The Amazing Transparent Man ** (1960, Marguerite Chapman, Douglas Kennedy, James Griffith, Ivan Triesault) – Classic Movie Review 9295

Director Edgar G Ulmer’s 1960 black and white Sci-Fi film The Amazing Transparent Man is cheap and cheerful, and still enjoyable despite – or because of – the rotten effects and cheesy action.

To create a transparent army and make a fortune by selling it, crazed military man Major Paul Krenner (James Griffith) gets a radiation-expert boffin Dr Peter Ulof (Ivan Triesault) to come up with the secret for invisibility, in this entertainingly bad Sci-Fi from cult director Ulmer.

First to undergo the experiment is ex-con safecracker Joey Faust (Douglas Kennedy), whom Krenner needs to steal radium for Dr Ulof’s process, and obviously things soon go wrong.

Also in the cast are Marguerite Chapman, Boyd ‘Red’ Morgan, Cormel Daniel, Edward [Ed] Erwin, Jonathan Ledford, Norman Smith, Patrick Cranshaw, Kevin Kelly, Dennis [Denis] Adams and Stacy Morgan.

It was released in a double bill with Beyond the Time Barrier (1960).

Cult director Ulmer films at the Texas State Fair park in Dallas, as well as in the studio at United National Studios, Dallas, Texas. It was filmed by the same crew at the same time and in the same location (Dallas/ Fort Worth, Texas) as Ulmer’s Beyond the Time Barrier (1960). The combined shooting time for both was only two weeks. Distribution company Pacific International then went bankrupt, and producer Robert Clarke lost all his money. The film lab put both movies up to auction and they were bought by American International Pictures for a fraction of their cost, and made AIP a nice little profit.

They were Ulmer’s last American films and it was Marguerite Chapman’s final film.

The Amazing Transparent Man is directed by Edgar G Ulmer, runs 60 minutes, is made by Miller Consolidated Pictures, is released by American International Pictures (AIP) (1960) (US) and Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (1962) (UK), is written by Jack Lewis (original screenplay), is shot in black and white by Meredith M Nicholson, is produced by Lester D Guthrie, is scored by Darrell Calker and is designed by Ernst Fegté.

An Illinois punk rock group called themselves The Amazing Transparent Man.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9295

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