By Glenn Erickson
The Body Disappears
Brief Synopsis
A scientist's invisibility formula gets him in trouble with the police.
Cast & Crew
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D. Ross Lederman
Director
Jeffrey Lynn
Peter DeHaven [III]
Jane Wyman
Joan Shotesbury
Edward Everett Horton
Professor Shotesbury
Herbert Anderson
"Doc" George Appleby
Marguerite Chapman
Christine Lunceford
Film Details
Also Known As
The Black Widow
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
Dec
6,
1941
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 12m
Sound
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
6,481ft
Synopsis
At a courtroom hearing, "Doc" George Appleby recalls the events that led to the disappearance of Peter DeHaven III: The night of his bachelor party, Peter passes out from drinking. In order to get revenge on practical joker Peter, his friends take his unconscious body and place it on a table in the college dissecting room. Moments later, Professor Shotesbury, who is convinced that he has found the means to bring the dead back to life, finds Peter and steals him with the help of his servant Willie. Shotesbury injects Peter with a serum he has developed, and Peter does indeed awaken, but shortly thereafter, becomes invisible. Appleby's story is continued by Shotesbury's daughter Joan: When Peter wakes up the next day with a terrible hangover, he begs Shotesbury to reverse his invisibility as he is to marry Christine Lunceford. While Shotesbury works on an antidote, Willie drives Peter to Christine's house. There, however, the invisible Peter overhears Christine talking to Robert Struck and learns that Christine loves Robert, but intends to marry Peter for his money. Meanwhile, one of Shotesbury's neighbors has overheard him talking to his invisible monkey, and convinced that Shotesbury is insane, the man assembles the college faculty to determine what to do. At the meeting, Shotesbury admits that he has made a man invisible, and the faculty is now sure that he is mentally unstable. Back at Shotesbury's house, Peter and Joan become better acquainted. Hearing that Robert has been arrested, Peter decides to bail him out, hoping that Robert will marry Christine and he will then be free to marry Joan. When the faculty tell Joan that they have committed her father to a sanitarium, she is worried that Peter will not receive the antidote in time and will be permanently invisible. She injects herself with the serum and she and Peter drive to the sanitarium where Shotesbury also uses the serum. Now that all three are invisible, they leave for home. Shotesbury finishes the story for the judge, explaining that when he and Joan arrived at their home, Peter was not in the car. Then, in the nick of time, Peter arrives in the courtroom, Shotesbury injects him with the antidote and the now visible Peter embraces Joan.
Director
D. Ross Lederman
Director
Cast
Jeffrey Lynn
Peter DeHaven [III]
Jane Wyman
Joan Shotesbury
Edward Everett Horton
Professor Shotesbury
Herbert Anderson
"Doc" George Appleby
Marguerite Chapman
Christine Lunceford
David Bruce
Jimmie Barbour
Willie Best
Willie
Ivan Simpson
Dean Claxton
Michael Ames
Bill
Dewolf Hopper
Terrence Abbott
Natalie Schafer
Mrs. Lunceford
Charles Halton
Professor Moggs
Sidney Bracey
Barrett
Craig Stevens
Robert Struck
Wade Boteler
Inspector Deming
Frank Ferguson
Professor McAuley
Romaine Callender
Professor Barkley
Vera Lewis
Mrs. Mogg
Paul Stanton
Prosecutor
John Hamilton
Judge
Stuart Holmes
Waiter
Charles Drake
Arthur
Jack Mower
Clerk
Jimmy Fox
Clerk
Peggy Diggins
Bridesmaid
Lorraine Gettman
Bridesmaid
Hank Mann
Porter
Creighton Hale
Professor Edwards
Wedgwood Nowell
Professor
Houseley Stevenson
Professor
Harry Lewis
Elevator boy
Mary Brodel
Norah
George Meader
Professor Ponsonby
Georgia Carroll
Telephone girl
Tom Stevenson
James
Eddy Chandler
Sergeant
John Dilson
Dr. Jasper
Frank Sully
Attendant
Sol Gorss
Attendant
Leah Baird
Nurse
Roland Drew
Producer
George Meeker
Producer
Dick Elliott
Producer
Eddie Kane
Stage manager
Thornton Edwards
Motorcycle cop
Ann Edmonds
Juanita Stark
Paula Francis
Crew
Milo Anderson
Gowns
Hugh Cummings
Dialogue Director
Scott Darling
Original Screenplay
Elmer Decker
Assistant Director
Edwin B. Dupar
Special Effects
Bryan Foy
Producer
Esdras Hartley
Art Director
Howard Jackson
Music
Stanley Jones
Sound
Erna Lazarus
Original Screenplay
Frederick Richards
Film Editor
Allen G. Siegler
Director of Photography
Ben Stoloff
Associate Producer
Perc Westmore
Makeup Artist
Film Details
Also Known As
The Black Widow
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
Dec
6,
1941
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 12m
Sound
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
6,481ft
Articles
The Body Disappears -
By 1941 Jane Wyman had been acting for ten years without breaking into the top ranks at Warner Bros.; she consistently played supporting roles or worried girlfriends. The fantasy farce The Body Disappears (1941) is an unlikely cross between the fantasies Topper (1937) and The Invisible Man (1933). Told in flashback at a trial, the tale starts with a college prank. Friends of the drunken student Jeffrey Lynn place him on a dissection table in the medical school. The dotty professor Edward Everett Horton administers a serum that he thinks will bring Lynn back to life, but it instead makes him invisible. The silly complications see the professor becoming invisible as well, followed by his daughter (Jane Wyman). Her main function in the show is to fall in love with Lynn, and wrest him away from his deceitful fiancée (Marguerite Chapman), who is seeing another boy (Craig Stevens) on the side. A driverless car, invisible fistfights and invisible kisses are comic highlights. Critics were split on whether the film was inventive or simply derivative of Universal's 'invisible' series, which the year before had produced its own comedy, The Invisible Woman. Jeffrey Lynn remains invisible through most of the movie, leaving Edward Everett Horton to hold screen center as the mad professor hustled away to an asylum. Variety ignored the young cast and said that Edward Everett Horton and his comic assistant Willie Best carried the show, sharing the acting honors fifty-fifty. The likeable comedy has a good excuse for failing to reach its audience: it was released the night before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and played during a week when nervous Americans stayed home to listen to news on the radio.
By Glenn Erickson
By Glenn Erickson
The Body Disappears -
By 1941 Jane Wyman had been acting for ten years without breaking into the top ranks at Warner Bros.; she consistently played supporting roles or worried girlfriends. The fantasy farce The Body Disappears (1941) is an unlikely cross between the fantasies Topper (1937) and The Invisible Man (1933). Told in flashback at a trial, the tale starts with a college prank. Friends of the drunken student Jeffrey Lynn place him on a dissection table in the medical school. The dotty professor Edward Everett Horton administers a serum that he thinks will bring Lynn back to life, but it instead makes him invisible. The silly complications see the professor becoming invisible as well, followed by his daughter (Jane Wyman). Her main function in the show is to fall in love with Lynn, and wrest him away from his deceitful fiancée (Marguerite Chapman), who is seeing another boy (Craig Stevens) on the side. A driverless car, invisible fistfights and invisible kisses are comic highlights. Critics were split on whether the film was inventive or simply derivative of Universal's 'invisible' series, which the year before had produced its own comedy, The Invisible Woman. Jeffrey Lynn remains invisible through most of the movie, leaving Edward Everett Horton to hold screen center as the mad professor hustled away to an asylum. Variety ignored the young cast and said that Edward Everett Horton and his comic assistant Willie Best carried the show, sharing the acting honors fifty-fifty. The likeable comedy has a good excuse for failing to reach its audience: it was released the night before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and played during a week when nervous Americans stayed home to listen to news on the radio.
By Glenn Erickson
Quotes
This one's got a lily in his hands. He may be dead, but he's neat about it.- William
They must have embalmed him in Scotch and soda. He's so saturated if a breeze hit him, he'd ripple.- William
Trivia
Notes
The film's working title was The Black Widow. This film marked Natalie Schafer's film debut.
