Charles Hill (Arturo de Cordova) visits his brother Luis (Augusto Benedico) at his laboratory to tell him of his engagement to Beatriz Cifuentes (Ana Luisa Peluffo). Luis has been working on an invisibility serum. After visiting his brother Charles drops by his factory.
While still outside he hears gunshots. Running into the building he finds his partner, Henry, dying on the floor. Charles picks up the gun to pursue the killer. An associate, John, and the night watchman come into the room and see Charles holding the gun. Charles is arrested and put on trial for murder. He is convicted and gets 99 years in prison.
Meanwhile Luis is still working on his invisibility formula. Eventually Luis perfects his formula. He visits Charles in prison and injects him with the serum. Charles disappears and walks out of prison. He eventually meets up with Beatriz and tries to hide out but the police have been tailing her and eventually come to realize that Charles is always around but invisible.
Efforts to catch him are to no avail and Charles decides that he must solve Henry’s murder himself. Returning to the scene of the crime Henry finds out that there is a lot more going on at the factory than he realized. And Luis’ formula has a nasty side effect… insanity and thoughts of grandeur. Charles now believes he has a higher purpose in life and he must destroy mankind to complete it. Unless Luis can find a cure for his invisibility formula, and convince Charles to take it, Charles will wreak a path of destruction and annihilate the human race.
“The New Invisible Man” AKA “El Hombre que Logro ser Invisible” or “The Man Who Managed to Be Invisible” was released in 1958 and was directed by Alfredo B. Crevenna. It is a Mexican science fiction, horror movie. The film is loosely based on H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man theme.
I was hoping for some of that Mexican innovation in the plot, perhaps a werewolf or a vampire, even an alien from outer space but alas it was not forthcoming. Instead the film is basically a re-make of Universal’s “The Invisible Man Returns” 1940 with a few minor changes. Also there’s no enchanting Cecil Kellaway figuring things out. It’s not a bad movie and it is entertaining but there isn’t much charm or any amusing Mexican flare to it. No singing cowboys, no luchadors, nada.
The special effects are standard and done reasonably well, especially when you consider we are talking about a low budget Mexican movie from the fifties. The film never had a theatrical release in the U.S. in English only in Spanish but eventually it was dubbed and syndicated for television. The dubbed version has Americanized names.