Welcome back, listeners! For the second installment in our Halloween series, we're looking at another James Whale: The Invisible Man (1933).

Claude Rains plays Dr. Jack Griffin, a scientist whose research has resulted in him becoming invisible. Unfortunately, he doesn't know how to turn himself back. Additionally, the experiment has had the unfortunate side effect of turning him completely insane. This drives him to ever-escalating displays of his power, starting with childish pranks but soon moving to murder and acts of destruction, while both the police and his former colleagues try to figure out how to apprehend a man they can't see.

The Invisible Man comes around halfway through the initial Universal Horror cycle, and is Whale's third entry in the genre. By this point, he had moved beyond the somber, tragic tone of Frankenstein, instead mashing several different registers together at once. The Invisible Man, perhaps taking its cue from the madness of its lead character, is inspired lunacy, constantly jumping back and forth between the macabre and the absurd. It's horror laced with dark comedy, a singular work within the genre. It is also the first significant film role for Claude Rains (even though we barely see him!), who soon becomes one of the greatest actors in all of Hollywood.

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Clips: The Invisible Man. Universal Studios, 1933