Series background:

Dr. Peter Brady is a scientist working in a government lab on problems of light diffraction when he stumbles across a form of radiation that allows him to make small animals invisible.  While writing up the results of his experiments a door to the radiation chamber accidently opens and Dr. Brady is bathed in the mysterious rays, causing him to become invisible.  Now he works day and night to try to discover a way to turn himself visible again.

He doesn't get as much time to work on a solution as he'd like though.  Between government officials sending him on top secret assignments, solving crimes, stopping spies and preventing a murder or two, Peter Brady is a very busy man.

This season:

The second and final season of this crime drama/spy show plays a lot like the first one.  In each episode Brady has to stop a spy or solve a crime.  They add an international flavor to the series, courtesy of whatever location shots they could find laying around the studio, by having Peter jet around the world in order to help Her Majesty's government.  This set of shows has the transparent doctor going to the Mediterranean, France, the Middle East and elsewhere.

The show only runs half an hour in length so the plots are pretty simplistic and predictable.  There just isn't a lot of time for intricate plots or double crosses, and they play out pretty much as you would expect them too.  That doesn't mean they're bad, just that you can see what's going to happen before the program actually reaches the climax.

Some of the better shows included in this set have Dr. Brady fighting to stop a group of Nazi's who are trying to create an invisible army and trying to locate a colleague who has created an anti-gravitation machine and then vanishes.  The best episode though occurs early in the season when Brady is approached on a train by a woman who has escaped from a mental hospital.  She claims that she's sane but that there is a giant conspiracy to drive her crazy.  Add to the mix an innocent man on death row with the clock ticking away and you have an interesting episode.
 
Like the first season, these shows have some good special effects for the time.  Though it is easy to figure out how they were done, it is easy to suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the show.  In addition to the standard invisibility effects, doors opening by them selves and objects on strings floating across rooms, they threw in a few new ideas.  There are a couple of times when Peter takes off his hat and allows someone to see that not only is the top of his head invisible, but they can see the there is nothing inside the bandages.  A simple effect, but it works very well.  There are also some more grandiose effects that took some time, such as the time a levitating mine detector makes its way across a mine field on its own.
 

The thirteen episodes that make up the second season of The Invisible Man are presented on a pair of DVDs that come in a single width keepcase.

Audio:

This set comes with the original mono soundtrack, split into two channels, a new 5.1 mix as well as mono French and Spanish tracks.  I have to admit that I like the two channel mono soundtrack a bit more than the 5.1 mix.  The dialog is more crisp in the original.  There is a bit of hiss in the background but the level is low and it's not bothersome.  The 5.1 mix is just a bit more muddled than the mono track, and the major difference is that the incidental music uses the full soundstage and is much more forceful.  The music is a bit too loud in some places, obscuring the dialog, though this only happens rarely.  Both audio tracks sound very good for the age of this show though.

Video:

The full frame video has been restored and looks very good.  There is a good amount of detail and the lines are tight.  The one area that the image does fall down a bit is the contrast, it isn't as great as it should be.  Dark areas and night scenes are too dark, and black areas come across as flat planes with no contours or details.   It's not a huge problem thankfully.  The prints used are very good, with very little in the way of damage.  There are occasional spots, but these are fairly rare.  Overall a very nice looking set, especially for a British show from the 50's.

Extras:

There are no extras.

Final Thoughts:

The Invisible Man is a solid crime show from the late 50's.  There aren't a lot of surprises or much suspense for today's viewers, but the show has a certain charm to it that makes it fun to watch.  The audio and video quality is very good for a show of this age, especially one that doesn't have a large following.  If you enjoyed the first season, this will give you more of the same.  Recommended.