Review

The 26 half-hour episodes of the science fiction series "The Invisible Man" were originally broadcast on British ATV during the 1958-1959 season. It should not to be confused with the recent Sci-Fi Channel series of the same name, which featured Vincent Ventresca. Nor is it to be mistaken for the David McCallum series, which played on NBC in 1975.

This one is the granddaddy of "The Invisible Man" TV franchise and is about as obscure a television series as you are likely find. I'm sure there is an interesting reason why they saw fit to release something this unknown on DVD, but for now your guess is as good as mine.

It was a pretty decent program for 1958 but is more a curiosity than anything else 50 years later. It was actually a precursor to the James Bond craze a of the mid-1960's. Ralph Smart was the producer and he and his writing team would follow up "The Invisible Man" with "Danger Man"; which Patrick McGoohan would later follow up with "The Prisoner".

Jim Turner plays Dr. Peter Brady, a young British scientist who is accidentally turned permanently invisible. While hoping for the discovery of a process that will reverse his condition, Brady kills time helping MI-5 or some other British intelligence service with their espionage operations in Europe.

The series is actually pretty faithful to the spirit of the H.G. Wells story as Brady walks around on camera dressed in an overcoat and gloves, with bandages covering his face. The gimmick was that during the show's original run, it was never revealed that Turner was the actor playing the title role. In fact this stayed secret until the 1980's. Apparently the identity mystery was not enough to hook viewers and the series was not renewed for a second season. But it left quite a legacy as the spy genre (both parody and serious) soon replaced the western as the primary action adventure focus of television.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.