Invisible Ghost is another one from the lovely folks at archive.org. I actually had to leave town for a funeral, but had Invisible Ghost loaded onto the iPad and figured it would be okay to watch - it's relatively short, and (being from 1941) hopefully wouldn't be too disturbing to watch sandwiched between a wake and a funeral. It's kind of weird though, watching a horror movie in those circumstances... I mean, if I'm going to keep up with this movie-a-day business, I'm going to have to do so in less than ideal situations. But Invisible Ghost was a welcome distraction from a pretty heavy night. It went down easy, and while it wasn't great (or really even that scary), I was happy to let my mind wander for an hour or so.
Invisible Ghost a pretty horrible name for this movie though, as there are no ghosts in it, nor anything invisible. It's about a wealthy man named Mr. Kessler (Bela Lugosi), who is torn up about his wife leaving him for another man. He does pretty well in his day to day life, but celebrates their wedding anniversary with a fancy dinner, where he instructs his butler to serve both him and an empty chair for his wife. He also talks to her during the meal... so I guess that's where the "invisible" comes from.
Anyways, there have been a lot of mysterious goings on in the Kessler house... namely, a lot of murders! The police are baffled. But we're not, since the movie pretty much tells us what's going on right away. You see, Mrs. Kessler is actually living in secret on the property! When she left her husband to go cheat with that other guy, there was a car crash and the other guy died. She is kind of messed up, but the gardener (I think) at the Kessler house has taken her in and brings her food while she lives in a room hidden underneath the garage. She lurks about the property at night though - and when Mr. Kessler espies her, he goes into a trance and kills someone!
So the police spend a lot of time trying to figure out what we already know. The rub is that even Mr. Kessler doesn't know he's the killer. So it's kind of a reverse whodunit.
Because of the set up, there isn't really a lot of tension. Lugosi is always fun to watch, and we're treated to a few zoomed in shots of him staring into the camera as he goes into a trance. There isn't an awful lot for him to sink his teeth into, but he's an enjoyable presence. The other performances are fine - but it suffers the most from there really being no mystery here.
The most interesting thing about it is that there is totally a wrongful execution for the man who is in love with Kessler's daughter. It's too convoluted to go into here, but basically you know that this guy didn't commit the murders, yet he is still found guilty and sentenced to death. So, as far as horror goes, it's more of an exercise in the horrors of the death penalty than anything.
And actually, there is a little tension, but I'm not so sure if it's intentional. Mr. Kessler has a butler named Evans (Clarence Muse) who is a black man. He gets some suspicion cast on him, and given that this is the early 40s, I assumed he would take the fall for the murders. But things get sorted out and he is cleared without issue. Now, granted Muse is still relegated to playing the butler role - but it was still a more respectful portrayal of an African American than I expected given the time. Maybe it was just Invisible Ghost, but as far as movies I've watched in the last few months, progress has been made since Chloe, Love is Calling You in 1934.
Also, in a fun coincidence - I was pretty excited after watching A Walking Nightmare two days ago and seeing the sound engineer was the excellently named Glen Glenn. This is now my second Glen Glenn joint.
Overall, Invisible Ghost (misleading title aside) is an okay film. There's nothing all that special about it, and the way it's framed all but guarantees there being little to no tension to the proceedings. But still, Lugosi!
I would hesitantly recommend this film.
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