One of the YouTube channels I subscribe to posted Invisible Man Appears today. It looked right up my alley and I watched it this morning. It's a 1949 Japanese SF film that was directed by Shinsei Adachi and Shigehiro Fukushima. It's the only movie they directed. The story is by Akimitsu Takagi and the screenplay is by Nobuo Adachi. Eiji Tsuburaya did the special effects. He had been blacklisted by the Americans for making propaganda films during the war. He started his own company so he could get around the ban. It was eventually lifted and he went to work for Toho. The invisible effects are mixed, some better than others, most passable.
A scientist has created a potion that turns the drinker invisible. The problem is there is no return agent to make them visible. A criminal steals the potion and kidnaps the creator and his assistant. The one on the right. The baddie tricks the assistant into taking the potion, the assistant thinks he's saving the scientist from being turned invisible forever. The baddie sends him out to steal a pricey necklace. The invisible thief has trouble getting the jewels. A good way into the film we find that another of the potion's side-affects is anger and rage. The invisible guy is indeed having trouble with rage. He mostly keeps it in check but things just don't go his way for the rest of the movie. There's a bit of romance tossed in there and some other melodrama but it's not over indulgent or anything. All in all a serviceable picture that I'd watch again.
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