The Invisible Monster Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

The Invisible Monster Blu-ray Movie Review

Where's Donald Trump's wall when you really need it?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 30, 2015

There’s an almost sweet naivete informing much of The Invisible Monster, a Republic Serial from 1950 that posits a goofy “megamind” of sorts who has created an invisibility cloak and who has recruited a bunch of (wait for it) illegal aliens to do his dirty work in preparation for his planned takeover of the world. Occasionally at least a little forward thinking (hey, there’s a woman investigator who actually gets to shoot a gun!), the serial is often unintentionally hilarious, especially with regard to the whole invisibility angle, which requires archvillain The Phantom Ruler (Stanley Price) to not only clothe himself in what for all the world resembles a black hijab or burka, but to also cart around a huge follow spot whose light actually activates the invisibility. The fact that there’s typically a henchman operating this gigantic arc light in proximity to wherever the criminal activity is happening never really seems to rise to the level of awareness for any of the good guys (or gal), at least initially. The Phantom Ruler, whose acolytes occasionally shorten his moniker to “PR” when they call him on their nifty CB radios in their cars, has ported over a handful of immigrants, all of whom speak perfect English, arranging for them all to take alter egos which will position them to aid in the Phantom Ruler’s quest for universal domination. Unfortunately, the first job, the robbing of a bank vault, doesn’t go down exactly as good old Phantom Ruler expected, and an insurance investigator named Lane Carson (Richard Webb) is brought on to the case to figure out what’s going on. Lane is teamed with no nonsense Carol Richards (Aline Towne), whose disposition and even look seems to presage Noel Neill’s Lois Lane from the Adventures of Superman television series which would soon be taking the nation by storm (Superman had of course been a serial itself, albeit from Columbia, with Neill as Lois Lane, which may have influenced The Invisible Monster’s heroine).

While The Invisible Monster may have some passing (goofy) pleasures, it’s undercut by its repetitiveness, the “not ready for prime time” feeling of several of the performances, and what amounts to one glaring lapse of logic. That adjective “glaring” is especially a propos, for The Phantom Ruler’s quest for world domination is contingent upon him amassing an army of similarly clad soldiers who will disappear once that magical light is aimed at them. Except—wouldn’t an army require a lot of lights, all manned by completely visible operators? It’s so patently silly that it tends to remove any sense of real tension from The Phantom Ruler’s plot. The whole aspect of the illegal immigrants is also never developed fully enough to really resonate, and the fact that each of the ostensible fifth columnists speaks perfect English makes their ethnicity a moot point anyway. (Speaking of The Adventures of Superman, one of the villains is none other than John Hamilton, who would go on to portray blustery Perry White in the long running George Reeves television series.)

The first chapter of this twelve part serial spends a bit more time than the rest of the episodes, detailing The Phantom Ruler’s plot and introducing the major players. Even here, though, the serial’s tendency to have any given scene devolve into a fist fight begins with the very first sequence. There’s a drinking game to be had in The Invisible Monster. For any inspired aficionados, simply pay attention to how many times two bad guys gang up on hero Lane Carson, and how quickly said hero dispatches them. Though this was evidently done on a shoestring budget, much of the serial’s expenditures must have surely gone to breakaway props, for most of these same fight scenes involve furniture being smashed over the heads and bodies of the various combatants.

The Invisible Monster ping pongs back and forth between its already limited plot mechanics, having The Phantom Ruler gain the upper hand for a moment, only to be brought down to size by Lane, which of course leads to his resurgence, typically for one of the cliffhangers. Even the cliffhangers get to be repetitive, with lots of cars supposedly getting blown up or going over cliffs. For lovers of vintage footage, however, The Invisible Monster provides scads of wonderful location shots around a still largely suburban Los Angeles, one with swaths of undeveloped land that various characters pass through.

The serial does at least have a participating female in the form of Carol Richards, and quite commendably there’s relatively little of the traditional “damsel in distress” machinations, which is not to say they’re completely absent (one cliffhanger ending in fact relies on this hoary trope). There’s also little traditional romantic folderol in this serial, though unfortunately the kind of fun bantering interplay that makes an initial meeting between Carol and Lane relatively amusing is dropped in favor of a straighter countenance from both characters as things progress.

The Invisible Monster Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Invisible Monster is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. There's a relatively variable image quality on display throughout the twelve episodes, even within certain individual episodes, but generally speaking, this is a solid looking transfer that follows Olive's model of a hands off approach to whatever high definition deliverables they received. There's quite a bit of age related wear and tear, including nicks and scratches and occasional reel markers. Minor disparities in sharpness and even grain structure show up when comparing studio shots to some of the location footage. As with many Republic serials, there's quite a bit of stock footage recycled here (including quite a bit from other Republic serials, as a matter of fact), and that dupe footage can look fairly ragged at times.

The Invisible Monster Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Invisible Monster features a surprisingly spry sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track. Dialogue and effects are generally very well rendered, though some of the more bombastic sound effects can be slightly shallow sounding, depriving things like explosions from having really vivid force. Stanley Wilson's brassy score sounds fine, if a trifle bright and brittle at times.

The Invisible Monster Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Invisible Monster features no supplementary material of any kind. The main menu offers choices for Play and Chapters.

The Invisible Monster Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Republic serials were never designed to compete at the Academy Awards, so to speak, but even given certain reasonably lowered expectations, The Invisible Monster is one of the weaker entries in this format which would soon go the way of the dodo. (There's something a little ironic about early 50s' studios pumping out "weekly" fare, when they were all frightened to death by the impact of television.) There are some decent set pieces scattered throughout this serial, but Price makes for a spectacularly silly villain, and the whole plot is so outlandish that there's never really any suspense. Lovers of kitsch may get enough post-modern ironic viewing pleasure out of this to give it a spin, and for those folks, technical merits are good to very good.