The Invisible Woman

The notion that The Invisible Man series' popularity is due to an innate fascination with nudity bears the most fruit with The Invisible Woman, released in 1940. It has nothing to due with H.G. Wells' story, and is an outright comedy that was the only way, in 1940, for a woman to be nude on screen.

Virginia Bruce is the title character, a model who works for a horrible boss (Charles Lane, a venerable character actor who died only recently at over 100 years of age). She sees an ad in the paper: "Person wanted to become invisible. No remuneration." She answers it, looking for adventure.

The placer of the ad is an archetypal absent-minded professor, played by John Barrymore. He is sponsored by a rich playboy, John Howard, who has squandered his fortune on settling lawsuits with his various woman conquests. He is about to shut down the house when Barrymore tells him he has a million dollar idea.

The invisibility stuff leads to slapstick, as when Bruce visits Lane and scares him into being nice to the models. There's also a subplot involving crooks who wish to steal Barrymore's machine. They are to bring the thing to Mexico, where their boss (Oscar Homolka) wishes to use it so he can visit his home country (I guess he's wanted there, or something). There's comedy there, as one of the crooks is erstwhile stooge Shemp Howard. Adding to the slapstick comedy is Charlie Ruggles, as Howard's frequently put upon butler, who does some spectacular pratfalls. Also in the cast is Margaret Hamilton as Barrymore's housekeeper.

Romance enters the picture when Howard falls for Bruce, and can't wait to see what she looks like.

The Invisible Woman, written by Joe May and Curt Siodmak and directed by A. Edward Sutherland, is a harmless entertainment that was the kind of thing that was prevalent in the '40s. Years later an invisible woman would be played by Jessica Alba in The Fantastic 4 movies, but there is more sexual innuendo in this film than there would be sixty years later.