THE INVISIBLE MAN
Now you see him…
RELEASED OUT NOW! 1975-1976 | 12 | Blu-ray/dvd
Creator Harve Bennett
Cast David Mccallum, Melinda Fee,
Craig Stevens
“Based on the novel by HG Wells”, the end credits declare, but one suspects that Herbert would have been aghast at this Monday-night NBC show, which ran for a pilot and 12 regular episodes.
It has a promising pedigree: future Star Trek movies producer Harve Bennett devised it; Hill Street Blues’ Steven Bochko has writer credits. Set in a world where self-closing fire doors and guard dogs are mystifyingly rare, it sees scientist Daniel Westin (David Mccallum) becoming a secretweapon agent after a teleportation experiment goes awry. Featuring all the floating cups and chair-seat butt impressions you’d expect, the risible setup sees Westin donning a lifelike face mask (well, lifelike once he’s pulled it on…), faux-skin gloves and polo neck, then shedding them to nose around a casino offices, mobsters’ HQ or spiritualist’s house. Only Robin Askwith can have spent more screen time undoing his trousers. You can see the disrobes coming, as the picture quality drops when blue-screen is imminent.
Initially setting out its stall as a fantastical espionage drama about government-related cases, the concept’s soon broadened out so Westin is helping the little guy too. “REVERSE IT?” must have been scrawled on the brainstorm pad: one episode sees Westin breaking into a prison; the daftest has him pulling a bank heist to return stolen money to the safe.
It’s chuckle-inducing hokum, and Mccallum and on-screen wife Melinda Fee have decent chemistry. Just try not to think about how often Westin is standing there with his invisible meat and two veg swinging free.
Extras None. Ian Berriman
There’s an unfortunate error in the opening titles: the phrase “machine malfunction” is missing its second letter “n”…
One suspects that HG Wells would have been aghast