A man buys H.G. Wells' novel 'The Invisible Man' and recreates Griffin's formula (see trivia section for recipe). Rendered invisible, he strips off his clothes and goes on a crime spree. Returning to his apartment he dons his clothes and a mask, and goes out to pick pockets. He is chased by police and in the ensuing scuffle, they pull off his clothes and mask and find themselves fighting 'nothing'. Invisible again, the thief torments the terrified policemen who comically run away. Predating James Whale's 'The Invisible Man' (1933) by almost 25 years, Ferdinand Zecca's film is one of the first to attempt invisibility special effects. The trick is done by in-camera double exposure, so when the thief is invisible but still dressed, he is translucent (eventually the use of travelling mattes would avoid this problem) and the unexposed 'black' areas of the initial exposure were not perfect, so some image of the 'invisible' man is noticeable, but the film was made in 1909, so all this can be forgiven. "An Invisible Thief" is an inventive entry in the early history of special effects cinematography and worth watching by any cinephile.
Review of The Invisible Thief
