Claude Rains is one of the most undervalued stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. It's ironic that a familiar face that few could identify should have made his name in a film in which he spends most of the action swathed in bandages or invisible. In truth, the success of this superb adaptation of HG Wells's novel is down to John P Fulton and John J Mescall's pioneering special effects and the eerie atmosphere conjured up by horror maestro James Whale. When playful pranks give way to megalomania and murder, the hidden dangers of Rains's miraculous concoction begin to take effect.

After experimenting on himself and becoming invisible, scientist Jack Griffin, now aggressive due to the drug's effects, seeks a way to reverse the experiment at any cost.