on Pearl Harbor.  He becomes a new invisible man, spying for the U.S.A.  While on a mission in Germany, he romances Maria Sorenson (Ilona Massey) and foils the plans of Conrad Stauffer (Cedric Hardwicke), Karl Heiser (J. Edward Bromberg), and Baron Ikito (Peter Lorre).

A piece of pro-America, wartime propaganda, The Invisible Agent has everything you’d expect: a plucky American hero who speaks about freedom whenever he isn’t wowing the girl and fooling the enemy, noble allied commanders, evil and bumbling Nazis, and cold, calculating Japanese.

Unlike the third film in the “invisible series,” The Invisible Woman, this film is tied to the original, with the grandson of the scientist in the first film acting as keeper of the drug. The serum is supposedly the same, but it no longer causes insanity (you can’t have your red, white, and blue champion going nuts when saving the world). Nor does he feel the need to hide for a time after eating to hide undigested, so visible, food.

With an uneasy mix of comedy and espionage, Frank heads to Germany where he should be nearly invulnerable, but instead gives away his location at every opportunity by playing silly pranks. I’m sure his dropping a Nazi’s dinner in his lap is supposed to be hilarious, but instead it just makes Frank out to be feebleminded. He puts the girl in danger and risks his mission for a few stunts.

The bumbling Nazi jokes aren’t funny, but aren’t embarrassing. Bromberg does the silly villain bit well, (he played Don Luis Quintero in The Mark of Zorro) but he feels no more like a German than the very British Hardwicke. Stranger is the casting of Peter Lorre as Baron Ikito. Wearing only small round glasses to imply his Japanese nature, I must assume he comes from the Eastern European part of Japan. As for his character, when did the Japanese have barons as part of their feudal system? I was waiting for the next logical step, when Sultan Hitler would show up.

Although the comedy falls flat, once the film finally becomes a war thriller, it delivers. There’s a bit of real tension and some pulp influenced action.

And you have to enjoy any film that has Peter Lorre saying “Occidental decay is nowhere more apparent than in that childish sentimentality of white men for their women.” Yup.

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