Der Unsichtbare Agent DVD 1942 Invisible Agent - Monster Classics / Directed by Edwin L. Marin / Based on the novel by H.G. Wells / Starring: Ilona Massey Jon Hall

UPC 4020628977719

MADE IN EU

REGION 2 PAL DVD

Audio: English 2.0, German 2.0

Subtitles: -

Total Runtime: 77 minutes

English Summary:

Invisible Agent is a 1942 American science fiction film from Universal. The film was a wartime propaganda production that was part of a Hollywood effort to boost morale at the home front. It loosely echoed a series of formula war-horror films produced during this period that typically featured a mad scientist working in secret to aid the Third Reich.

This film, which is the fourth film in the Universal Studios Invisible Man series, was directed by Edwin L. Marin, and the screenplay was written by Curt Siodmak, who had co-written the earlier The Invisible Man Returns in 1940. Siodmak was a refugee from Nazi Germany, and he gave the film a strong anti-Nazi tone that treated the Nazis as incompetent buffoons. (A scene reportedly edited from the film had the hero placing a boot into Hitler's backside, following an official ban on all such images.)

Frank Griffin Jr, the grandson of the original Invisible Man, runs a print shop in Manhattan under the assumed name of Frank Raymond (Jon Hall). One evening, he is confronted in his shop by four armed men who reveal that they are foreign agents working for the Axis powers and they know his true identity. One of the men, Conrad Stauffer (Cedric Hardwicke), is a lieutenant general of the S.S., while a second, Baron Ikito (Peter Lorre), is Japanese. They offer to pay for the invisibility formula and threaten amputation of his hands if it is not revealed. Griffin manages to escape with the formula.

Griffin is reluctant to release the formula to the U.S. government officials, but following the Attack on Pearl Harbor agrees to limited cooperation (the condition being that the formula can only be used on himself). Later, while in-flight to be parachuted behind German lines on a secret mission, he injects himself with the serum, becoming invisible as he is parachuting down, to the shock and confusion of the German troops tracking his descent, and after landing strips off all of his clothing.

German Summary:

Der Druckereibesitzer Frank Raymond heißt in Wirklichkeit Frank Griffin und ist der Enkel des Unsichtbaren. Zwei Spione, der Japaner Baron Ikito und der Deutsche Conrad Stauffer, wollen Frank zwingen, die Unsichtbarkeitsformel seines Großvaters herauszugeben. Doch Frank kann den beiden entkommen. Er trifft den US-Agenten John Gardiner, der die Formel für die US-Regierung sichern will. Frank hält die Formel für zu gefährlich, doch als die USA in den Krieg eintreten, ändert er seine Meinung. Frank stellt sicher, dass er die einzige Person sein wird, die die Formel benutzt.

Frank springt mit dem Fallschirm über Berlin ab. Er soll deutsche Sabotagepläne aufdecken, die die amerikanische Munitionsindustrie betreffen. Als Unsichtbarer kann er deutschen Patrouillen ausweichen und seinen Kontaktmann, den Bestatter Dr. Schmidt aufsuchen. Schmidt schickt ihn zur Doppelagentin Maria Sorenson. Maria ist an diesem Abend mit dem Gestapo-Offizier Karl Heiser verabredet. Heiser erzählt Maria, dass Hitler einen geheimen Angriff auf die USA befohlen habe. Er verschweigt aber den genauen Zeitpunkt, nachdem der unsichtbare und betrunkene Frank den romantischen Abend zerstört hat.

Cast / Besetzung:

• Ilona Massey as Maria Sorenson
• Jon Hall as Frank "Raymond" Griffin / The Invisible Man
• Peter Lorre as Baron Ikito
• Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Gestapo Gruppenführer Conrad Stauffer
• J. Edward Bromberg as Gestapo Standartenführer Karl Heiser
• John Litel as John Gardiner
• Holmes Herbert as Sir Alfred Spencer
• Keye Luke as Surgeon