31 Days of Horror Reviews 2018: Invisible Agent

Invisible Agent is a wartime propaganda film made as a way to boost morale of the American people during World War 2. It dropped the horror aspect like what was done in The Invisible Woman, however unlike The Invisible Woman this was mixed more with the espionage genre.

REVIEW

Frank Griffin Jr., grandson of the original Invisible Man, volunteers for an Allied spy mission in Nazi Germany, using his grandfather’s formula in order to get the list of German and Japanese spies in the U.S. That’s it! That’s the entire film, there’s really nothing more.

While it does lack in plot, it is pretty entertaining. The acting is very well done, but the villains are more interesting than the protagonists in this one. Sir Cedric Hardwicke from The Invisible Man Returns comes back and acts alongside Peter Lorre and they both give intimidating performances and the way they’re written makes them more memorable. I think the reason why Griffin isn’t very interesting is because he never develops the same delusions his grandfather or Radcliffe did. He’s written in a way that I think so he can appeal to everyone.

The visual effects which usually got better with each film vary in quality from time to time. In some parts, Griffin switches from semi-invisible to completely invisible in the same scene. At other points you can see the wires lifting and pulling the objects. Now on the flip side, they’re really impressive like Griffin’s German contact hands him a cup of coffee and it floats when he grabs it all in the same shot. Another is seeing the soapy outlines of Griffin’s legs and arms, something that was never done in the previous films.

The most obvious goof in the movie is saying that Frank Griffin Sr. invented the formula. It was really Jack Griffin who invented the formula, Frank Griffin was his brother and didn’t appear until the sequel.

There’s really not much to talk about this film. If you’re a fan of espionage films, then this is for you, but if you’re looking for something with more substance, it’s not in this one.