Some (invisible) men just want to watch the world burn.
With the 1923 release of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Universal Studios began its reign as the leading purveyor of horror cinema, soon thereafter introducing a roster of movie monsters that will forever be the most iconic of all time. Some of the characters were wholly original creations while others were based on earlier literature, but there’s no denying that none of them would exist, as we know them today, if not for Universal bringing them to life on the silver screen. The Universal Monsters, it goes without saying, paved the way for all horror movie monsters we’ve seen since.
If there’s any commonality that links the majority of the Universal Monsters it’s that they are, at the end of the day, tragic figures. Quasimodo, the Phantom, Imhotep, Frankenstein’s monster, the Creature, and Larry Talbot can all be considered reluctant monsters, and one could argue that even Dracula, though decidedly more sinister than the others, does what he does because he has to do it in order to survive. Universal’s monsters were often cursed by forces beyond their control, their terrifying outward appearances masking the sadness and sympathetic humanity that lie just underneath the scary exteriors.
But not all of the Universal Monsters were created equal.
After helming Frankenstein and before giving it a sequel with The Bride of Frankenstein, director James Whale introduced The Invisible Man in 1933, based on H.G. Wells’ same-named novel from decades prior. The oddball horror-comedy, most notable for its groundbreaking special effects, centers on Dr. Jack Griffin, a chemist whose dangerous experiments with a drug called monocane have resulted in him literally becoming invisible. Though he at first sets out to find a cure, he soon realizes that his newly-acquired superpower makes life a whole lot more enjoyable.
Being bad? Turns out it feels pretty damn good.
There’s of course something inherently tragic about an experiment going wrong and transforming an ordinary man into a mad monster, but when it comes to Jack Griffin, he’s not exactly a tragic figure. As portrayed by a then-unknown Claude Rains, the titular Invisible Man is a maniacal sociopath who relishes being evil and doing terrible things, laughing wildly as he derails a passenger train, pushes over a baby carriage, and just generally wreaks havoc on a world that he feels jilted by. He’s simultaneously the most human and most monstrous of the Universal Monsters, racking up the highest body count of them all and, unlike the others, thoroughly enjoying the “curse” he’s been saddled with.
“An invisible man can rule the world,” Griffin excitedly exclaims. “Nobody will see him come, nobody will see him go. He can hear every secret. He can rob, and rape, and kill!”
Thanks to Rains’ brilliantly unhinged performance, the invisible Jack Griffin is without question the most flamboyant monster in Universal’s stable, and watching the film today, it’s hard not to view the character as the prototype for a whole new breed of movie villain that came in the wake of Universal’s “golden age.” Cracking wise, singing, dancing, and deriving such a sick sense of pleasure from killing that you can’t help but be entertained by his particular brand of evil, the Invisible Man was the first monster to fully embrace being a monster, and it’s this character trait that made the 1933 film quite a few years ahead of its time.
Villains in modern cinema are often the most charismatic characters in their respective movies, and in that realm, the Invisible Man predates fan-favorite icons like Freddy Krueger and Captain Spaulding by so many years that their origins can at least be loosely traced back to the path Whale and Rains carved way back in the early ’30s. Even Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker, as many fans have noted, seems to have been informed by the gleeful sense of killing-for-the-fun-of-it that made the Invisible Man such a different and unique villain in the Universal Monsters oeuvre.
At a time when movie monsters were reserved and downright reluctant to be, well, monsters, Jack Griffin’s comically over-the-top approach to villainy must’ve been a breath of fresh air when the film came out, and it feels right at home with today’s crop of wicked evil-doers. Whale broke the mold, and he did it in such a way that makes The Invisible Man a classic horror movie that feels surprisingly modern when watched in the present day, well over 80 years after its initial release.
If there’s one Universal monster movie that demands a revisit, it may be this one.
