The Invisible Man

"All right, you fools. You've brought it on yourselves! Everything would have come right if you'd only left me alone. You've driven me near madness with your peering through the keyholes and gaping through the curtains. And now you'll suffer for it! "

Jack Griffin aka The Invisible Man as portrayed by Claude Rains in James Whale's 1933 film "The Invisible Man."

Following the success of James Whale's "Frankenstein" Boris Karloff was hurried back from England to star as in "The Invisible Man" but ended up in a contract dispute with Universal and bowed out. Director James Whale then offered the part to Colin Clive who had portrayed Henry Frankenstein in Whale's "Frankenstein", but Clive who had plans to return to his native England to see his wife opted to stick to his vacation plans. Next up was Claude Rains. Universal executives watched one of Rains' old screen tests and were unimpressed by the look of the diminutive actor, but Whale declared, "I don't give a hang what he looks like. That's how I want the Invisible Man to sound--and I want him!"

The film was a huge success in part due to John Fulton's invisibility effects. The scenes where Rains removes his glasses and bandages to reveal nothing at all where accomplished by dressing Rains in black velvet underneath the bandages and shooting the disrobing against a black velvet background. The technique remains effective to this day.

On the DVD short documentary, Claude Rains' daughter tells of a time when the two went to see this movie in the theater years after it was made. It was bitterly cold and his face was completely covered by a hat and scarf. When he spoke to ask for the tickets, the attendant immediately recognized his voice and let them in for free.