1958's Mexican "El Hombre que Logro ser Invisible" (The Man Who Managed to Be Invisible) eventually made the rounds of American TV screens under the title "The New Invisible Man." Sadly, there's precious little that's new, the most frequently used basic plot, that of an innocent man becoming transparent in order to prove his innocence, perfected by the very first sequel to James Whale's 1933 original, 1940's "The Invisible Man Returns" (Vincent Price in the title role). Done very cheaply in black and white, this version coincides with Edgar G. Ulmer's "The Amazing Transparent Man" (from 1959), Japanese variations (1954's "Tomei Ningen" and 1960's "The Human Vapor"), also a British half hour teleseries syndicated in the US. Price and Claude Rains possessed dynamic voices to powerfully convey their emotions (Jon Hall not so effective) but on this dubbed occasion the tones are decidedly ordinary despite the presence in the central role of Charles Hill of Arturo de Cordova, one of Mexico's biggest stars, so popular that he spent a few years in Hollywood during the 1940s playing romantic Latin types. Some footage is missing from the beginning (10 minutes in all), setting up the engagement of Charles to Beatrice (Ana Luisa Peluffo), then introducing Charles' brother Luis (Augusto Benedico), perfecting an invisibility formula that so far works on panes of glass. By the five minute mark we witness the murder, the culprit escaping as Charles enters, only to be falsely accused with the revolver in his hand and successfully prosecuted on circumstantial evidence. Once Luis stumbles on the right combination to make his despairing brother disappear the injection is made in the prison infirmary, the subject rising from his bed to see himself vanish before the mirror and easily get away. The Invisible Man pairs up with his fiancée to learn the truth behind the frame up, more mayhem to follow even after he's cleared of murder, becoming a self righteous angel of death to carry out the lord's work as he goes insane. The test animals are simply shown as skeletons during their transformations, while our hero makes himself visible through cold cream like Jon Hall in 1942's "Invisible Agent," so the special effects are at least better than in Ulmer's hour long opus, but the picture drags badly during the second half. There's really no characterization for Arturo de Cordova, and despite his assorted misdeeds by the climax his fiancée stubbornly and almost fatally clings to her love for him.
