Earth vs Soup Ep 275 - Invisible Agent (1942) - ThisWeekInGeek

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
But aren't you fellows ever positive only about doomsday?

Speaker 2 (00:03):
What could be worse than disappointing a little girl disappointing
a big girl. I have other ways of securing your cooperation.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Sorry, miss I was giving myself an oil job.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
When was it just azumbly? As we've seen attitude to
it since we gave to a few low cabbages.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
An intellectual carrot.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
That mind boggles you see you see your stupid lives. Stupid, stupid,
I said Santa Claus. Long enough, we will bring him
to Mars. I've been afraid a lot of times in
my life, but I didn't.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
Know the real meaning of fear until until I kiss
peck me.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
One thing will be clear. It's not from man to
interfere in the ways of God's life.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Good evening, everybody, and welcome to Earth Versus Soup, Episode
two seventy five. I'm Aaron Pollier, I'm Darling. We uh,
this is a five or ten episode. So we dove
back into our list of classics that we have not
yet watched, and for this it was back to the
universal well and we decided to watch Invisible Agent from
nineteen forty two.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
It is more of a comedy to me than a
science or horror.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
It was released on July thirty first of nineteen forty two.
It is seventy nine minutes long. It had a budget
of three hundred and twenty two thousand, two hundred and
ninety one dollars, but it made over a million.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Okay. This movie is interesting in that I think think
it's the first universal film that we have watched that
not only directly references the war, but the war is
actually part of the plot, not just part of the plot,
the majority of the plot. And they really don't hold back.

(02:16):
Now with that said, since this does directly talk about
the war, I have to we have to like put
out there right in the beginning. There are swastikas in
this film. Uh, there is casual racism against the Japanese.
Casual racism. It's not like hardcore, but there's there's some

(02:38):
stuff in there that that definitely would be today considered racist.
But with that being said, oh and and like Death's
Head SS stuff that was pretty uncomfortable to me just
because they were actually portraying Nazis.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Like yeah, and they have a person playing one of
the Japanese and he is actually he had to be
very uncomfortable in this film because he actually left.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
He's Hungarian.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
He's Hungarian Jew.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah, and he did not play a Nazi. He played
the Japanese ambassador. And this is again a thing we
need to mention. He's basically in yellow face for this. Now,
since it's black and white, you can't tell if they
like painted his face at all, but they basically put
the round glasses on him and made him speak a
specific way that would be considered again racist today. This

(03:42):
is definitely a movie of the time. It would not
be made like this today. It just wouldn't. And that
being said, there are actually Asian actors in this Why
they didn't get an Asian actor to play the Jazzjapanese ambassador?

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Spy master?

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Is he the spy Master? I guess so, I guess so.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
And then and you actually see him do something that was.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Well, that did occur, but I don't think it occurred
the way that it's portrayed. I'm not an expert on
Japanese culture. I've said that multiple times. Right, there are
parts of this movie that make me go hmmm, I'd
like to watch this with Chuck maybe even or somebody

(04:36):
else at least a little more competent with aspects of
Japanese culture in nineteen forty two. But let's talk about
the movie.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Also. They also have models in it. Oh yeah, odd
things like the six wheeled jeep.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Oh yeah, okay, so but I want to talk about
that when we get into those.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
You never do I miss it?

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Just remind me. Uh, the the the director and writers
both did a lot of universal work. But our leads
here are Alona Massey who plays Maria Sorenson, and John
Hall who plays uh Frank Raymond. Also, and in my notes,
I always have him written down as Frank Griffin because
that's his original name, but he's always referred to as Frank.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Raymond because he wanted to get away from his grandmother grandfather's.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Name because the Griffin name, Doctor Griffin, remember, is the
person who invented the invisibility serum. Yeah, there's a lot
of like universal people in this Peter Lore, Cedric Cedric Hardwick.
But believe it or not, Alona Massey gets top billing.
She's top build in this movie, and I actually think

(05:55):
that that's actually accurate. Though I will say that John
Hall is likely on screen more as Frank does that
do you agree with that.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
About the same I think you think.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Okay, all right, so let's let's talk about the plot.
Let's talk about the plot.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Well, I do have to start with the first scene
goes with they're talking about the Rose Bowl.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
Yeah, that immediately sets a stage. So the first scene actually,
because there's credits, First get the musical score. There is
no like pre credit sequence or anything like that. You
get the credits. Then the first scene, and we have
a group of guys that are like looking through the
window to a news well, a paper printing or a

(06:44):
stationary shop, and there's a newsboy that runs across and says, hey, look,
uh this is he's talking about the Rose Bowl. And
it's like Duke and something else. And I'm not a
football person, I havelogize. But it does specifically reference the

(07:05):
only time that the Rose Bowl was not played in Pasadena.
It was actually played I think on the East coast.
But it is a very specific reference to a time
right before Pearl Harbor. And since they make it an
actual plot point that even these characters that are looking

(07:25):
through the stationary shop window remark on this specific event,
it's very clear. I had to look it up and
it makes sense that they're setting the stage for it
to be just before Pearl Harbor, and the people that
are watching this would most likely know exactly the time

(07:45):
that they were talking about. It would be like to us,
even though I'm not into football, just saying, hey, look,
the Bears are about to the Bears are just won
the Super Bowl, and you'd be like, oh, well, that's
like nineteen eighty five or whatever, super Bowl twenty. I'm
not even a football person, but since I grew up
near Chicago, you know. Anyway, they this newsboy references it,

(08:09):
and we immediately get some dialogue from these guys looking
through the picture window into the stationary office. Yes, it's
the American obsession with football or whatever. And I said
at this point in my notes nondescript European accents, which
was both right and wrong, because this is this is

(08:32):
Baron Akdo, the character Baron Aketo, who is supposed to
be Japanese, and I honestly he did not come across
as Japanese, because again, as I said, this character is
effectively yellow face. And we have Cedric Hardwick playing Conrad.
Conrad's there and a couple Nazi goons, but they're all

(08:52):
in civilian clothing.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
Okay, there's four men.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah. So they enter the stationary store and they ask
for stationary with the name of Frank Griffin on it.
And the guy kind of the guy that's owning the
stationary shop, who is John Hall, who plays Frank, He's like,
that's strange that you would want that name, and they go, yeah,
it is, isn't it, because that's your real name, isn't it.

(09:18):
And they start basically threatening him to get the invisibility
serim because he's there, like your grandfather invented it, you
must have it, and he says I don't, and they
actually start torturing him.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Yeah, they they put it. This is where Baron Eco
a keto, actually uses his own equipment to try to
force him to talk by by putting his hand in
a paper cutter.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah, and Frank, uh it looks like Frank breaks and
he goes, fine, I'll give it to you. I give
it to you, and he go to his desk, opens
up a drawer and there's like an actual secret compartment
in this drawer and I'm like, wow, he actually did
break They didn't even really have to break his fingers. Uh.
A spoiler A character's fingers get broken later on in

(10:14):
the movie for different reasons. But he takes this box
out and then goes full on James Bond, like he
swings this box up into a goon's face, knocking him back.
All the goons pulled guns and this, and Frank goes,
like I said, full James Bond. He is just throwing
himself around the stationary store until he's like, screw it,

(10:40):
I'm not doing enough, and he throws the box, which
I guess actually had nothing really in it because he
throws it through the front window to break the front
window to get people's attention outside, he screams. The goons
start firing as their guns, like he breaks the light
in the room doing it, and he takes off like
a bolt, and there's people that start screaming outside, so

(11:04):
clearly like the authorities are are alerted. Well he gets away,
all right, no problem. I thought that was a really
cool scene. Actually in the beginning is very dynamic. Go ahead, Darling.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
And then the next scene he's at I don't even
know whose office, but he's talking to somebody and they're
wondering if he would actually sell it to the US.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, and here's where I thought they were foreshadowing a
little too much because this US official because he's clearly
in Washington, DC. No, I actually, I take that back.
He's not clearly in Washington. Later on he is. He's
in a government building and they're like, Frank, why don't
you sell us this formula? Your country needs it, et cetera,

(11:51):
et cetera. And Frank is like, no, look, I know
how dangerous this thing is. It drives people crazy taking it.
It's too dangerous. No one needs to have it. Hard
cut newspapers Japanese attack Pearl Harbor blah blah blah blah,
and and you know, Wake Island, Guam, and all these

(12:13):
newspapers are springing up. And I was like, okay, you
know what, you're filming this during the war. The war
has already started when you started filming this, and you're
framing it in such a way as to show how
the characters are immediately changed by the opening days of
the war. And so Frank immediately goes to Washington, d C.

(12:38):
And has like his lawyer there. I think it's a
lawyer right like that that he's that he's sitting with.
And he sits down and I'm actually again surprised, because
it's not like it's just US officials there. There's representatives
from like every Allied nation there, Russian, there's like a

(12:59):
Russian there, well, I should say Soviet official. I think
there's like a there's there's like a guy that looks
like he's in a in a Chinese uniform from the time,
and that's one of the Asian actors that's in this film.
I think there's like a couple French speakers in there

(13:19):
that actually have like a French accent when they speak
up for just a moment. And I'm really surprised at this,
just because that's interesting that Universe would choose to shoot
the scene with all the Allies in there.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
On kind of a table that looks kind of like
the it's a round table. It's kind of oval.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
Okay, So are you trying to put it to the
ALTA conference that you saw, Yeah, but you see the
ALTA conference hadn't hadn't happened at all yet, And I
just think it's a round table because it's the round table.
We're all allies, you know, we're all nights fighting for good,
that sort of thing. Well comes in and says, Okay, look,

(14:03):
I'm not going to give you guys the formula. I've
said that, I still stand by that, but I understand
why our country and the Allies need it. So I
will volunteer to use it. But only I will use
it because I understand the dangers.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
And he he even says, I know that you've got
better trained people at me. Yeah, but I don't want
to have them, so I'll suffer from this.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
This evil, evil, evil drug because again, as we have
seen in every single Invisible Man movie so far, I
should say the Invisible series because there's a Invisible Woman
as well. The drug, while it does turn you invisible,
it drives you crazy almost immediately you start kind of
losing your mind.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
In this one, he acts more like he's a.

Speaker 5 (14:59):
Drunk, but it does on it's the same way on
being high. Almost it's the same way as like Invisible
Woman though that that's kind of what happened with Invisible
Woman is that they start acting recklessly, and I think
that actually holds true through all the Invisible movies that
at first all you're doing is being reckless and acting

(15:23):
like you're drunk or high, and it progresses from there
to like power madness and megalomania and things like that.
And to be fair, I think they even show that
a bit in this movie, especially near the end with
how Frank acts.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
But we'll get there. He gets paranoid, he gets paranoid,
but he's keeping he's trying to keep all the control
in his own hands, even to his own detriment. He
doesn't trust anybody. Everyone's out to get him. And okay,
I think Universal's being very consistent with this, more consistent
than their other movies. That's about crazy.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Movie we see at the very end.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Of his Yeah, they's already been invisible for a while. Yeaheah.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
So, and that one wasn't comedy.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
That was that was more serious. There was still comedy
in it because there was like Pratt falls or him
knocking people over or stealing a bike and people being
shocked that there was just a bike riding down the
street with nobody on it. Well, anyway, they're like fine,
the ally all the Allied commanders are like fine, we agree,
And then we get a series of cool stock footage

(16:32):
and some actual model work here where we see planes,
like you know, amphibious planes taking off. He's clearly going
across the Atlantic. He goes to London and we get
to see this really cool shot of the clock tower
at Parliament. You know, the what everybody calls big Ben,
but big ben's the actual bell inside it's the clock

(16:52):
tower at Parliament. And in front of it, like I
know exactly where they meet, it's Bodica, the Statue of Bodica,
like right in front, we know exactly where they but
it's beautiful. It's it's one of those things of Universal
saying London has not you know, England has not fallen,
the UK has not fallen. We're still standing strong, and

(17:13):
it's like okay, yes, And especially with that shot of
the Statue of Bodica, there like resistance, that representation of resistance.
Like a simple shot, a simple shot, it means a
whole lot, especially in context.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
I think that was a promo shot that the British
were using.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
Sure of course it was, but I'm saying Universal used
a very good shot for a very good reason, as
almost propaganda, and it was very good. So he gets
to the UK and boards another plane and they're like, okay,
look you've gone through your training and it was a
very brief training. He even admits it was very brief. Training,

(17:57):
We're gonna fly you over Berlin and drop you into Berlin.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
Goes, No, you're not.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
You're not because they're they're not in a bomber. Okay,
because we see we see the models and it's basically
one of the old two tailed beachcraft that was used
in the military. But it's not really a military plane.
It's not going to be flying high. By the way,
if you've seen Monarch, the the Apple TV show Monarch,

(18:27):
the the plane that they actually use, the silver skinned plane,
is the actual is the same plane that they're using
in this film. It is a World War Two era aircraft,
but it isn't the C forty seven. It's just I
call it a beachcraft. I might actually be wrong about that,
but anyway, anyway, they're all in this gear and I yeah,

(18:49):
they're they're flying over Berlin and I'm I'm I'm thinking, Okay,
at least they're flying at night. I'll give them that.
They're coming in at night, but you're coming in unescorted.
Not that the fighters would actually be able to actually
fly that far at this point in the war. Easily easily,
i should.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
Say, would the plane been able to go.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
That I would think so yes, but you're coming in
as a single aircraft, which might be smart in this
situation because you're trying not to draw attention to the
fact that there's planes coming in. But anyway, they get
to Berlin and the act guns come out. They're like, okay, guys,

(19:34):
we need to drop you. Frank, it's time to shoot
up your heroin.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Well he didn't. They weren't yet at Berlin because he
had to go how many kilometers when.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
He it was quite a few. It was on the
outskirts of Berlin that they were at, and the guys
are like, okay, you need to go now because there's
no way in hell we're getting closer. And he's like, okay, fine,
So he shoots up the drug okay, and.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
He's dressed all into the parachute, yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
The paratrooper paratrooper clothes, and he bails out of the plane. Okay.
Plane turns around. Awesome. So he's parachuting down and all
the Nazis down there and I'm like, oh my god.
Actually they're not in proper Nazi uniforms at this point.
They're in very they're in close facsimiles. They all see

(20:25):
this guy parachuting down they're like, son of a bitch,
we can see you. You know, there's like a freaking
spotlight on him. They're gonna catch him. Okay, guys, just
go out and get this guy, you know.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
And that thinking too, that it's gonna be easy to
get him.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
It's no problem. So Frank's coming down and you see him,
and he's like, okay, fine, and he just starts undressing,
taking his clothes off while still parachuting down and he
fades away. He fades away in the clothes and I'm okay,
good job. So finally he's effectively naked. All he's wearing.
All he has is the pair of troop parachute harness on.

(21:02):
He lands on top of a barn, ditches the harness.
He's invisible. You can't see him, and now the Nazis
have comedy. We have comedy because they can't find him.
He's in the barn. They know he's in the barn,
but they can't find him. He's invisible, and a more
comedy ensues. He's able to get out of the barn

(21:25):
and he jumps into a he gets into a car.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
It's this is where we also see the six wheel
jeep too.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
Is it the six wheel jeep. At this point, he
doesn't yes, it is, it is, so he basically there's
a guy that it gets into the six wheel jeep
and he starts driving away, but Frank jumps into it,
knocks the guy out, throws him out of the jeep,
and then just drives it to Berlin. There's nobody here

(21:54):
where we see.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
That there's a kilometer marker and I didn't write it down.
I didn't write it down.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
Apologize. So Frank goes to a coffin maker shop and
we learned that this guy is the British intelligence contact.
Arnold Schmidt's Schmidt, Arnold Schmidt. He is a coffin maker.
This guy is actually a pretty damn good actor. I
every time he was on screen, I smiled. He's an
old guy. He's just making he's making coffins.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
And the secret thing that it's supposed to say is imperial.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
Oh no, it's I would like to buy a coffin
Empire style. That was the that was the but.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
He gives the keyword here on Empire style is empire.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
Yeah, yeah yeah. And the guy's like, oh, I can't
see you, I can't see where are you. I'm here
I'm here, and then the coffin maker Schmidt goes. They
told me that I would I would meet an invisible man,
but I didn't really believe them, and I thought immediately,
what kind of operational security is this that they told
him that he was going to meet an invisible man.

(22:58):
Like if there was a breakdown in communications or something
like that where the Nazis intercepted it, it would it
would tip everyone off what was going on. Now that
being said, everyone kind of does know what's going on in.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
This because the people, the four people that were at
his place are the four people that he's having to
deal with right after meeting the contact.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
Okay, so he is there, he gets this contact, the
agent gives him a contact info for the agent that
he's been working with that has an end with the Gestapo.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
I really liked by the way that he he wanted
to be with the near the stove and they gave
him tea to warm up.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
Yes, all the way through this, they don't forget I'm
clapping for universal again, just like an invisible woman. They
do not get that when you can't see the person
when they're invisible, they are naked, they are cold, they're
exposed to the elements. They're walking around barefoot. They do

(24:12):
not forget this. It actually almost is. And it's not
funny because like Frank is like chattering, his teeth are chattering,
and he's complaining that he didn't know that winters in
Germany would be this bad. So I guess this is
still early nineteen forty two that this is supposed to
be taking place in, like January February. That's what it

(24:33):
comes across as it's I don't think it with the
newspaper things that were spinning up. I think it's supposed
to be later. But he does talk about how cold
it is that he never expected this.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Maybe it's marked.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
It might be, but we also see the Nazis and
the barren Ikido later on wearing thick jackets. So I
mean none just script it's cold out. So let's say
early spring at the latest. This would be early spring.

(25:06):
Forty two.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Forty two is the cold year, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Forty one two is the super cold winter on the
Eastern Front. It's one of the coldest winters in the
twentieth century.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
And that's when they went to tech.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Well, well, yes, because the Soviets were invaded in in
the summer of forty one, okay, and they got to
the gates of Moscow and then you know, winter happened.
The Germans weren't prepared, I should say, the Nazis weren't prepared,
and everyone still effectively had summer uniforms. No one expected
the war to last more than a couple of weeks,

(25:43):
and even if the winter wasn't super cold, the Nazis
would have been really hard pressed to do anything more
than they had done because they just were not prepared
to fight the war longer than a few weeks. A
mild winter in Russia would have been devastating to them.
It's just shocking that the Nazis were well, I mean,

(26:04):
I guess it's not shocking. Nazis were incompetent about just
about everything because they assumed their superiority over everything else
and never questioned anything. But and they even talk about
that in this movie, which is crazy. They talk about
like we'll get to it. This movie is really good
from like a at least from our perspective as like

(26:27):
amateur historians and reenactors World War two reenactors. There's lots
of really interesting things in this.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Well, I I gotta give him this at the time,
he's given the the contact name of Maria Score and
he he goes, where is that?

Speaker 3 (26:47):
And he tell the coffin maker.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
Maker tells him, and he looks out and he goes
and sees a taxi service.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
Yeah, and he goes, okay, well, hold on, there's like
a phone number outside of it, and so he just
uses the phone to call the the that number that's
across the street and orders a cab to go to
the address of Maria Sorenson. And then he jumps into
the cab before it leaves to go out there to
pick somebody up.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
And he gets out. They show him getting out.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
Of the yeah, out out of the taxi, the taxi
cabs door opening and closing and things like that, and
the taxi guy's like, hey, I was I was called
out here to pick somebody up. And the maid that
opens the door is like, no one calls you, what
are you talking about? And I felt guy, but you know,
and he she.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Makes sure by asking going into the dress dressing room
of Kria Maria and she's got this fabulous dress.

Speaker 3 (27:48):
Maria, that's all.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
That's the only time you see this dress.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yes, she has a beautiful black dress on with like
silver it looked like silver. I don't know what what
what we recall it. It's silver highlights to me, but
that's not It goes.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Down the front where it doesn't actually essentiate.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
Accentuate her curves.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
But what it does is put you there and then
you're looking at the black outline of her.

Speaker 3 (28:17):
Yeah, it's actually a very fetching dress.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Anyway, and she's only in it and she changes out
of it for her next person that is coming.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yes, so we actually in my notes, I say, Griffin
makes it out to the country manor holy crap, Alona
Massy is gorgeous in that black dress. And then we
get a little bit of casual sexism.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah, Frank goes.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
Yeah, like Kat calls her, He switches off the lights,
and she's freaked out at this point because like who's there.
Who's there? And he's like, well, I thought i'd be fair.
If you can't see me, I shouldn't see you either,
And she was about to change out of this dre
so her like uh, she was in her like slip
underneath and she like puts it back on to like
cover herself up, and uh he he basically just is

(29:13):
a little cheeky with her. Uh he he uses the
code phrase Empire style again and she lights up. She's all, oh,
oh my god, Okay, you're that person. I'm really excited
that you're here.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
And he she tries to warn him that he's she's
got a visitor, yes, which we find out is Carl.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
Heiser Heisser, who is Gestoppo. He is a Gestapo officer.
He is a piece of shit. I will repeatedly say
these people are pieces of shit because they're Nazis. And
every time, and I apologize to Darlene when we were
watching it, every time we had Nazis doing the the
Hyle Hitler salute, I yelled out, f you or like shit,

(30:02):
and I apologize. But that's like a a a reflex action.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
They had these two huge guys. They were both very tall,
especially considering the extra Carl whoever's playing Carl is short.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
He's short and kind of round. He's I won't say
he's like fat fat, but he's he's a round guy. Okay,
And well, Carl comes in and like he has two
Gestapo guards and you can tell that this is a
dude that is a member of the Nazi Party. He
proudly says he's a member of the Nazi Party and

(30:42):
uses it as a way to brag and to make
himself seem way more important than he really is. Now,
with that said, he does seemingly have an actual, real
important position in the Gestapo.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
He's just not in charge of the dinner here.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
That's impressive. The dinner is impressive.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
Is very much a brag. It's a brag, but it's
also I found it to be where if you were
watching it during the time, you.

Speaker 3 (31:19):
Would this would get you get angry.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
This would get you angry, and so it was propaganda
on the point.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
It was, well, okay, let's let's say what happens. He
comes in. They're gonna have a nice dinner now, even
if you're kind of well to do in Germany at
this point. No, I take that back. I take that back. No,
because they were, they were looting Europe. And then this
is effectively what they're saying in this scene, mister Gestapo

(31:49):
Carl comes in with a big picnic basket and he
starts taking out the chick.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
Well, the first is the cheese from Holland.

Speaker 3 (31:58):
Oh yeah, yeah, you wrote Then.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
It's champagne from Paris. Yeah, there was something else, and
then it's lobster from Norway, Lobster from Caviar.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
I have the I have the quote written now, and
he goes caviar from Russia, very hard to get, and
he says the quote is every country we conquer helps
feed us. And I'm like, you, son.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
Of a bitch, But that is serious propaganda.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
It is It's that.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Whole scene of pulling these stuff out to rile people
up that.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
The Nazis are looting everything and destroying people and taking
it from them. But it's it is propaganda. It's effective propaganda,
and it's true. The best propaganda is not lying, it's
literally showing you what what these people were doing, because
the Nazis were looting everything they could get. Okay, everyone

(32:57):
knew it. And the good thing about this scene is Maria,
while she's having to act like she's a good little,
good little Nazi girl, herself is clearly horrified by all
of this, and she's trying to keep the smile on
her face and the twinkle in her eye because she

(33:18):
knows Carl's flirting with her. She knows Carl's trying to
use her and get in her panties. She knows that
this guy is a piece of shit, but she needs
to put up with it because she's trying to manipulate
his boss and has basically been the girlfriend of Conrad Stelfer,

(33:40):
who is high up in the Gestapo no excuse me,
in the SS, in the SS.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
And he's the one that he's the one that was
in her, that was in the United States, and that
kind of bothered me that they tried to use I understand,
leaving the cast smaller. Yeah, but you wouldn't send one
of your high.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
Up why not? Maybe maybe he was put in charge
of this whole invisible man operation, and from what it
looks like, the Gestapo actually kind of understood that Maria
was a double agent of sorts, well not a double agent,
but an agent for the British, and that Conrad Staufer

(34:25):
was actually using her unknowingly, well her to her unknowingly,
but he was using her to try to like manipulate
the whole situation. So if an invisible man was used,
that they would go through this coffin make I don't know,
it's possible, It's I won't say that this is a
perfectly because parent spyplot, but it's still it still works.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
In general because the baron, Baron Aketoo had a list
of he.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
Has a list. Okay, hold on, no, we're getting ahead
of ourselves. And no A Keto didn't. Conrad Stofer did
because Conrad Stoffer had a list of Japanese and German agents.
And it's because gave him a list of Japanese agents
in the United States. That's why a Keto didn't have

(35:18):
the full list. But we're getting way ahead of ourselves.
So Maria is horrified, and at this point we get
more of the comedy.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Because there's even this little skit of them being by
the by the Conrad's picture and the one guy turns
it around and she goes, no.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
That's my boyfriend. Yeah yeah, and she turns it back around.
But Frank is in that room at this point. Oh,
by the way, while he was right before, right before
Carl got there, he was taking a bath because he said,
I'm dirty. I've been running around naked Germany for like
hours and hours and hours. Can I take a bath?

(36:02):
And he actually gets into the bath and washes and
we get to see like him rubbing soap over his
invisible body. Which for nineteen forty two that looked great.
It would clearly in the twenty first century there would
be a very much better way. It would all be
done with CGI. But this is clearly somebody and like
being chroma keyed out of like and then having the

(36:25):
frames layered on the actual film. But it looks fantastic
for nineteen forty two, all the way through this, all
the invisible man stuff where it's him actually like painting
something onto his face or whatever. Oh my god, that
looked amazing. But anyway, he's like washing his legs and
you can see him washing his legs and there's like
an invisible leg there, but with soap on it really

(36:46):
good anyway for nineteen forty two, really good. So Frank
is in this room while Carl is boasting, and Carl says, yes,
I know all about this attack that's going to happen
on the United States. The Furor himself told me about it.
Gebels told me about it. Blah blah blah. I was
in this meeting with the feur alone. He's trying to
pump himself up as being far more important than he is,

(37:11):
but he clearly does.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Know things, and she knows that he's got a.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
He's got a blabbermouth, is what he has.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
He well, he she uses the fact that you'll probably
be better than Garbels.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
Oh, you'll be so much better than Gebels. So then
Frank messes with Carl, dropping like dumping stuff on him
at some point, like tipping the table on him, but
like stealing his food and eating it, which is another
good effect. Like you can see his teeth eating the
chicken leg or whatever, the turkey leg as he's sitting

(37:47):
in the chair nearby but close to the fire because
he wants to keep warm. He's freaking cold. He's naked.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
He sticks the bone underneath the uh underneath, picks chair cushion.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
Yeah, but then he like puts more food in Carl's
pockets just like piss him off.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
Later on, Well, she made it look sound like you
ate it.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
You ate that, didn't you? Yeah, you already ate it?
And he didn't. He's like, I thought I put this
on my plate. But like Frank's eating something. Frank just
basically screws with him.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
Mr. He's drinking the champagne and on an empty stomach
with the chemicals in him, and we know how alcohol
with the women with the invisible woman. How alcohol is
very bad.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
It'll make the drug last longer or act yeah, last longer,
or become effectively permanent. But I don't think he was
drinking anywhere near the amounts that she was. That's the thing.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Well, she drank pure, pure grain alcohol.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
She was drinking pure grain alcohol. I never drink like
this anyway anyway, So we get we get to uh,
Carl leaves Frank apologizes for being weird because he's full
of champagne, and we get another great line from Maria
where she basically talks clapping again because she underlines a

(39:25):
key piece of fascism sexism, that it's basically patriarchal behavior.
Fascism only works when men hold women in disregard. And
she basically says they treat women like dogs. I hate
them and and and she looks around. She's in this luxury,

(39:47):
but she knows that she's basically the French poodle being
kept on a jeweled leash, that she is still being
treated like shit. And the reason is is that Carl
puts guards on her because he's just so offended by
everything that's happened. And think there's thinks that there's a
house arrest. Yeah, under house arrest again, like universal, this

(40:10):
is nineteen forty two. Man, you're not holding back. Good
job this whole movie again. We need to like, go Katie, Katy,
watch this movie. So Katie you hear this, Please watch it.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
Frank actually kisses her on the cheek or on the
mouth or I don't know, because.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
Well, she wants to see him, and this is a
this is a common occurrence in all these invisible man movies.
Why can't I see you? I wish I could see you.
And he's like, okay, fine, whatever, I'll need to use
some of your things on your dressing table. And she's
like fine, whatever, and he puts on like her robe
and she's like, oh, but you're so tall, because you
can you can see him.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
And then he tells us his height.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
Six foot one and a half I think is what
he said. Yeah, when when i'm when I'm.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
Like that with my head.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
Yeah, when I have my head, I'm sick foot one
and a half. And then he starts putting on cold cream,
her cold cream. And again this is a good effect,
like he's sitting in front of a mirror putting cold
cream on. So it looks like an empty mask kind
of floating there and grabs some uh like a towel
to wrap around his head, and then sunglasses.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
He finds the sunglasses.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
Yeah, which is a classic invisible man trope at this
point that you get these big, goggly sunglasses that cover
cover your eyes completely and like they're the ones that
have the sides so they almost look like goggles. And
he puts them on and he goes, hey, look at.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
Me, and then he lays down on a lounge.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
Yeah, he lounges and then.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
He falls asleep.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
He goes, that's part of the drug though. It makes
you really sleepy and you can't really hold back, and
he just falls asleep and she's like, you can't fall
asleep here, you're you know, everyone can see you. Carl
Carl uh comes to his office and he sees he
sees there and it turns out like that's Conrad's office.

(42:03):
But he was gonna go back there and just sit
there because Conrad's been out and oh look, hey, this
this really strange thing was happening. Why is your uniform
all all messed up? And he's like, yeah, well this
was a very strange dinner. It felt like there was
somebody else in the room, and Conrad's like, oh, okay,

(42:24):
hold on, so let's go back. All the Nazis show
up at the house, but Griffin is still asleep and
Maria has to basically clean all of his makeoff off
before they find him, so she's like scrubbing his face,
trying to like make him invisible again, and we have
Conrad and Carl come in. Conrad's really pissed that Carl

(42:46):
tried to take his woman and his job while he's gone.
I know exactly what you were doing, you visa shit.
He orders Carl's arrest and Carl's like, what I mean,
I haven't done anything really wrong. Yeah, I I fed
your your your girlfriend a nice dinner, but you know
I didn't try to take your job. He's trying to

(43:06):
like cover his ass. Don't worry. But like Conrad leaves
and Griffin goes with him in the jeep and he's like,
I'm going to get all the information about this attack
on the United States that Karl was talking about from
Conrad because I'm sure that all this informations here. So

(43:27):
he goes into this in the Conrad's office. Conrad's kind
of wandering around. He he like looking out the window
and he leaves. But then while Frank is going through
the office, he finds like the book that actually has
the list of all the agents in the United States
and like details on the attack. And Conrad comes back

(43:51):
into the office at this point and goes, Hi, Hi,
mister Griffin, I thought you'd be here, and.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Well you see the actual when he walks into the
door front door between the two guards. One of the
guards smiles as he shuts the door.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
Yeah he does, because they like they know that he
has just gone in like being that like Conrad understands
that the apism when is around. So Conrad says, I
thought you'd be here. That book that you have actually
has all the information you exactly wanted. He starts villain monologuing,
but he makes a couple really smart choices in this.

(44:30):
I'm like, Conrad is not a complete idiot. Yeah, he's monologuing,
but he goes, mister Griffin, sit in that chair right now.
You're not getting out of here. All the windows are locked,
all the doors are guarded. You're not leaving, so you
might as well just talk to me.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
Well, the window isn't locked.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
Because like multiple stories up.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
They're multiple stories up, so even.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
If you're invisible, you'll still break all your bones on
the jump out because there's no way out. So he says, Frank,
get in the damn chair. And and I thought, oh, excellent,
because while you can't see him, as long as he's
sitting in the chair or right next to it moving
it with his arms, you know where you know where

(45:12):
he is. He is. He might not be sitting in
the chair, but at least you know he has to
be with an arm's reach of the chair. And at
the very least that means that Conrad feels more comfortable
talking to where he is and knows that he's not
like sneaking around behind him to kill him or something
like that. I thought, okay, that's really smart.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
And Frank sees a one of those the most dangerous.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
The most dangerous, like off this piece of equipment. There
is the space heater.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
The space heater. Even today we have the problem of
space heater.

Speaker 3 (45:46):
I actually loved this. And here and here's all the setup.
Here's all the setup for it. There's way there's tons
of setup. First of all, we know that it's cold.
Frank is miserable cold because he's wandering around without clothes on.
When he starts getting questioned, he asks Conrad, can I
have the heater next to me? I'm really cold, I'm

(46:07):
naked and Kindrad tries to be all gracious, going, of course,
you can have that, So he moves the space heater
towards where the chair is. Okay, and then these rocking
in the chair. All of this is set up. I
am filled with joy with all of this, right, but
I wanted.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
To point out this this heater. Yeah, okay, it's like
the fans in that time, they were seriously dangerous.

Speaker 3 (46:33):
There's like no front covering or if there is, it's
like a bear wire like and when I say wire,
I'm not talking like chicken wire. I'm talking about like
maybe thick gauge wire, one ring of it, just so
your body can't fall into it, but your head still
could fit through the wire. Great, Like it's that, you
know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
It's dangerous.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
Look at nineteen forty's office fans, and it's basically exposed blades.
This is the same thing, except it has it does
exposed heating elements, and it doesn't.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Even have the the grating on it.

Speaker 3 (47:08):
It's just it's just there. And so Frank's like, Okay,
if I stay here, I'm gonna die. So I'm gonna
take this Nazi bastard with me or escape, but either way,
I'm gonna get this book. And the book is gonna
be either mine or destroyed. So Frank grabs the space
heater and throws it into the waste paper basket, which

(47:28):
immediately explodes into fire.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
And I can believe that, And then he feeds it
with more paper.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
Yeah. He just opens up drawers and starts throwing paper
in while Conrad's screaming. Guards get in here. The guards
are panicked because now their boss, this Gestapo son of
the this gstapo ss son of a bitch, is screaming
for help. They can't get the door open fast enough, right.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
They can't get the door open.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
But at this point Frank has handfuls of bundled paper
that are on fire that he's running around the room
with lighting lighting, curtains on fire, and he's screaming fire.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
He no, the fire fire was He hits a number
on the the like an emergency and says fire, fire, fire, yeah, yeah, yeah,
And that's how he gets the department the.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
Fire department, like, yeah, yeah, the bomb dudes like that.
Here's all these Nazi dudes just roll up and freaking
fire trucks outside because there's smoke pouring out of the
office of Conrad's choking. Here's the one thing they missed
with this scene. The room is filled with smoke. We
didn't get like that outline. No, that we should have.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Have seen that house seen that outline earlier. But I
think that's because we're watching it in HD.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
Yeah, so the I think it would have been neat
to kind of see Frank's outline in the smoke, you
know what I mean. I think that would have been
really cool. But we didn't. And that's okay. And we
find out, well, hold on, how does he get out
of the office.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
He gets out because of the fire.

Speaker 3 (49:03):
Well, the fire trucks with the book. The point is,
he grabs the book, goes out the window as the
fireman put the ladder up to the window, and then
he runs down the ladder, knocking the fireman off the ladder,
and then takes off down the street, knocking a civilian
into into like what one of the Gestapo guys that's

(49:24):
down there, and the Castopo guy starts pushing the civilian around,
being pissed off, thinking that this civilian pushed him specifically.
But anyway, the book is gone, right, the book is
gone with Frank and it's actually a really good damn scene.
The whole thing. It really worked. Okay, So where are we?

Speaker 1 (49:45):
We find out that the the smidt is taken by Conrad.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
Yeah, so Griffin calls Maria Conrad's looking for the book
with all the agent's name, and then we get the scene.
We get the scene where Conrad is approached by Baron Aketo,
the I call him the Japanese ambassador, saying I trusted
you with this. You promised me on your life that

(50:13):
you would protect this book. You were using it as bait,
all right, now hold on, I have I have a
criticism of this. First of all, why would you really
use real information as bait when there was the possibility
of it actually being stolen? Why would you do that?

(50:36):
I will chalk this up to Nazi stupidity, but I
still think it is It is a first order idiot
plot that that specific point, like the villains and this
have to be idiots for this plot to work. It's
the first order idiot plot. But anyway, uh Akito goes, hey, look,
I want this backd tries to cover his ass and say, oh,

(51:01):
you know, it's not here in the office, it's it's
wherever and Keto's Keto gives him the look like I
know you're lying to me, you son of a bitch.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
When's the jail scene?

Speaker 3 (51:11):
What the shit is exactly next? It's it's it's just next. Okay.
So at this point, all right, uh, we get Griffin
visits Carl in prison, and we get like the guards
abusing Carl, and uh, this is a little confused to me,
because are we supposed to feel bad for Carl. Carl's Gestapo.

(51:36):
I don't screw him. Screw him right, Like, I don't
care if he's being abused by other Gestapo members. He's
gestopo f him, all right. So anyway, Griffin, well, Frank
starts talking to him invisible and like mocking him, I
need your help, blah blah blah. You you're going to

(51:57):
you're gonna die, They're gonna kill you. But you might
be able to get out of here if you help me.
And finally, like Carl tells him all the information he
knows about this raid that like it's gonna happen tonight.
It's gonna have all these all these planes that will
bomb New York City, like these long range bombers, et cetera,
et cetera. And Frank's like, oh, oh shit, Okay, hold on,

(52:18):
I gotta get out of here. We gotta get out
of here. We got to escape Berlin and get the
information to my contact, which is Maria and the coffin
maker Schmidt. Okay, so he admits all the information and
then Frank has this great line, You Nazis, I pity
the devil when you start arriving in bunches, like okay, yeah,

(52:41):
you're all gonna go to hell. Screw you. So Griffin
knocks out a couple of the SS guards that come in.
They have death heads on their on their hats, and
then steals their uniforms. And I actually thought this was
cute because they have like these are not ill German uniforms,
these are not real Nazi uniforms.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
But these two were supposed to to kill Carl.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
Carl, and so like all right, they they knock these
two Nazis out, these SS dudes steal their uniforms with
the high collars and like they have glasses, so like
Frank can actually cover up. There's a great scene though
when he's leaving it. I'm gonna go back. We have
a couple other things to talk about before they leave

(53:27):
the prison. But when he's leaving the prison, he has
to give a Nazi saloop, but he has no hand.
They can't see his hand, and the guy is like,
oh crap, what what what you know? But anyway, because
there was no gloves, he didn't have gloves, so he
just had like an empty sleeve. Anyway, after they get
their uniforms from these SS douchebags, they're about to leave. Well,
but Carl.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
There's an interesting scene where Carl is not getting on
the uniform even though Frank keeps telling him.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
Yeah, because.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
Put the coat on. Yeah, put the So this is
a Carl coward of a Carl reaches.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
Into the jacket and there's a gun in there, and
he goes hold on. He goes back into the cell
and executes the two SS cards and comes back and
Frank goes, maybe I should have that gun. But the
fact is that freaking Carl is terrified, right, He's terrified,
but he still stops and goes back and executes both
the SS dudes, and that tells you exactly where his

(54:25):
mindset is.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
And the guy at the at the desk smiles and goes,
mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (54:33):
Yeah, because he thought that, like, these were the two
SS guys to go in there and execute Carl. So
the two gunshots completely normal. That's just you executing Carl.
And now the two SS guys are leaving. That's fine,
totally makes sense. And from a movie viewing perspective, good job.
You have two gunshots and it makes sense. No one

(54:56):
bats an eye on.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
A bat's the eye about uh what is how what
do you call that? Double double tap?

Speaker 3 (55:04):
Double tapping him? But like that's crazy that Carl just
goes hold on for a second and just executes both
of them, like okay, so like.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
When Nazis killed Nazis, that's great.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
No, that's great. You know, let them so Conrad, uh,
Conrad Torture is the coffin maker because he knows that
they're involved at this point, and there's a great scene
where he's like, I need you to sign this this
form that says you were well treated blah blah blah
blah blah, that that no harm became of you and
He's like, I can't sign it. You won't sign it, No,

(55:42):
I can't. You broke all my fingers.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
And I'm like, this is a coffin maker and you
just broke all.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
His Oh my god, well no, that's not the joke.
Though I can't sign your formula says you didn't harm
me because you broke all my fingers.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
I know that, but I my thought was, oh my god,
this is supposed to be in the view of the world.
This is a coffin maker.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
So Maria's at the coffin maker trying to look for Frank.
Frank shows up and thinks Maria is a double agent
at this point, double crossing everyone. And this is where
I think you see Frank losing.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
It, starting to lose it, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
Starting to really lose it. He's lost it even right
away with the way that he was behaving, just like
we've seen in the other films that you start acting
a little loopy, a little weird. But this is the
point where he gets paranoid, a little megalamettoniacle, a little
control freakish, but he's there, Oh you double cross me.

(56:39):
But like the fact is that the Japanese dudes from
this movie set up a fishing net with huge fish
hooks on it and drops it on him. Frank screams
in pain as all these fish hooks dig into him
and he falls to the floor because again he's invisible.
He's naked and has huge freaking tune of fish hooks

(57:00):
through him, and we.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
Don't notice that they're huge until they.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
Start taking we see him, We see a glimpse of
them before the net falls on him, and when he screams,
it's not a like, we don't really understand how bad
this is until they do start taking them out, but
we know they're big, just not like fist big huge
tuna hooks Frank. Frank is going to hurt for a

(57:29):
long time from that net, and Maria tries to get
him out of it, and he's screaming, don't don't touch me,
it will make them go deeper, and she's terrified. But anyway,
the baronel sets it up. Carl ends up calling Conrad
at this point, trying to cover his ass, and tells him, Oh, look,

(57:51):
there's an invisible agent at large. You need to meet
me at this road junction. Okay, and I think this
is both Carl. I think it's Carl playing both sides, like,
I don't know who's gonna come out on top of this,
but either way, I'm gonna make sure that I survive.
And it sort of makes sense. It's confusing before you
watch the movie and as you're watching it, but it

(58:12):
makes sense by the end scene. What's going on with him? Right,
So he's like, you need to meet me at this
this intersection, and Conrad, it's like all of this full forgiveness.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
This is after the the Japanese take run up in
a They've got four SS guys watching in a convertible vehicle,
watching the place and all this stuff is taking place.
She's went in and that's why they're watching it. Then

(58:49):
the door opens and Frank goes in. Then there's this
this van that pulls up. Four guys get in and
take out two coffins.

Speaker 3 (59:03):
Yeah, and you're like, okay, and.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
They're not doing a dang thing. So this is another idiot.

Speaker 3 (59:08):
Yeah, Like you would think that like the the SS
guys would stop.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
Them or Ques instigate it.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
So anyway, they go back to like the Japanese embassy
and remove the fish hooks from from Frank, and we
have the Gestapo end up showing up, and Frank fights
the Japanese and grabs Maria because Maria is there to
get her out, and we actually see Maria getting picked

(59:37):
up with Frank not being there. He's invisible, so she's
just floating through the air and people are like completely
shocked as they see her floating through the air like
moving fast, and it's a very brief These are very
brief like snippets of the film, but they're a joy
to watch because they're just really well filmed and you
totally understand why people would just kind of stop and go,

(59:59):
what that hell is happening here? Like that's weird. This
woman is floating through the air at high speed with
her as with her because because Frank has her like
over his shoulder, so her ass is just up in
the air and she's flying through the air like it's
it's really it's both funny and it makes complete sense,
Like that's exactly wait.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
She's like, freak, put.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
Me down, put me down. No, we're getting out of here.
We're getting out of here. So like finally there's this
big I said, there's this big fight and Baron Baron
Aketo knocks down Conrad and says, you promised with your life.
This is a matter of honor, and I'll make you
die with honor. And he freaking murders Conrad on the ground,

(01:00:44):
and all the way through this like a Keto kept
saying to him, this is Japanese soil, this is Japanese soil,
because it's the embassy, right, and Conrad's I don't care,
and so you can kind of understand a Keto being like, fine,
frick you, I don't care either. He kills him and
then commits sepak who at the end of the movie

(01:01:07):
because he's like, Okay, well, I've dishonored. You know, I've
screwed up because I gave this this book with all
of our agents. Now the Americans are going to find
out it's my dishonor this is the only way to
clean the stain of my dishonor whatever. So Griffin, Frank
and Maria make it to the airfield where this this
this bombing run is gonna and it's a it's a

(01:01:28):
model Airfield's a.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Model airfield, and it really looks.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
Like a model air for nineteen forty two. It's pretty
darn good, though, Let's be fair, let's be fair. So
they they take the plane. They take off, they circle
over the airfield and say, we need to stop this raid,
and there's no way we're gonna be able to stop
it unless we just bomb the shit out of it.
So they open up the bombay doors on this bomber
and bomb the shit out of the airfield, blowing up

(01:01:53):
all the bombers that we're gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
Raid, and nobody stop this.

Speaker 3 (01:01:57):
Well no, there's there's akag fire going off, but.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
That's after they take off. Nobody goes to stop the
the bomber that's supposed to be scheduled.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
Later on because no one questions things. Remember what Carl
Carl says earlier in the movie, The fear doesn't like
it when people have their own ideas.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
That's running through this whole.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
Yes it is, and it's really good. It's really good.
So they bomb the ship out of it and they leave.
But like Frank goes, I'm getting a little woozy and
just passes out. But it's this again. They set it up.
It's the sleep thing, right yep.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
And then she's over because he tells her to go
to go towards England and he was not going to
allow her to give the codes.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
Because he doesn't trust her yet she doesn't.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
He doesn't trust her.

Speaker 3 (01:02:52):
Well, and it's the whole Remember, he's losing his mind.
He falls asleep and Maria's like, oh shit, I hear
the signal that that's like, you know, unidentified axis aircraft.
You're you know, identify yourself or whatever. And then like
the home guard starts opening up fire, opening fire on

(01:03:13):
this bomber, and Maria's like, uh, okay, I'm screwed, and
she gets on. She gets a parachute on and puts.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
He's already in a parachute though.

Speaker 3 (01:03:22):
She puts on a parachute, drags him out of the seat.
He is out, he's out cold, drags him. She drags
him out of the seat, pulls his shoe court and
throws him out the bombay door and his chute opens,
and then she dives after him, but the plane explodes
like right behind him, and there we see the couple
parachutes coming down, and you know the home guard is
gonna get A home guard comes up there and at this.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
Time, you know this is a set. It was kind
of funny that the guy gets to him because that's
the first person that's.

Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
Yes, sir, and they pull off, like the helmet and
goggles and.

Speaker 4 (01:03:57):
Then this bloyded doesn't half ahead, you're right, and then
like we didn't see like the others go and there's
a bloody woman, you know, like something like that. But anyway,
we see later on Frank is in the hospital. Maria
is brought in, but he's head of British Intelligence.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
He's got cold cream on him.

Speaker 3 (01:04:17):
He's got cold cream. He's like, I hate that shit.
But the the the intelligence guys like, I want to
introduce you to our agent, Maria. You know, Maria Sorenson,
she really is our person. And he apologizes to her
for not trusting her. But like he asked for her
to wipe off the cold cream, and it turns out
he's visible underneath. They already treated him, they already gave
him the antidote that he had had, and he smiles.

(01:04:39):
They kiss the end. Now, we have talked about this
movie for over an hour now, I'm pretty sure everyone
listening can tell we loved it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
We loved it. But it was a comedy.

Speaker 3 (01:04:53):
It's sci fi. It's action. Invisible band science fiction, it's action. Yeah,
it's actually a bit of a spy ruler in a way.
I don't think it's a very good spy ruller, but
there is spy stuff in it. It is a comedy,
and there is good comedy in it. What works the most,
h what.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
Works the most your idiot plot, the.

Speaker 3 (01:05:17):
Idiot plot where just the Nazis are idiots, and the
entire plot works. No, I mean the entire plot overall works. Yes,
it works, and it's because it keeps you entertained. Each
scene makes sense why it's there. I can't say that
there's no wasted time in the film, but like each

(01:05:38):
scene follows a scene that makes sense, like Okay, this
leads to this and then and then there shouldn't be
there shouldn't be these like gaps where you just say,
and also this happens or okay, the and thens are
like not the connective tissue you need to have therefore

(01:06:01):
or because of that, this happens. And that's what happens
in this movie. You have these connecting tissue that does work.
I actually like the acting. I think the acting's really good.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
Acting was pretty good. Even the two unincredited soldiers constantly
and you know they're the same ones, just you.

Speaker 3 (01:06:23):
Know, signaling and.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
And they're about the same height because they're like six
sex or something.

Speaker 3 (01:06:30):
Every time they did it, I was just like a
few every time. It was really funny. I liked how
they actually integrated the war at first, like then it
became obviously like a major part of the movie, but like, oh,
we're leading up to the war, and then we see
how Frank changes his mind but still holds to his

(01:06:52):
morals and this stuff is really dangerous. Did anything in
this movie not work? The special effects worked all the
way through it. I thought the special effects for nineteen
forty we're stunning.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
Some of the I don't think it didn't work because
you knew it was gonna be chee cheese. Was the models,
especially after seeing the six six wheeled jeep.

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
The six wheel jeep is so weird. I want to
say that they but that's awesome. It's awesome. But the
I like the six wheel jeep. There was a Studebaker
truck that wasn't the US six, not the two and
a half times.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
And it had plywood stuck on it.

Speaker 3 (01:07:36):
Yeah, they clearly modified it. But it's like you can
tell that they do not have access to actual German stuff.
This is eighteen forty two, so they're using US stuff.
And then modifying it to make it look weird.

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):
Even the models are looking kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:07:52):
Well, they're all US models, Yeah, US planes and things
like that. It works really really well, but I don't
think anything true really dumps into the area does not work.
I actually think this Maybe.

Speaker 1 (01:08:06):
What I was gonna say was if it was more serious,
that the the models that they had would have taken
you out of them.

Speaker 3 (01:08:19):
Maybe because this is this is supposed to be a
bit humorous. I actually think this might be better than
even the Vincent Price Invisible Man movie, though I will
say the as like a serious movie, the Visible the
Vincent Price Invisible like Return of the Invisible Man. That's
that's way better than this, because this is this is
a much more lighthearted movie. But this might be more

(01:08:42):
enjoyable to watch. This is a much more fun watch.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
Well, we said that about the Invisible Woman.

Speaker 3 (01:08:48):
Woman was really funny.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
Us. Yeah, it's they have to use the comedy angle
on the Invisible.

Speaker 3 (01:08:56):
The Invisible series.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
Otherwise the of madness madness will.

Speaker 3 (01:09:07):
It's too much, it gets too dark, Like the first
Invisible Man movie is not bad. It's not great.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
Though you did not like it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:14):
I think it's not great. I said it's it's not great.

Speaker 1 (01:09:17):
And I didn't enjoy it. I don't think I enjoyed
it at all. Maybe I did, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:09:23):
There's aspects of it that I did enjoy. I thought
the Vincent Price one was far superior, far superior. Like
the sequel, this is I think while I enjoyed The
Invisible Woman, this is much more enjoyable than The Invisible Woman.
I would still recommend The Invisible Woman. My opinion does
not change on that movie. I recommend this movie. This

(01:09:44):
was a lot of fun to watch. I would even
go so far as I would watch this multiple more
times just to get the little details out of it.
Darling your opinion.

Speaker 1 (01:09:55):
I liked it, I really did.

Speaker 3 (01:09:56):
Do you recommend it?

Speaker 1 (01:09:57):
Yes, and I'd say this is probably about sit.

Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
You'd think this is a six. This is a seven
and a half. To me, this is a seven and
a half because of nothing really fully falls into that
it does not work. I really enjoyed watching it. We
laughed all the way through it and enjoyed watching it.
There there's historical inaccuracies, yes, but since this is not
a serious movie, you don't have to take those as much.

Speaker 1 (01:10:23):
Yeah, that's what I was trying to put out to
you is the I don't think the the model work
would have worked if it was a serious film.

Speaker 3 (01:10:34):
Yeah, yeah, but maybe we should just hold it there
we do. We both recommend it, we both liked it.
I'm impressed with the range that the Invisible Man series
has taken us so far, like this wide gamut of
like super serious to super comedy to like war, almost
war propaganda, but like in a good way.

Speaker 1 (01:10:55):
It was more war probably, Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:10:57):
Hold on. I will say from a uh to go
act on the what didn't work? I will say, from
a modern perspective, the casual racism and the yellow face
clearly don't work. That clearly does not work, but it
makes sense in the historical context. Well, movie, You've.

Speaker 1 (01:11:16):
Got to understand that any Japanese actor would not have
been in Hollywood.

Speaker 3 (01:11:22):
No, they would have. Well, I think the internment stuff
was still happening early because this is this was clearly
filmed early in forty two, so that was still going on. Yes,
most likely any real Japanese American would have been encamped
or at least not hired. There would have been too

(01:11:42):
much question There would have been too many questions about
that I'm surprised that they got any Asian people into
this movie at all. To be to be fair, I'm
glad they did, but I'm also a little ashamed that
they yellow faced an actor for the role. Let's leave
it there. We do recommend the movie. You have to
have like the proper context for the movie clearly, but I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
Eron, I'm DARLINGE.

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
Good evening, and keep watching the Skies. At no point
in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to
anything that could be considered a rational thought.

Speaker 2 (01:12:20):
Thanks for listening to this episode of This Week in Geek.
Hungry for more, check out our website if this weekn
geek dot net. You can subscribe to the podcast, browse
our Twitter and Instagram, and leave your thoughts on today's topics.
If you'd like to give us some feedback, send us
an email at Feedback at This Week in Geek dot Net.
Tune in next time, and remember.

Speaker 3 (01:12:39):
Lower your shields and surrender your listenership. We would be
on a if you would join us. Thank you for
your cooperation. Good night,

All Episodes

Earth vs Soup Ep 275 - Invisible Agent (1942)

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Earth vs Soup Ep 275 - Invisible Agent (1942)