Monster of the Day #19

Updated on May 3, 2010 By Ken Begg 17 Comments

“Power, I said! Power to walk into the gold vaults of the nations, into the secrets of kings, into the Holy of Holies; power to make multitudes run squealing in terror at the touch of my little invisible finger. Even the moon’s frightened of me, frightened to death!“

Pin It



Related Posts

  • I have a few nitpicks about this one. He’s not really a monster. He’s just a guy who turns invisible and goes nuts. Yes, he does some terrible things, but he’s still a human.

    Also, (and I think Isaac Asimov said this) that if you really were invisible like him, you would be blind. Light would pass right through your photo-receptors.

    Its still a great movie though, and Claude Raines did a bang up job despite not showing his face until the very last scene.

  • Reed

    Is this really the first monster that has brought up the topic of “what is a monster”?

    How non-human does something have to be to become a monster? For me once you take a person, take away their human characteristics, and then have them do horrible things they are a monster. I would put him in the same category as the Wolf Man.

  • Ericb

    He’s more of a monster than Irwin Allen’s giant carrot man.

  • I certainly invite these discussion; that’s sort of the point of doing this. (And I have to say, I’ve been more than happy with the results.) Actually, I thought I’d get disputes on Kronos, but everyone seemed cool with it. Again, the basis for my picks is “whatever my ten year old self would have thought of as a monster.” So if you had problems with this, wait until Quasimodo makes the scene someday. That said, the Invisible Man appears in most books on Universal Monsters, so clearly I’m not the only one to consider him such.

  • The Rev. D.D.

    He may not be a monster in most traditional ways, but his actions certainly are monstrous. Doesn’t he wreck a passenger train in the first movie?

  • Yes! In fact, the Invisible Man (just this one) probably kills more people than all of the other Universals, except, maybe, Dracula, given that he was alive for 500 years.

  • KeithB

    Are we counting natives? How many sacrifices did King Kong and his ancestor’s get? And didn’t some number of folks get killed by the Creature from the Black Lagoon over the years?

  • Ouch! I meant to write, “all of the other Universals.” Corrected, and thanks.

  • Luke Blanchard

    I get the impression he was seen as a “monster” at the time. He makes a cameo appearance at the end of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

  • Indeed he does; in the melodious, plummy tones of Vincent Price.

  • Rock Baker

    I’m going to say yes, Griffin IS a monster. But I consider the psychos played by Robert Mitchum and Johnny Cash to be monsters, so an Invisible Psycho is most definetley a monster!

  • Oh, yes, Max Cady and Harry Powell are definitely monsters. (Probably not to my ten year old self, however.)

  • Rock Baker

    That’s a great quote you picked, by the way.

    Is this shot from the first film? Or the Invisible Man Returns? (I hadn’t realized how long its been since I watched The Invisible man, and I’ve not seen Returns) I seem to associate the wrap around glasses and the dark smoking jacket with the sequel (from seeing photos in FM), or am I confused?

  • Yeah, that’s Rains in the original movie. When he first appears at the inn, I think he’s more wearing goggles. This is when he’s staying at his friend’s house later in the movie.

  • Rock Baker

    Ah! Okay, thanks! I guess I remembered it wrong and thought he wore the goggles for the whole film.

  • PB210

    The novel explained that the process leaves some of the eye visible to absorb light, but so little that people seeing it will think they have an infection in their own eye or cataracts.

    http://jabootu.net/?p=2930
    Scroll down for a more extensive discussion of who Jeff Rovin designated as a monster and who he designated as a super-villain.

  • JOHN

    It kind of looks like he’s flipping us off.