The Invisible Woman (1940 film) Fred Rinaldo wrote the screenplay in slapstick style, while H. G. Wells was again credited as the original author of "The Invisible Man". The film was directed by A. Edward Sutherland. It was the first role for Maria Montez. This film runs for 70 minutes and was filmed in black and white with mono sound. The special effects were produced by John P. Fulton, who earned another nomination for an Oscar following his comparable effects work in "The Invisible Man Returns". John D. Hall also was nominated for the Oscar. The John Howard who appears in the film and in
Invisible Man in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005, calling it "the quintessential American picaresque of the 20th century", rather than a "race novel, or even a bildungsroman". Malcolm Bradbury and Richard Ruland recognize an existential vision with a "Kafka-like absurdity". According to "The New York Times", former U.S. president Barack Obama modeled his memoir "Dreams from My Father" on Ellison's novel. Ellison says in his introduction to the 30th Anniversary Edition that he started to write what would eventually become Invisible Man in a barn in Waitsfield, Vermont in the summer of 1945 while on sick leave