Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) / The Fat Man (1951) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - May 15, 1951

Three or so years after the Vincent Price voiced cameo "appearance" of the Invisible Man at the very end of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), the famed comedy returned to the Universal Monster well for this entertaining special effects laden romp. It has a better reputation than most of the other Abbott and Costello movies of the early to mid-fifties, but I have a greater nostalgic affection for Meet the Mummy.

The second half of this double feature is The Fat Man, a film adaptation of the popular radio mystery series of the same name. Whether it was meant to, or would have, birthed a series of films featuring the titular corpulent detective is moot. Dashiell Hammett's imprisonment during the Black List era killed the radio show and, one might suspect, any interest in a cinematic series version.