Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were well-acquainted with blending genres in their comedy. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the pair starred in dozens of films that applied their signature mid-century comedic style to westerns, fantasies, safari adventures, and showbiz stories. Their 1948 film, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, launched a series of horror-comedies that arguably established the first cinematic universe. Consequently, it wasn’t particularly shocking when they encountered the Invisible Man 75 years ago. What is unexpected, however, is that Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man leans more towards a slapstick sports movie than a traditional horror-comedy.
During the first decade of their film career, Abbott and Costello engaged in original antics, but Universal Pictures soon began integrating them with various properties from their library. (Synergy!) None of these collaborations were as successful as the initial crossover with Frankenstein’s Monster, which also included Dracula and the Wolf Man. (Bela Legosi and Lon Chaney Jr. reprised their iconic roles for these characters.) The standalone monster films were losing momentum. Since Frankenstein had already battled the Wolf Man in 1943, reuniting them with the comedians famous for “Who’s on First?” provided an excellent strategy to refresh the franchise and sustain the duo’s popularity. The film is authentically humorous—earning a spot on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 funniest American comedies—and while it lacks genuine scares, it retains the visual style of a classic Universal Monster movie.
At the conclusion of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, after the Wolf Man, Dracula, and the Creature have been defeated, the duo hears a greeting from an unseen presence. Vincent Price’s unmistakable voice introduces himself as the Invisible Man. This was a brilliant cliffhanger, though it took four more films for the promise to be fulfilled. (One of these films, Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, featured the original actor who played the Creature, receiving a menacing credit as himself. Although it isn’t a classic Universal Monster crossover like some of their other horror-comedies, it deserves a nod.)
Vincent Price does not provide the voice for the Invisible Man in Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, which hit theaters on March 14, 1951. Rather than a direct sequel to the Frankenstein film, it casts Abbott and Costello as Bud Alexander and Lou Francis, two bumbling novice private detectives. They take on their first client, Tommy Nelson (Arthur Franz), a middleweight boxer framed for his manager’s murder. Tommy visits his fiancée and her uncle—a doctor who inexplicably possesses the invisibility serum originally used by Jack Griffin. To evade capture, Tommy turns invisible, leaving Lou and Bud thoroughly confused.
In H.G. Wells’s story and the 1933 James Whale adaptation, Griffin’s serum drove him to madness, which is why the Invisible Man is categorized alongside monsters like the Wolf Man and the Creature From the Black Lagoon. Although the invisible Tommy occasionally threatens to go rogue and acts without inhibition, he isn’t a monster. He is arguably the film’s true hero rather than its villain. The actual antagonist is Morgan (Sheldon Leonard), a corrupt promoter who framed Tommy for the murder after Tommy refused to throw a match. Tommy hires Lou and Bud to solve the case, leading to a scenario where a reluctant Lou must pose as a boxer and face Morgan’s fighter in the ring. Fortunately for Lou, the invisible Tommy is in the ring with him, handling all the punches and blocks. Lou becomes a boxing sensation because his strikes appear too fast for the audience to see, resulting in classic slapstick humor.
The special effects, crafted by the same artist behind previous Invisible Man sequels, are impressive and facilitate humorous gags. One standout scene involves an invisible Tommy eating spaghetti at a restaurant while Lou and Bud struggle to make it appear as though they are consuming the floating food. Narratively, however, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man seems more focused on a boxing crime drama than the invisibility of its title character. Boxing films have long been a significant subgenre of cinema, particularly during this era. Stories about boxers getting into trouble for refusing to throw fights were commonplace, with movies like Kirk Douglas’s Champion (1949) and John Wayne’s The Quiet Man (1952) receiving major Oscar attention. It isn’t entirely surprising that Abbott and Costello would land in a boxing movie, though doing so alongside the Invisible Man is certainly peculiar.
Classic horror fans seeking humor will find plenty of it in Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man. A particularly funny moment occurs when Lou fails to be hypnotized by a psychiatrist but inadvertently puts the doctor—and anyone else entering the room—to sleep by waving a pocketwatch. However, these fans might feel disappointed by how little the film resembles the vintage monster movies it claims to continue. While Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein stands as a solid entry in the Universal Classic Monsters canon, their encounter with the Invisible Man plays out more like a standard Abbott and Costello comedy with a few strange genre elements. Nevertheless, watching two of cinema’s greatest comedians perform their routine is never a bad experience. For those desiring a monster-centric Abbott and Costello crossover, the duo faced off against Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde two years later.