Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951 film)

***Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man*** is a 1951 American science fiction comedy film directed by Charles Lamont and starring the team of Abbott and Costello alongside Nancy Guild.

## Plot

Lou Francis (Lou Costello) and Bud Alexander (Bud Abbott) have just graduated from a private detective school. Tommy Nelson (Arthur Franz), a middleweight boxer, comes to them with their first case. Tommy recently escaped from jail after being accused of murdering his manager, and asks the duo to accompany him on a visit to his fiancée, Helen Gray (Nancy Guild). He wants her uncle, Dr. Philip Gray (Gavin Muir), to inject him with a special serum which will render Tommy invisible, and hopes to use the newfound invisibility to investigate his manager's murder and prove his innocence. Dr. Gray adamantly refuses, arguing that the serum is still unstable, recalling that the formula's discoverer, Jack Griffin, was driven insane by the formula and did not become visible again until after he was killed. However, as the police arrive Tommy injects himself with it and successfully becomes invisible. Detective Roberts (William Frawley) questions Dr. Gray and Helen while Bud and Lou search for Tommy.

Helen and Tommy convince Bud and Lou to help them seek the real killer, after Tommy explains that the motive for the murder occurred after he refused to "throw" a fight, knocking his opponent, Rocky Hanlon (John Day), out cold. Morgan (Sheldon Leonard), the promoter who fixed the fight, ordered Tommy's manager beaten to death while framing Tommy for the crime. In order to investigate undercover, Lou poses as a boxer, with Bud as his manager. They go to Stillwell's gym, where Lou gets in the ring with Rocky. Tommy, still invisible, gets into the ring with them and again knocks out Hanlon, making it look like Lou did it, and an official match is arranged. Morgan urges Lou to throw the fight, but when the match occurs (with the aid of an invisible Tommy), Hanlon is knocked out yet again. Morgan plans Bud's murder, but is thwarted by Tommy, who is wounded in the battle and begins to bleed badly. The protagonists rush to the hospital where a blood transfusion is arranged between Lou and Tommy. During the transfusion Tommy becomes visible again – some of Tommy's blood has apparently entered Lou, who briefly turns invisible, only to reappear with his legs inexplicably on backwards.

## Cast

* Bud Abbott   as   Bud Alexander
* Lou Costello   as   Lou Francis
* Arthur Franz   as   Tommy Nelson / The Invisible Man
* Gavin Muir   as   Dr. Philip Gray
* Sam Balter   as   Radio announcer
* John Daheim   as   Rocky Hanlon

## Production

*Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man* was filmed between October 3 and November 6, 1950. The character names of "Bud Alexander" and "Lou Francis" are Abbott and Costello's real first and middle names.

The special effects, which depicted invisibility and other optical illusions, were created by Stanley Horsley, son of cinema pioneer David Horsley. He also did the special effects for *The Invisible Man Returns*, *The Invisible Woman* and *Invisible Agent*.

As a reference to the first *Invisible Man* film, a photo of the serum's inventor, Dr. John "Jack" Griffin which is actually a picture of Claude Rains, who played the role in Universal's first *Invisible Man* film in 1933.

When asked by a reporter whom he has fought in the past, Lou answers, "Chuck Lamont, Bud Grant." The film's director and screenwriter, respectively, are Charles Lamont and John Grant.

## Release

### Home media

This film has been released several times on DVD. First on *The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume Three*, on August 3, 2004, and again on October 28, 2008 as part of *Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection*. Later, the film was included in the 3-disc *The Invisible Man: The Complete Legacy Collection* and the 21-disc *Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection* both released on September 2, 2014. It was released on Blu-ray on August 28, 2018.

## References

This is a list of references for **Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951 film)**. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

1. ↑ https://letterboxd.com/film/abbott-and-costello-meet-the-invisible-man/details/
2. ↑ https://letterboxd.com/film/abbott-and-costello-meet-the-invisible-man/crew/
3. ↑ https://letterboxd.com/film/abbott-and-costello-meet-the-invisible-man/

## Gallery

Main article: Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951 film)/Gallery

**Japanese**
**Invisible Man Appears* (1949) · *The Invisible Man vs. The Human Fly* · *The Invisible Avenger* (1954) · *Invisible Man: Rape!* · Oh! Invisible Man · *Oh! Invisible Man – Invisible Girl Appears!?* · *Invisible Demon* · *The Invisible Swordsman* ·*
**Other**
*Invisible Avenger* · *Invisible Invader* · *Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare* · *Yokai Monsters: Along With Ghosts* · *Kujira Gami* · *Memoirs of an Invisible Man* · *The Invisible Man* (1984) · *The Invisible Man* (1977) · *Dr. Jekyll Meets the Invisible Man* (1977) · *The Human Vapor* · *The Secret of the Telegian* · *The H-Man* · *The Fly* (1958) · *The Invisible Woman* (1969) · *The Amazing Transparent Man* · *Fear the Invisible Man* · *The Invisible Witness* · *The Invisible Man* (2016) · *The Invisible Maniac* · *The Invisible Man* (2017) · *The Invisible Man* (2018) · *Invisible Man* (2018) · *Mad Monster Party* (1967) · *Strangler of the Swamp* · *The Invisible Man Attacks* · *The Incredible Shrinking Man* · *The Astral Factor* · *Attack of the 50 Foot Woman*