Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man is a 1951 American Science Fiction Comedy film starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. It was directed by Charles Lamont, and starred Nancy Guild and Arthur Franz. It was Universal's second foray into having their big comedy team crossover into their big horror movie stable after Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and while it's not remembered quite as well as the first film, it was generally well-received at the box office and with critics. It may have something to do with the fact that the horror angle is turned way down in favor of a comedic sports drama/mystery with an invisibility angle.
Lou Francis and Bud Alexander are recent graduates of a Private Detective's School. Their first real case is brought to them by middleweight boxer Tommy Nelson, who recently escaped from prison. Tommy claims he was framed for murdering his manager, and wants Bud and Lou's help to clear his name. To tip the odds further in his favor, Tommy pays a visit to his fiancée, Helen Gray. Helen's uncle, Dr. Philip Gray, has access to a formula that will turn anyone injected with it completely invisible. Dr. Gray refuses, pointing out that the formula drove John Griffin, its inventor, insane, and there is no known way to reverse its effects. When the police show up, Tommy injects himself out of desperation, becoming invisible. Bud, Lou, and Tommy investigate Morgan, a crooked promoter and mobster who tried to fix a previous fight of Tommy's, by bribing Tommy to take a fall. When Tommy refused – and actually beat his opponent, Rocky Hanlon – Tommy believes Morgan killed his manager in revenge. Lou goes undercover as up-and-coming boxer "Louie the Looper", with Bud as his manager, entering the ring and appearing shockingly competent, thanks to an invisible Tommy helping him out against his foes. Morgan then bribes Lou to throw a big match against Rocky, and Tommy has an idea of how to corner the mobster.
Of course, Hilarity Ensues.
Interestingly, despite the "appearance" of the Invisible Man at the end of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, it is not a direct sequel to that movie, with Bud and Lou playing completely different characters. However, it can be seen as a spinoff to The Invisible Man (1933), as the events of that film are alluded to, though it seems to ignore the other sequels to that film.
This movie contains examples of:
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: The combination of Tommy getting drunk the night before the fight, and the increasing megalomania brought on by the invisibility serum prove a potent cocktail for acting like a jerk.
- The Boxing Episode: The titular Invisible Man is an up-and-coming boxer, leading to a memorable scene where the invisible boxer must win a prize fight — with the very unathletic Costello acting as his visible stand-in, miming along with the real punches.
- Cassandra Truth: Twice. First, Bud doesn't believe Lou at the beginning when Lou figures out their new client is the fugitive Tommy Nelson, though Bud figures it out after he sees a picture of Tommy on a TV. Second, nobody believes Lou when he tells them Tommy turned invisible right in front of him.
- Clear My Name: Tommy wants to do this after Morgan frames him for killing his manager, and to do it, he breaks out of jail and takes a dangerous invisibility serum.
- Counting Sheep: When Lou is believed to be crazy for claiming to see Tommy vanish into thin air, he's sent to a psychiatrist who attempts to put him to sleep, during which he starts counting.Psychiatrist: What are you doing?Lou: I'm counting cows.Psychiatrist: COWS?Lou: I'm allergic to sheep.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The final boxing match between Rocky Hanlon and Lou, but it swings either way depending on where Tommy is. If he's in the ring backing up Lou while invisible, Lou is winning. If he's not, Rocky is. This gets tricky for Lou when Tommy slips off to investigate what Morgan and his goons are talking about.
- Drives Like Crazy: Tommy is a frighteningly dangerous driver. When a motorcycle cop tries pulling him over, he's too flabbergasted by the apparently self-driving car to go through with it.
- End-of-Episode Silliness: Some of Tommy's blood accidentally enters Lou during the blood transfusion to save Tommy's life. Lou briefly turns invisible, then reappears with his legs on backward for no apparent reason.
- Faint in Shock: Lou does, after Tommy turns invisible right in front of him, laughing his head off.
- Gainax Ending: The film ends in a really silly way for one of the duo's (relatively) more grounded films: Tommy Nelson (the eponymous Invisible Man) has a life-saving blood-transfusion with Lou's character after Tommy is injured in the final showdown. As Tommy still has the invisibility serum in his system, though, it ends up causing Lou to turn invisible for a short time, too! When Lou turns visible again after wandering around a bit, however, his legs have inexplicably turned completely around. Bud chastises Lou for "always getting things backwards" and tells Lou to come back to everyone else. Lou tries to follow Bud, but his backwards feet end up taking him backwards through a door at the opposite end of a hall, and the words "The End" come flying through the resulting Impact Silhouette.
- Graduation for Everyone: Chronic goof-up Lou is overjoyed that he actually managed to graduate from the school at the beginning. Bud explains he slipped someone $20 to make sure it happened. Lou is decidedly less happy to hear this, but doesn't contest the point.
- Hidden Wire: While talking to Boots Marsden, Lou tries using a small recordable record recorder hidden in a big bouquet of flowers to get her to confess to her and Morgan's crimes. Unfortunately, Lou sits on the record after getting the confession, breaking it and rendering the whole thing moot.
- Hypno Pendulum: The police department psychiatrist tries using a pocket watch to hypnotize Lou as part of an attempt to treat him, after Lou's considered crazy for saying Tommy vanished into thin air. It leads to a case of Hypnotism Reversal. The watch is later seen a few times as more people witness Tommy's invisible antics.
- Hypnotism Reversal: An accidental example. When the police psychiatrist tries to hypnotize him, Lou snaps out of it a little too early, grabs the watch, and accidentally hypnotizes the psychiatrist, putting him to sleep... and then a police officer who comes in to check on them. By the time Bud and the chief inspector come in, Lou's accidentally put about a half-dozen more people to sleep while trying to explain the situation to them!
- Impact Silhouette: At the very end of the film, Lou leaves a him-shaped hole in a plate glass door.
- Impersonating an Officer: One of Morgan's goons dressed up as a police officer guarding Tommy's room, and denied seeing anyone go in or out, leading to Tommy being framed for his manager's murder. They try it again with Bud and Lou, but this time, the invisible Tommy manages to slip past the “officer”.
- Invisibility: The invisibility serum was developed by a scientist named John Griffin (as seen in “The Invisible Man”). It quickly turns whoever takes it completely invisible, but there are two major drawbacks: firstly, there's no known way to turn back until the end, where a blood transfusion does the trick, and secondly, it slowly drives whoever uses it completely insane.
- Invisible Jerkass: Tommy starts to become one, due to the invisibility solution doubling as a slow-acting Psycho Serum. It gets worse in one scene where he gets drunk.
- Invisible Stomach, Visible Food: Averted, unlike in the original film. Whereas Griffin explained that he had to wait until his body processed his food to become completely invisible again, Tommy's food vanishes the moment it enters his mouth.
- Invisible Streaker: Tommy's clothes can still be seen when he's invisible, making this a necessity.
- Running Gag: Law enforcement officers seeing Tommy's invisible antics, and subsequently explaining them to the police department's increasingly-bemused psychiatrist.
- Sherlock Homage: Shortly after graduating the detective's school, Lou is seen wearing a deerstalker cap and peering through a magnifying glass as they wait for their first customer to arrive. Bud calls him out on it, pointing out that a good detective looks unassuming and blends in (his own heavy overcoat, bowler hat, and cigar bring a few different tropes to mind, though it does help him blend in in the early 50s).
- Tap on the Head: After a late night drinking, Tommy's head is banged into a glass door, knocking him out for the night.
- Taxman Takes the Winnings: Discussed when a man delivers Lou his cash to take a dive, and Lou starts divvying it up into one thousand for him, one thousand for Bud, and four thousand for "him". When a confused Bud asks who's getting the largest share, Lou replies "The income tax man."
- Throwing the Fight: Morgan tries doing this twice, which drives the plot, first bribing Tommy to take a dive against Rocky Hanlon, then bribing Lou to do the same. Neither goes through with it.
- The Vamp: Boots Marsden, who tries seducing Lou into throwing the fight on Morgan's orders.
- Weak-Willed: A psychologist tries to hypnotize Lou's character. Lou proves to be completely immune, but the psychologist accidentally hypnotizes himself. Lou's efforts to explain how this happened lead to him putting half the local police force under as well. Then Lou wakes him up, and managed to accidentally hypnotizes him again mere seconds later.
