The New Invisible Man (1958)

Any Mexican science fiction or horror movie from 50s and 60s is guaranteed to be fun and The New Invisible Man (El hombre que logró ser invisible), from 1958, is no exception.

I’m told this is more or less a remake of one of the sequels to Universal’s 1930s Invisible Man movies, although as I’ve only seen the first of the Universal films I can’t confirm that.

A Mexican scientist is working on the problem of invisibility when his brother is accused of a murder he didn’t commit. So he saves him from capture by making him invisible.

Being invisible is handy when it comes to tracking down murderers but unfortunately there’s an unforeseen side effect - the invisibility process eventually produces insanity. So while the invisible bother is hunting down the real killer the scientist brother has to try to come up not only with a way of reversing the invisibility process but also of curing the insanity that goes with it.

The invisible brother’s girlfriend stands by him but as the madness progresses the entire city is endangered as the invisible man convinces himself he’s some kind of avenging angel with a mission to rid the world of evil, and he sees evil everywhere.

Director Alfredo B. Crevenna and writer Alfredo Salazar were involved in the making of countless Mexican genre movies and they’re more than competent.

The acting is solid enough. The special effects are cheap but reasonably effective.

This is not, it has to be admitted, one of the better Mexican sci-fi/horror movies of its era but it still provides decent entertainment and it's worth a look.

It’s featured in the boxed set Crypt of Terror: Horror South of the Border, Volume 2. They’re rather indifferent prints and only the English dubbed versions are included but the set does include some very good movies most of which are unlikely ever to be released in better editions so it's still worth grabbing.