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Excellent but underrated film

best movie i've ever seen.

A Masterpiece!

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

An Iconic Cast of Warner Bros. Gangsters and Other Actors Worthy of Note are All Brought Together in This Typical Social Commentary that the Studio was Well Known. This One is About Ex-Cons Not Getting a Fair Shake in the Unemployment Line.Notable for Not Only Humphrey Bogart in One of His Last Pictures Before He Went Into the "Big Time", but George Raft Riding His Now Unfathomable Star Power, a Very Young and Handsome William Holden in His Second Film, Flora Robson as the All Loving Mother, Paul Kelly and Marc Lawrence as Hoodlums, and the "Babes", Jane Bryan and Lee Patrick. All Doing Typical Good Work.The Movie is Never Preachy and Seems to be Even Handed on its Subject Matter. The Characters are More than One Dimensional and Overall a Pretty Good Movie. There is a Rousing Robbery and Escape Sequence with Cars Screeching and Bullets Flying.Overall, Slightly Above Average with the Cast Elevating it Somewhat to the Must See Category. Nothing, Story Wise, is Special. Still It's Got Something for Those Attracted to Slick WB Gangster Flicks and Fans of Raft, Bogart, and Holden.

It's high time this movie is released on DVD, it was never released before on VHS. This is one of my favorite Warner Bros. gangster films that stars both George Raft & Humphrey Bogart. I'm a fan of both actors & the gangster genre. But this isn't just another typical "knock down, drag out, car chasing, gun blasting gangster film, it's also a social commentary on just how tough it really was to live in depression era 1930's America. In the early 1930's public enemies like Al Capone, John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly etc. were celebrated folk hero's & the public had no respect for law & order until G-men like Melvin Purviss, Elliot Ness & Thomas E. Dewey cracked down & stopped these colorful characters dead in their tracks. Only then the tide turned & the people had a new found respect & admiration for law & order.Invisible Stripes opens in Sing Sing prison with Cliff Taylor (Raft) & Chuck Martin (Bogart) on their way out of prison. Raft chooses the straight & narrow path while Bogart chooses to take up where he left off as a criminal. Both men have justifiable reasons for their paths. Bogie reasons that the odds are stacked up too high against them to go straight because of the economic hardship & the way the system is set up. A paroled convict only has a short time to get a job or end up back in jail. Raft soon finds out just how tough getting a job is & how cold & unfair the outside world is to an ex-con. He is greeted with suspicion, distrust & joblessness, his girlfriend quickly rejects him as soon as he gets out. Because Raft is an ex-con now he's not good enough for her anymore.Raft has a kid brother named Tim played by a young & "very different" William Holden, Tim is a grease monkey & dreams of a better life & wants a garage of his own. When the going gets tough he starts to become rebellious but Raft discourages him from following in his convict footsteps & beats some sense into him. Raft needs to get from "Rags to Riches" quickly & looks up Bogart & decides to join Chucks gang in a series of bank robberies just to get enough jack saved up to buy an auto shop for him & his kid brother (Holden) to keep him straight. After Cliff quits the gang in a subsequent botched up heist Chuck uses Tim's garage as a hideout until the heat cools off. Chuck lies to Tim by making him think that Cliff was in on the armoured car heist to assure his silence. After helping Chuck & his gang escape Tim is later arrested by the police & thrown in jail, placing Raft in the middle between a loyalty to Chuck & his kid brother Tim. But Cliff will not let his kid brother take the rap for Chuck & his gang & convinces him to rat on Chuck & the other gangsters by identifying them at the police station. Chuck helps Cliff anyway against the other gangsters out to shoot Raft for betraying them & Bogart even takes a bullet for Raft as both are shot & killed. Bogart is a likable bad guy in this movie unlike his other gangsters during this period like "Angels With Dirty Faces" & "The Roaring Twenties" We all sympathize with Raft's character as he suffers much hardship, injustice & humiliation from the outside world because he's wearing invisible stripes. Bogart's role as Chuck Martin is also sympathetic in a way because of the bond & close friendship that grew between the 2 men while they were in prison. It was tragic to see both actors getting killed in the end. If you're a fan of Raft & Bogart & the gangster genre this is a good watch. Recommended !

The main theme through most of the film was excellent. George Raft is being released from prison on parole. He honestly wants to succeed and does his best to stay clean, but has a hard time getting a fair shake on the outside. He's got a devil of a time getting a job and the system seems out to put a lot of roadblocks in his way. This social justice theme is good and provokes a lot of thought,...then it all gets lost as the plot takes a crazy turn that tends to undo so much of the original message. In so ways, it looked like two different films melded together! At about one hour into the film, Raft is taken in by the police for questioning about a robbery. He was innocent and ultimately is exonerated and at the same time he's just completed his one year of parole. However, now that his life is falling into place, he goes back to a life of crime!!! Yes, the film tried to show that he was doing this to help his struggling brother, but it still made no sense. After all, throughout the film, he stood up for what was right and was a decent guy you couldn't help but like,...and then THAT?!?! It just wasn't at all convincing and helped to hopelessly muddle the message.This is a real good example of the actors being better than the material--and it's just too bad. While still a decent gangster film, it could have been a better gangster film with a real message--something that is just tossed aside for some inexplicable reason.

Two great tough-guy actors, Raft and Bogart, play ex-cons. Bogart leaves prison and goes right back to the gangster life. Raft tries to go straight but, distressed by his younger brother's economic hardship, finally decides to join Bogart's gang pals.The pace is very slow until Raft joins Bogart in the robbery gang. The second act involves a good bit of sentimental and repetitive elaboration of how hard it is for an ex-con to get a break, how life is unfair to the working man, and how much George Raft loves his mother. A certain sort of New Deal/AFL-CIO sensibility permeates the script. At one point, a factory boss offers Raft $30 a week ($10 more than Raft was making at his last job) if Raft will spy on the factory workers, who are dissatisfied with working conditions. Raft punches the boss -- insulted that the guy would even ask him to be a stool pigeon. And there's a little imbroglio between Holden and some stereotypical rich guy (with top hat and limousine) who unintentionally insults Holden's fiancee.But after the proletarian class-struggle theme is exhausted, Raft joins up with Bogart's gang and the REAL action begins, featuring some well-choreographed shootouts and chase scenes.Raft's performance is kind of weak, because he's trying to play a nice, sympathetic character -- it just doesn't work. Bogart is delightful as the disillusioned cynic, who is nonetheless loyal and reasonably noble in the end. A special pleasure in 30s flicks like this is the double-breasted suit-and-fedora gangster style. It's hard to imagine modern-day hoodlums dressing so sharp (even if they were gauche enough to wear their hats indoors). (NOTE: Contrary to another member's comment, William Holden plays George Raft's younger brother, not his son.)