Cliff Taylor is an ex-con who wants to go straight, but since being released from prison on parole, he finds it hard to find and hold a job due to his criminal past. Cliff's younger brother Tim is worried because he cannot afford to marry his girlfriend Peggy and increasingly disillusioned about being able to make a position for himself in the world honestly. Afraid that Tim might end up leading a life of crime like himself, Cliff decides to help him find the money to settle down. He tells his family he has found a job as a salesman, but in reality he gets back to ex fellow convict Charles Martin and they organize a number of robberies. With the money he gets from his criminal activities, Cliff is able to buy a garage for his brother, who is now able to get married. Cliff, in the meantime, decides to quit the gang. However, after a failed robbery, Martin and his pals hide in Tim's garage. The police find out, and Tim is taken to the police station. Cliff manages to exonerate his brother from the charges, but in exchange Tim has to identify the robbers and testify against them. Before the police can proceed to arrest Martin, Cliff meets him in his house and tells him to escape before being caught. However, Martin's pals, seeing their boss and Cliff together, understand that they are trying to escape and kill them.
Cast
Cast notes:
Leo Gorcey, who would later become known for playing "Slip Mahoney" in the Bowery Boys series of films, has a small part as the head stockroom boy.
Production
The film was originally set to star James Cagney and John Garfield. Raft then replaced Garfield. Holden ended up replacing Cagney. Raft had just signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. During a fight scene, William Holden accidentally hit George Raft and caused a gash. Raft and Bogart made another film together the following year, Raoul Walsh's smash hitThey Drive by Night, again starring Raft with Bogart billed fourth in a supporting role. Bogart and Holden worked together again fifteen years later in Sabrina, with Holden billed under Bogart and Audrey Hepburn.
Time Out Film Guide calls Invisible Stripes "A thoroughly predictable tale of the tribulations of an ex-con." A New York Times review from 1940 commented about the unusual lack of prison scenes in the movie. "Let us hasten in all gratitude to add that "Invisible Stripes" is a prison picture in which the stripes are much less visible than usual, most of the action being paroled to the outside in the capable custody of George Raft, Jane Bryan, William Holden and Humphrey Bogart. There are no jute mill scenes, no bullying guards, no big prison break sequence; in fact, we don't understand why they've suddenly commuted our sentence from the customary duration of the picture to a brief prison prelude, a mere graduating exercise at the beginning: good behavior, maybe."
