THE BODY DISAPPEARS (1941)
Article #90 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 6-14-2001
Posting date: 10-28-2001

A scientist concocts a formula that can return life to the dead. When he tries it on a man who he mistakes for a corpse (as a result of a college prank), he discovers that the formula has a side effect of rendering its subject invisible. He tries to find an antidote before the condition becomes permanent.

Not to be confused with THE CORPSE VANISHES, this movie is a mostly lame invisible man comedy with poor special effects. The title has a double meaning, both in the sense that the body is missing from the disecting room from which it is taken and the fact that it has turned invisible. Far and away the best thing about this movie is the presence of Edward Everett Horton as the scientist; I find him genuinely funny even when saddled with unpromising material like this. Also present in the cast are Jane Wyman, Willie Best, David Bruce and Charles Halton in a fun little role as Horton’s next door neighbor who thinks Horton has gone round the bend when he searches his back yard for a missing invisible monkey.