A KOOKY PROFESSOR AN INVISIBLE WOMAN AND SHEMP! A VERY GOOD COMEDY!
With so many Invisible Man films in Universal's stable, I'm glad they played this one for laughs. I really don't remember seeing this one when I was growing up but, it is well worth seeing for fans of Universal Monsters. The cast is very good and the FX are more than fair for the time. This is available on DVD as part of the Invisible Man Legacy Collection along with 4 other great films that deal with invisiblity. The DVD transfers are very good and there are some very interesting extras. Look for Shemp Howard from the Three Stooges as one of the henchmen.

Light And Breezy Gender Twist On The Old "Invisible" Story
In a big departure from the other Universal Studios "Invisible" movies "The Invisible Woman", is played strictly for light hearted laughs and not intended to be taken too seriously. The film benefits however from some good comic writing and jokes that are laced with reasonably daring sexual inuendos for 1940. Of course with a film based around people being turned invisible one can expect the use of a certain amount of special effects and usually in such "B", efforts as this you might expect them to be fairly second rate. However even for the early 40's those created for the various invisible sequences in "The Invisible Woman", are first rate and on top of being quite impressive in their own right also greatly aid the comedy in the script. The film boasts a surprisingly illustrious cast for such an effort and the likes of the legendary John Barrymore playing a crazy madcap scientist, Margaret Hamilton fresh from her triumph as the wicked witch in "The Wizard of Oz", and Charles Ruggles at his most exaggerated best all greatly enhance the entertainment level of this rather trite story. As the invisible woman of the title Virginia Bruce makes an enjoyable female lead and her breezy delivery both when she is visible and when only her voice is heard is most pleasing.

As the story opens we see playboy Richard Russell being sued by yet another ex girlfriend which leaves him penniless. One of the "charitable cases", living off his formerly rich bounty is eccentric scientist Professor Gibbs (John Barrymore), who is what you would call the original crazy mad scientist. He labours away in his lab on one mad cap scheme after another until he stumbles on the process by which he can make people invisible. Desperate to try it out on a human being Prof. Gibbs decides to advertise for volunteer. Meanwhile we are introduced to model Kitty Carroll who works in a fashion house run by the tyrannical Mr Growley (Charles Lane). Sick of his harrassment of all the models Kitty decides to answer the ad asking for someone to become invisible. Her plan is then to return to the fashion house and scare the daylights out of her bossy employer. After she meets up with the professor and with the use of his brilliant machine Kitty turns invisible and then escapes from the professor's lab and proceeds to wreak well deserved havoc at Mr Growleys establishment. However all is not plain sailing for the Professor as gangster Blackie Cole (Oskar Homolka),a wanted man, hears of his dramatic breakthrough in making people invisible and decides that with the aid of his henchmen he will steal the device so he can return to his mother country. His "boys", including "Foghorn" (Donald MacBride), and "Hammerhead" (Shemp Howard), break into the lab and steal the device however a vital part is missing which means they must kidnap the Professor as well. After many comic highjinks which sorely try the sanity of worry wart George (Charles Ruggles) the Russell family butler, Kitty by once again going invisible manages to beat the crooks at their own game with some amusing distortions of the gangsters voices thrown in for good measure. All ends happily with former antagonists Kitty and Richard happily married with a young child which suddenly begins to turn invisible much to Prof. Gibbs' delight as he rejoices "Goodness, it must be hereditory"!!

While certainly no masterpiece "The Invisible Woman",is no where near as mediocre as one would first think. It is most pleasing to see John Barrymore with only one more role left in his brilliant film career after "The Invisible Woman", finish with such a comical and delightfully scatty type of character to play. The roles craziness even has shades of the frantically funny performance he gave in the classic comedy "Midnight", in 1939. His supremely funny facial reactions to situations and especially his reactions to when Kitty goes invisible and removes her clothing so as not to be seen are priceless and you can see Barrymore is having a ball sending up to the hilt every other eccentric mad scientist that have appeared in movies. As stated Virginia Bruce, generally a "B", movie actress does well in the lead and excels with her sprightly and funny line delivery in particular when she is invisible. Supporting performances are certainly higher than would usually be expected in this type of film. Charles Ruggles had the "double take", reaction he was justly famous for down to perfection by the time of this effort and his continual threats to quit his job in this story are highly amusing. The gangsters are all an amusingly incompetent lot and its interesting to see Shemp Howard minus his "Three Stooges", brothers in this effort. The special effects were rightly nominated for the Academy Award in 1940 and the image of an invisible Kitty taking a dress off or smoking a cigarette while pouring drinks are certainly one of the main achievements in this story. The invisible scenes are smoothly executed and look highly professional and it even seems that Universal have taken a few more risks with their special effects here than they had done in their earlier classic effort "The Invisible Man", with Claude Rains.

A "guilty pleasure",? Perhaps, but one that I enjoy for 80 minutes of good natured harmless fun. John Barrymore even here when he was not far off his sad death still works wonders with his material and reveals what a brilliant actor he always was in both comedy and drama. The production has a delighfully innocent air about it which makes the sexual puns sprinkled throughout the script all the more funny. With its superb collection of supporting players "The Invisible Woman", is a far better effort than it is normally credited as being. Appreciating its solid special effects I recommend a viewing of this second installment in Universal Studios "Invisible", series. Its definately good for a number of hearty chuckles.

Great movie.
I just enjoyed this movie.I know "The Invisible Man" was meant to be frighting.But "The Invisible Woman" is just a lighthearted film with a good cast,and still great special effects that still holds up to this day.This movie is a great one to revive,I hope they do it soon.Till then,the 1941 "Invisible Woman" will do.

Strictly for the Kids
1941's THE INVISIBLE WOMAN hardly qualifies as a sequel to 1933's THE INVISIBLE MAN. It is strictly a lighthearted romp that is marginally entertaining as Kitty Carroll (Virginia Bruce) answers an advertisement for invisibility volunteers by the absentminded Professor Gibbs (John Barrymore). Some bad guys want to get hold of the secret and the results are predictable. Leading man John Howard is good but he is not given sufficient screen time to be effective. Charlie Ruggles as George his manservant grows unusually tiresome by the film's conclusion. However, there are enough amusing scenes and effects to keep younger viewers entertained. The one highlight is when an invisible Virginia Bruce pays a visit on her old boss.

for a fun afternoon!
In a wonderful twist to the serial movies "Invisible man" series we have a female heroine, way ahead of its time and a real treat. You can watch all the "Invisible" movies on a Sunday afternoon one after the other and its quite a show. Don't forget the popcorn!