"The Invisible Man(Avenger)" movie from 1954 review, part two

 

This movie also went by the name Avenger instead of Man which is why both are above.

 Release Date: December 29, 1954  Length: 70 minutes Director: Motoyoshi Oda

Screenplay: Shigeaki Hidaka  Subs by Mashhamid, most of these older films are.

Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya, is to the immediate right of the clown in the pic below.

 Think there is one more oldish Invisible Man movie from Japan though could be wrong as what I read may be referring to "H-Man". Have seen that movie as it is part of a TOHO movie collection that also had the first Mothra movie, in "H-Man" the main character was invisible but it was so different than these two films I've reviewed. And this film is so much different than the one released in 1949, this wasn't a sequel nor was based on the Wells novel. While that first movie was better to me this one had some fine moments and actually did seem to be more popular, at the top here are many promo pics for the film. The only constant between the two movies was that the master Eiji Tsuburaya did the special effects for this film and as you can see above they were mostly effective. But as I read not always for as you can see in the screenshot below if you look closely wires are attached to the motorcycle! No big deal as many big budget and hit movies also have some minor goofs in them.

 Won't spoil things too much but the Invisible Man in this movie is on the left above and there was a very good reason for him dressing as a clown. The woman above was quite attractive, while it is true actresses didn't dress like Idols back in the 1950's there's nothing wrong with the way they looked. The woman's name was Miki Sanjo who was 26 when this movie was made, she was born in 1928 but didn't pass away until 2015 and seems so many Japanese actresses lived past the age of 85. It's unbelievable how many movies actors used to appear in during the 1950's, 60's and 70's, seemed she was in over ten a year up until 1960 and that was so common back then. Below are two more promo pics and seemed this film was much more heavily promoted than the 1949 movie but then again that first one came out only four years after the war ended.

 Main Cast: How the Invisible Man came to be that way will be explained below after the movie's trailer and will leave it there for both posts. It is wiser to have a section to explain everything as when the film opened up there were two men who were invisible and wouldn't a pair make for an interesting movie? Actually a whole army of them would and in a way there was during the war for Japan, will get into that a bit further down.

Seizaburou Kawazu as Takemitsu Nanjo.... aka the Invisible Man. Being invisible is the reason for Nanjo dressing as a clown, as you can see above his job was working as a 'Sandwich Man', that was the nickname for those who carried around signs advertising clubs, stores, etc. Nanjo is invisible so when he puts on the clown makeup he's able to be seen and can lead a somewhat normal life. Even when one is invisible they still have to eat, clean and wear clothes when it gets cold which would be most of the time if you're invisible! Nanjo had been part of the special forces for the Imperial Army during the war, that's when he became invisible and so didn't a whole battalion but only Nanjo and one other survived.

 Miki Sanjo as Michiyo.... She had no last name and worked as a singer at the Kurofune cabaret club and if that was her real voice Miki was quite the singer. She lived at the Peace House apartment building, so didn't Nanjo above plus the character of Mariko who is blind and Michiyo seemed to really care for her. Work wasn't going too well as the club is owned by a Yakuza named Yajima and his main henchman Ken too often has tried to take advantage of Michiyo but has always been rebuffed. She also an errands/dropoffs for the Invisible Gang leader Yajima. As you can see below what an attractive woman she was.

 Keiko Kondo as Mariko.... Blind girl about fourteen in age, her parents are deceased so was living with her grandfather Fujiwara. He didn't have a lot of screen time so won't have an entry, he did work as a security guard and was murdered by Yajima's gang. Mariko had been well liked by Michiyo and Nanjo who promised her a music box for Christmas as this was set in December.

 Yoshio Tsuchiya as Komatsu.... Yoshio was in many of those classic sci-fi films from the 1950's and 60's often playing the bad guy or an Alien. In this film he played the role of Komatsu who was a reporter for the Shoyo newspaper. Komatsu discovered the identity of the Invisible Man before anyone else and believed him when told he was innocent of any crimes. Komatsu and Nanjo(IM) did form a partnership to bring the gang down but Nanjo did almost all of it, Komatsu is on the right in the below screenshot.

Minoru Takada as Yajima.... Owner of the Kurofune cabaret which is where Michiyo works as a singer. Yajima was also the leader of the Invisible Gang who disguised themselves as Invisible Men by wrapping bandages around their heads. The gang did pull off many heists and had stolen over 20 million yen but also had murdered Mariko's grandfather Fujiwara. That's Yajima on the right below talking to Michiyo, like some other main characters didn't have a ton of screen time.

Kenjiro Uemura as Ken.... The main henchman for Yajima and what a creep this guy was. He often threatened Michiyo and it appeared had tried taking her to bed many times in the past but every time he was put in his place!!!!

 That's it above for the major characters, of course there were others who you will be hearing about in the review. There was just one trailer for this movie so won't change the video for the next post, it may appear as though there was a lot of action which wasn't the case or at least not until the finale.

 

 

 Will explain briefly here how Nanjo ended up as the Invisible Man, there was also one other person with that problem and will have this here in case you want to refer back to it. Back in the war Nanjo and the other invisible person Akita had served in the special forces of the Imperial Army. A doctor named Nishizaki was working on a different experiment using Cyclotron Proton when he discovered if mixed with another substance could make a person or object transparent. But it appeared the Japanese Army never used that 'secret weapon' enough during the war and perhaps there were some side effects which hampered the soldiers. These experiments took place on the island of Saipei, after the war ended this group of invisible soldiers had been killed though by who is unknown. What was also unknown is that two were not killed, Nanjo who is the Invisible Man in this movie and a soldier named Akita who was in the first scene but in no others for he was killed then, actually it was a suicide mission. That is a simple breakdown of how the 'hero' Nanjo became transparent and wouldn't an army of invisible soldiers be unbeatable, wonder if there's been any movies with that plot?

 

 As was the case for the "Invisible Man Appears" movie not going to give this a grade and probably won't for most of these older films. But am sure all will be enjoyable and interesting such as this movie though the previous one was better. Won't give this a high recommendation but if you're like me and are a fan of these older horror/sci-fi flicks then this is definitely worth a watch. Up next will be finishing the 1966 drama "Ultra Q" and am halfway through with that superb series. Then after that or perhaps while doing those recaps will also have a few more of these ancient films coming up, actually many more. Sure you read the above recap and it ended with the above two screenshots and the first one below. Which was of the reporter Komatsu and the clown Nanjo aka the Invisible Man joining forces to take down a group of thugs called the Invisible Gang for they wear bandages around their heads to give the impression of being invisible. The gang had stolen well over 20 million yen in cash and goods but at the end of the previous post had killed the blind girl Mariko's grandfather Fujiwara. The above pair want revenge for that and also to bring this criminal gang down, let's get to what took place.

 Now that her grandfather has been killed Mariko is living all alone though at the end of the movie did notice she had a caretaker. Even when he was alive Mariko did stay home all day and guess they didn't have schools or programs back then for the blind(?). Two of those top screenshots are of Nanjo talking with Mariko and did tell her he had ordered the music box she wanted for Christmas. You will notice that Nanjo was invisible and wasn't wearing his clown suit, perhaps with Mariko not being able to see and her grandfather no longer there why disguise himself for her? Mariko had said her grandfather Fujiwara had some money coming in, 100,000 yen to be exact which would cover the costs of the operation she needed to restore her sight. But when Nanjo checked his bank book no deposit had been made and he knew that would be the case so the leader of the Invisible Gang group Yajima had this murder planned out all along. You can also see a screenshot above of Nanjo talking on the phone and though a bit corny at times I thought the special effects worked well. Below that screenshot is the man who I just mentioned Yajima and he was talking to his popular Kurofune club singer Michiyo.

 She lives in the same apartment building as Nanjo and Mariko which is called Peace House and is friends with both. Yajima has Michiyo partially under his control(why?) as she does deliver many secret packages for him, she had threatened to report this to the police but as Yajima told Michiyo that meant she would be going to jail also! Everything in this segment is above and you can see a woman tied to a robe in her lingerie which had to be rare for 1954. She was a dancer at Yajima's Kurofune cabaret and her names was Haruka. She made the mistake of also telling Yajima she would report him as she too had been delivering things for Yajima. He showed Michiyo what his gang was doing to Haruka and unless Michiyo doesn't want to be next she had better make this new delivery! Michiyo also knew that Yajima and his gang had taken out Fujiwara, she had tried going to the warehouse to warn him on that fatal night but was held back by Yajima's henchmen. So Michiyo did make this new delivery which took place on a bus, secretly tailing her was Nanjo who went a long time without wearing his clown suit and he must have been cold! His 'appearance' terrified the riders who dashed off the bus but he held Michiyo back and Nanjo warned her to escape from the clutches of Yajima ASAP!

 When Nanjo had spoken to Michiyo on the bus she could recognize his voice and knew he was the Clown. On the bus was not a good location for a chat so Nanjo said for them to meet in an hour at the outdoor Shibuya Concert Park which I have seen in other older movies and it's probably not there these days. That gave Nanjo time to put his makeup and clown suit on, the pair did have a heart to heart talk at the cold park. Nanjo knew what Michiyo was going through being a 'slave' to Yajima as he too had no freedom because of his invisibility. Which didn't matter to Michiyo who seemingly had fallen for Nanjo but how could a relationship ever start?! When Michiyo had made the delivery for Yajima unknown to her she had been tailed by one of his thugs to make sure she went through with it. This goon then followed her to the park and once he saw Michiyo with Nanjo ran back to tell his boss Yajima that he may know where the real Invisible Man is! So soon arriving on the scene was Yajima and his gang, this is all above and as you can see Yajima had a gun. An invisible man will also bleed and die if shot so Nanjo had no alternative but to go with Yajima or else Michiyo may have been beaten.

 Beaten badly is what happened to Nanjo at the gang's lair, during this time Nanjo still had his clown suit on. Yajima thought of an idea which was to kill Nanjo and have him take the blame for all of the Invisible Gang crimes. The plan was for them to take off Nanjo's clown suit and as you may be able to tell above wipe off his makeup. Then the gang would dump Nanjo's invisible body on a busy Ginza street and because he couldn't be seen his body would be run over! Plus in his pocket would be a forged note confessing to the crimes. When an invisible man dies he can be seen again and what a cruel plan that was as the gang did dump Nanjo's body onto a street. However all of the passing cars missed his body(!) and before long Nanjo regained consciousness, they couldn't kill Nanjo at their lair or else he wouldn't have been invisible. Later on the gang was celebrating their second killing at the Kurofune cabaret but that was a bit premature. For as you can see in the screenshots above and below Nanjo had made an appearance at the club and was scaring the life out of these goons! Instead of saying the Invisible Man will keep using Nanjo's name as you know who I mean. As you can see at the club Nanjo was playing many instruments and he did seem to play them all well. Many shots were fired at Nanjo as when he did play something the thugs knew where he was standing but all of their shots missed.

 Final segment and it was a bit of a sad ending, what took place is in the above screenshots and the first three below. At the club Nanjo was able to punch out many of the thugs as they had no clue where he was and Nanjo grabbed a revolver, being a soldier meant he was handy with those. In the back of the cabaret Nanjo found Michiyo being held hostage by Yajima and his gang, there are some good special effects screenshots above. One is of Nanjo holding that revolver and I don't see any wires. Also there is a shot of footprints in flour as Nanjo had walked through that which gave his location away and because of that had been held back for a few precious moments. For it allowed Yajima to drag Michiyo out of the club, throw her in his car and zoom away! But soon on Yajima's tail was Nanjo who had stolen a police motorcycle for by that time the police had gone to club because of the gunshots. They too gave chase and the final scene was at a field of large oil vats. Yajima left Michiyo behind, you can see her above and wasn't she so attractive(yes!). Yajima climbed one of the vats which had to be at least 100 feet in height, he had brought his main henchman Ken along for protection but Nanjo soon took care of him and scaled the oil vat in a final confrontation with the lowlife Yajima!

 The police were watching the action from below, Yajima said if they tried to climb up he would begin to fire at the massive oil vats and what a fire that would create! However Nanjo was able to reach the top of the oil vat undetected and began to grapple with Yakima whose gun went off a few times, you can see that a fire did start on the next oil vat. But it didn't seem to be a major fire and before long Nanjo had Yajima wrapped up, the struggle carried over to the vat's ledge where Yajima fell off to his death! But unknown at the time Nanjo had also fallen with Yajima who must have held on to him, as mentioned before when an invisible man dies he then can be seen. Which are the second and third screenshots below which is how the movie ended. Nanjo's body began to appear and Michiyo rushed over to him as she did care for this very nice man. Sadly Nanjo did die because of that massive fall but just before he did asked Michiyo to take care of Mariko and in his pocket had the music box she wanted for Christmas. That wraps this review up and will say coming in thought this movie was just so-so but after writing this up it actually was a decent film though not a must watch. Thanks for reading these two posts and below are more screenshots of what took place in the second half of the movie.