I mentioned a few days ago that I intended to extend my Halloween by viewing scary movies into November. Friday night TCM helped me out by screening The Invisible Man.
We had planned a real Mohawk Valley evening. Herkimer County Community College was hosting a screening of A North Woods Elegy: Incident at Moose Lake, a documentary about the murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in 1906. Gillette, as you may know, was held in Herkimer’s 1834 Jail while he was tried in the Herkimer County Courthouse. Unfortunately, the screening was sold out. We were not the only ones disappointed. A man there told us there might be an additional screening. We’ll watch for it.
So we returned home, much to our dog’s delight, and looked for something to do. Steven discovered the 1933 movie starring Claude Rains on TCM at eight.
We adore Claude Rains. I hadn’t known that The Invisible Man was his American movie debut. It made him a star, which is pretty impressive when you don’t even see him for most of the movie.
Una O’Connor is in the movie as well. She is one of our favorite character actors. She has a small part in The Bride of Frankenstein, which had the same director. In that movie she gets to make extremely frightened faces then scream her head off. In The Invisible Man she has a slightly larger role, but still gets plenty of scream time.
The movie is directed by James Whale. I feel I know a lot about James Whale, because he was the subject of an episode of Mysteries and Scandals on E! which I saw several times. Also, we have the movie Of Gods and Monsters, which is based on a fictional imagining of Whale’s last days. I’d like to read a reputable biography of the man, but have not come across one yet. He was an excellent director, particularly of horror movies.
The movie is fast moving and scary. It was fascinating to me to be frightened by a monster movie in which the monster consists of objects moved by unseen hands or a guy with his face completely covered in bandages. I think a lot of the scariness comes from Claude Rains’ voice, especially his maniacal laughter as he revels in his evil power. Also unsettling is the idea of fighting a foe you can’t see.
I was really glad Steven noticed the movie was on. If you can’t see a documentary about a local murder, I guess the next best thing is an old monster movie.
Mohawk Valley Girl 