Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951)

(On TV, September 2020) I’m slowly warming up to the Abbott and Costello comedy team—every successive film, I get a better sense of their approach to comedy, and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man is no exception. Made at a time when Universal was trying to extend the life of two of their most popular franchises by merging them together (if my count is correct, it’s the third of five ‘Abbott and Costello meet Universal Monsters’ movies), this ends up being a very loose take on the Invisible Man mythos, with our comic pair encountering a boxer who is injected by a formula developed by the original Invisible Man. The plot soon turns to a rigged boxing match, which obviously makes good use of Costello’s physique and the possibilities of a third invisible fighter in the ring. The special effects are surprisingly good even today and there are a few good laughs. I won’t ask much more. It’s not quite as good as Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, but it’s decently amusing on its own.