Customer Reviews

The Amazing Transparent Man

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This 1960 black-and-white film is sort of a The Invisible Man rip-off, but I'm okay on that criticism in that the two stories aren't all that similar. "The Invisible Man" is clearly the superior film of the pair but this one still has its good points.

The tale here is that an infamous safe-cracker ("Joey Faust," played by Douglas Kennedy) is sprung from prison to become the minion of a criminal mastermind ("Major Paul Krenner," played by James Griffith) who has established an atomic laboratory in a large farmhouse located out in the boondocks. Why does he need an atomic lab? To produce an army of invisible zombies which he plans to sell to the Army!

The lab's venerable old scientist is "Dr. Peter Ulof" (Ivan Triesault), a man working under duress because Krenner holds his young daughter hostage in the lab's closet. Krenner has two other shills, neither of which are all that loyal to him: "Laura Matson" (Marguerite Chapman) and "Julian" (Boyd 'Red' Morgan, who plays the farm watchman, armed with a Winchester .30-30). No one else, including the main cop, is all that significant in the film.

After Faust initially reaches the farm, driven there by Laura in a very cool 1959 Buick convertible, he comes to terms with Krenner after a bit of arguing. Krenner threatens to have him tossed back into the pokey if he doesn't cooperate with his (mad) plan.

Faust takes the tour upstairs with Krenner where Dr. Ulof is introduced along with his new invisibility ray which he demonstrates on a Guinea pig mainly to garner Faust's confidence. Faust is impressed but he sees the device as infinitely more useful in robbing banks while Krenner insists on his stealing atomic material from a government vault. This material is purportedly much more effective, albeit it's also a notably more volatile substance than what Ulof is currently using. The side effects are additionally anticipated to be very hazardous, a fact which is shrewdly withheld from Faust.

Faust goes along with the initial plan, stealing the atomic material right from under the noses of two astonished guards. But after that he sets his own agenda and attempts to draw in his sympathetic peers to help him overcome Krenner.

I can go no further than that without revealing the direction and the ending of the film so I'll stop there.

I thought that the special effects (by Roger George and Howard A. Anderson), the sets, the scenery, the camera work, and the story were all pretty darned impressive, all better than what one typically experiences in this genre of films. The actors weren't too hokey and the action stayed pretty brisk. This was also a nostalgic, Drive-in movie-type film from my own teen years so that plus is a somewhat personal one and a more subjective point.

The biggest shortcoming of this movie for me is that it only runs for 57 minutes, but that was pretty typical for these B-horror and sci-fi flicks. Also, the DVD packaging on this one conveys that the Transparent Man can walk right through walls, which he can't.

This film was produced by Miller Consolidated Pictures (MCP) and was directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. Jack Lewis wrote the original screenplay. The aspect ratio is 1.75:1, essentially full-frame. It's more of a science-fiction entry than a horror film but I guess you could include it under either title.

In summary, I would definitely recommend this budget film for avid fans of the genre(s).

Great Film. I loved the "special effects".

For an older film, this looks great!

Thanks for the fast shipping!

For a movie that was probably made for next to nothing this is really a pretty good crime/sci-fi programmer. Director Edgar Ulmer is famous for making good looking low budget films and this is one of his best.
Douglas Kennedy is bank robbing safe cracker Joey Faust sprung from prison by James Griffith(usually a bad guy in b-Westerns and tv shows of the period)to steal radioactive isotopes. Of course to do this Faust has to become transparent and is subjected to radioactive bombardment himself...talk about Faust selling his soul!
Corny, insane, implausible. Yet it somehow works! The acting is top-notch for this kind of stuff and the direction is sure-handed. It's under an hour and ends in a big explosion!
The ALPHA dvd is very good offering a clear picture at a bargin price. Marguerite (FLIGHT TO MARS) Chapman, Red Morgan (he's in Ulmer's BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER, probably shot around the same time) and Ivan Triesault(the mad scientist here) co-star.
Wonderful, whacky fun, a bit sleezy and well made!

The special effects for the amazing transparent man are delightful to watch. It brings you back to that twilight zone essence.

This is a must watch!

I had very low expectations of this one, but it managed to surprise with me reasonably good acting.

This film features your stock megalomanic somewhere out in the desert, in a Victorian house (naturally), who has plans to take over the world by means of an invisible army. How he wants to get the army to do his bidding is anybody's guess. The megalomanic guy's crew is: a beautiful assistant, the scientist, a guard, and the safe-cracker who they just sprung from prison (he looks and sounds a bit like Humphrey Bogart at times). The madman is blackmailing a scientist (who incidentally used to work for the Third Reich) by holding his daughter hostage.

The prison escape scene when they are stopped by the cops at a road block is hilarious. "Oh your husband has no ID? No problem, m'am, we surely wouldn't want to wake up your intoxicated husband, that would be very rude of us. We'll just go on looking for the escaped convict. Have a nice day. "

There are a few things that don't add up, such as why this sizzling hot lady is working for an evil mastermind out in the countryside? Can't she find a modeling job in the city somewhere? And why does she fall for the thuggish safe-cracker who is never nice to her at all?

As someone else pointed out, the fight scene is truly laughable. It looks like a couple of teenage girls fighting. Also, when the whole place blows up and supposedly takes half the county with it, how does the professor manage to survive even though he was just outside the house at the time?

I loved the 'special effects' of invisibility when the ray starts to wear off. The safe-crackers body appears, then just his head, then his whole body. Embarrassing, especially since he's in the process of robbing a bank.

Okay, I've told you mostly about the funny stuff, but it's really not bad at all. If you're a fan of B-movies, you'll find this one entertaining. And if you don't like it, then you have wasted nothing more than a mere 58 minutes of your time.

We start out with sirens, searchlights, and dogs. Yep Joey Faust (Douglas Kennedy) appropriately named is back from prison. Laura Matson (Marguerite Chapman) sprang him to do the bidding of her employer, the megalomaniac Maj. Paul Krenner. Also captive by the Major is a nuclear scientist Dr. Peter Ulof (Ivan Tries Ault). The Major intends to add the safecracking talents of Faust and the invention of Ulof to accomplish his evil plan.

Will he get away with it or will greed put an end to it?

Does anyone recognize Fair Park, Dallas, Texas, USA in the movie?

Joey Faust (Douglas Kennedy) is busted out of prison by a crazy major named Kenner. Faust is a safe-cracker and Kenner wants to use radiation to turn him invisible.... er, transparent (imagine the possibilities). The major also has plans to create an army of invisible.... I mean transparent soldiers (!) for supposed world domination. With the help of Faust and Dr. Uloff (a German refugee who killed his own wife during concentration camp experiments), Kenner hopes to steal vital fissile material in order to finalize his evil plot. I love mad-science! I drool over radioactive experiments gone wrong! I also like the idea of being invisible (ok, transparent)! I didn't even mention Marguerite "Flight To Mars" Chapman messing with her nylons! Rrrrrrowrrr...

The Amazing Transparent Man is a third-rate cop of the Invisible Man films. An ex-Army major with delusions of grandeur enlists the assistance of a renouned nuclear scientist and a notorious safecracker. His "sinister" plot"? To create an army of invisible soliders to conquer the world. He has the scientist (the only likeable character in the film) perfect an invisibility machine and the safecracker is his first human subject. After becoming invisible, the safecracker steals nuclear matter from a local armory to power the machine. The movie is more tepid melodrama than suspense. The major's scheme predictably begins to unravel, climaxed by a nuclear explosion in the laboratory. The most entertaining sequence is when the invisible safecracker makes a detour to the local bank for some "quick cash". During his heist, he suddenly begins to materialize! Unless you have money to burn, don't buy this title separately. If you must have it, purchased it on value- priced Diamond DVD with the companion feature "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" (which is much more entertaining).

Well the DVD arrived and I jumped to my DVD player in the lounge to watch this. Oh boy.

The player grrred and moaned and then spat the disk out saying there was a read error. Tried it in my portable player and that did not like this. I then placed it into the laptop and desktop PC drives and got more or less the same result.

This disk just did not want to play. More of the fact it looked like a burnt DVD that you make yourself at home. Sorry I have to give this only 1 / 5 fo the fact you can't even play the content on the disk.

James Griffith stars as crazed ex-military officer Paul Krenner who has dreams of world domination whe he forces scientist Peter Ulof played by Ivan Trisquif to do his bidding. Ulof develops the process of invisibility through atomic-radiation in wich Krenner plans to make an army of invisible military force and sell it to the highest bidder. Douglas Kennedy plays Joey Faust a safecracker who has just gotten outta jail and they make him invisble so that he can steal more radium. After he does this things start to take a unexpected turn. Laura played by the beautiful Marguerite Chapman is thrown into the mix. The showdown at the end boosted this up. It was great seeing Griffith and Kennedy duke it out with one another. It's still a hokey movie but an enjoyable one. The Invisible Man & Hollow Man shouldget together with The Amazing Transparent Man and make a 3 invisible men movie extraviganza. I'd watch it. Also starrng Edward Erwin and the adorable Carmel Daniel. Carmel & Marguerite are sexy names