It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Frank Raymond (likeable Jon Hall), who's the grandson of the invisible man, uses his grandfather's invisibility formula so he can sneak into Germany as an undercover spy in order to thwart the Nazis and romance beautiful female double agent Maria Sorenson (the charming and elegant Ilona Massey).Although director Edward L. Marin relates the inane, but still enjoyable story at a snappy pace and maintains an amiable lighthearted tone, he alas overdoes the goofy slapstick humor, with the portrayal of the Nazis as bumbling buffoons coming across as both annoying and embarrassing. The special effects are strictly hit or miss: The invisibility stuff holds up pretty well while the painfully obvious miniature planes leave a lot to be desired. Fortunately, there's a trio of excellent villains who ensure that this movie remains watchable: Peter Lorre as oily Japanese weasel Baron Ikito, Cedric Hardwicke as the smoothly sinister Conrad Stauffer, and J. Edward Bromberg as the smarmy Karl Heiser. A pleasant diversion.

INVISIBLE AGENT (Universal, 1942), directed by Edwin L. Marin, is Universal's attempt in keeping H.G. Wells' "Invisible Man" stories in circulation by bringing them up to date, this time through the use of an original screenplay by Curtis Siodmak. Jon Hall, best known for his South Seas adventure tales with Maria Montez, might have become an unlikely candidate for the title role, but succeeds on his own merits. Though not exactly in the same league as its predecessors, especially the original 1933 classic starring Claude Rains, it's more of a propaganda film than horror, in the tradition of earlier outings as ESPIONAGE AGENT (1939) and Alfred Hitchcock's FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940), both starring Joel McCrea.The story opens in New York where foreign agents, Conrad Stauffer (Sir Cedric Hardwicke), a Nazi leader, and Baron Ikito (Peter Lorre), a Japanese, break into a printing shop run by Frank Raymond (Jon Hall), who's secretly the grandson of scientist Frank Griffin, inventor of an invisibility formula. (Is this in reference to Frank Griffin from THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS (1940), overlooking the fact that it was Jack Griffin from THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933), being the true inventor of that formula?) Knowing his true identity, the agents demand the formula from him. After going through the torture test that nearly causes him the loss of his fingers in a cutting machine, Frank manages to make his getaway and report the incident to John Gardiner (John Litel) of the American Embassy. When asked to relay the formula to the government, he refuses, but gives in after the bombing of Pearl Harbor that leads America into war, on the condition that he act as an invisible agent for America by spying on the Germans instead of their trained agents. Once he parachutes on enemy lines, Griffin, now invisible, follows his instructions by meeting with Arnold Schmidt (Albert Basserman), his contact, owner of a coffin shop, who secretly relays the information to England. Griffin's next assignment is to contact Maria Sorenson (Ilona Massey), Stauffer's mistress and counterspy who's under watch from Karl Heiser (J. Edward Bromberg), a Nazi officer. After finding himself trapped inside a fishing net full of hooks that leaves him helpless, Griffin accuses Maria, whom he now loves, to be his betrayer, and must somehow break free in order to acquire the secret plans revealing the Adolph Hitler's attack on New York.Although related to the previous Invisible Man sequels, INVISIBLE AGENT is often treated as an outsider mainly because it's more of a spy vs. spy story than the science fiction/mad scientist formula. Regardless of a fine supporting cast consisting of Hardwicke as the central villain and Lorre, even more menacing, coming close to resembling the Oriental sleuth, Mr. Moto, a character he portrayed in eight film mysteries during the late 1930s, through the use of his thick glasses, the somewhat unbalanced script appears to be geared more for the juvenile audiences out to cheer for their unseen hero. Humor takes precedence over the seriousness nature of the wartime story during its 81 minutes. Top-billed Ilona Massey, who arrives late in the story, plays a Mata Hari-type mystery woman leaving audiences wondering whose side she is on. That's one of the fun parts of the movie. Her key scenes include her encounter with the invisible agent and placing cold cream on him to see his face; and her attempt in having dinner with Nazi Heiser with the unseen Griffin having the time of his life disturbing them by moving things around and driving Heisler to the point of distraction. And speaking of driving, the plot is highlighted by a well staged car chase between Griffin and the Nazis. The scene where the invisible agent, giving himself a bath, covered with soap suds, is realistically done, thanks to John P. Fulton's first-rate contribution to the special effects department that equals the credibility to his earlier technique for THE INVISIBLE MAN and THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS.Formerly distributed on video cassette around the 1990s, and rarely visible on the television markets in recent years, INVISIBLE AGENT's current availability happens to be on DVD as part of its "Invisible Man" movie package. Next in the series, THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE (1944) also starring Jon Hall. (**1/2)

Of the "Invisible Man" series made by Universal, I was only familiar with the first two (both of which I'll rewatch again presently) - the James Whale original being one of my all-time favorites.Ever since it was released as part of the "Legacy" set, I had mostly read negative opinions about this film - and even Leonard Maltin gives it a pretty low rating. However, I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed it! True, the leads are rather bland (why on earth is Ilona Massey credited before Jon Hall?!) but, then, INVISIBLE AGENT has a formidable trio of villains - Peter Lorre, Sir Cedric Hardwicke and J. Edward Bromberg - going for it (who even make Curt Siodmak's script sound better than it is). Besides, I must say that I'm a sucker for both WWII and espionage movies, so that's a big plus as well...which, I guess, means that it isn't really a horror film and that The Invisible Man is the hero! Oh well, you can't have everything!John P. Fulton's still-impressive special effects (exposed a bit here by the extra clarity of the DVD transfer) deliver the goods and, all in all, the film made me keen to get to the remaining titles in the series.

This movie is of course fantasy. (Unless if the scientists are holding out on us.) But, it was well done. The special effects were fantastic considering when the movie was made. Even by today's special effects standards I was totally impressed with how they made Frank Raymond disappear. On the dramatic side the movie was a little slapstick at times with Frank spilling food on people without them knowing how it was happening. But, the movie was a great reminder of how evil the Nazi people were. It's hard to believe that people could be so wicked and yet that part of the movie was not fantasy. It did happen. Overall I enjoyed the movie and it all played well from beginning to end.