BODY DISAPPEARS, THE (director: D. Ross Lederman; screenwriter: Scott Darling/ Erna Lazarus; cinematographer: Allen G. Siegler; cast: Jeffrey Lynn (Peter DeHaven), Jane Wyman (Lynn Shotesbury), Edward Everett Horton (Professor Reginald X. Shotesbury), Margerite Chapman (Christine Lunceford), Willie Best (Willie), Herbert Anderson ("Doc"Appleby), Craig Stevens (Robert Struck), Charles Halton (Professor Moggs), 1941)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A delightful screwball comedy, making use of sci-fi gimmicks to bolster its story. The independently wealthy and handsome Peter DeHaven (Jeffrey Lynn) is getting married tomorrow, but is celebrating tonight with his friends at his bachelor's party when he gets so drunk that he passes out. Peter is a practical joker, giving his friends exploding cigars and shaking hands with them as he gives them electric shocks, so to get even with him, they take him to the college medical building, where his friend "Doc" Appleby (Anderson) is a student, and they place him on the dissecting table to give him a little scare and teach him a lesson. But problems arise when an eccentric Professor Shotsbury (Edward Everett Horton), who needs a dead body upon which to test his new life-restoring serum, arrives with his black servant, Willie (Willie Best), to take the supposed dead body back to the professor's house to try the experiment out. Willie plays the role with rolling eyeballs and other gestures that smack of a stereotyped racism that is upsetting to many of today's African-Americans.
When Peter is invisible and the daffy professor can't restore what he thinks is a dead body, he is upset, but puts himself to work on an antidote. The professor's very attractive daughter, Lynn Shotesbury (Jane Wyman-she had recently married fellow actor Ronald Reagan), notices in the paper that a Peter DeHaven is reported missing and when she finds out what her father did and talks to the invisible man, she realizes that this indeed is Peter DeHaven. So they rush him back to his apartment to get ready for his wedding but he first stops off at his soon-to-be bride's place, Christine Lunceford (Chapman). She is disappointed that the wedding had to be called off because of his disappearance, but before Peter could explain to her what happened, the one she really loves, who came by the bachelor's party last night to punch Peter, Robert Struck (Craig Stevens), comes in to kiss her, and since Peter is invisible and they don't know that he is in the room, she proceeds to tell Robert how it is very important for her to marry Peter for financial reasons, even though she doesn't love him. A detective then comes in to arrest Robert for the disappearance of Peter.
All the comedy comes about because of the invisibilty and mix-ups, and the zany comic routines between the nutty professor and his "stereotyped" servant. During the course of the film all of the following things happen: the professor is brought to a loony bin, a trial takes place (the film is shown via flashbacks from the trial), and the ultimate in screwball comedy, a car driving scene with a seemingly invisible driver being chased by a motorcycle cop occurs.
The funniest one-liners came from Willie: When asked to participate in the experiment by the professor, who tells him he could be the first human to be brought back to life by the serum, Willie says- "Why can't I be the second?" When Willie sees the invisible man, he exclaims, "Well, cut off my legs and call me shorty."
This 72 minute film is the kind of old-fashioned comedy that can cheer you up with a few laughs if you are down, or if you are in a silly mood make you feel even sillier. It's a classic.
REVIEWED ON 9/8/99 GRADE: B
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
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