Joe l'inafferrabile

The grandson of Jack Griffin, the Invisible Man, has been living peacefully somewhere in the United States until some German agents find, corner, and try to "persuade" him to give up the family formula so Germany can have this new weapon. Jon Hall plays the relative of the biggest disappearing act ever, and he manages to escape the German clutches and offer the use of the formula to the United States with the proviso that only he will use the possibly fatal formula. This is one of those films that is very light and a whole lot of fun. It is definitely trying to promote the war effort and patriotism with a lot of figurative flag waving. So what? I'd rather have that than goosestepping to and fro while some German autocrat mouths idealistic tripe under a small moustache. Anyway, the film is more a comedy than anything else with Nazis once again being stereotyped as figures of ridicule. Bromberg in particular is very effective as an overweight Nazi with little intelligence and a knack for comedic situations. There is a very serious side as well and Edward Hardwicke and Peter Lorre mix wit with menace as an intelligent German Gestapo head and a Japanese diplomat looking out for the interests of Japan. Hall makes an affable leading man in nothing else. Naturally we get to see lots of things move on their own and other such situations, but the film as a whole if a lot of entertaining fluff with some moral ideology as a fringe.