Return To Insanity
After three relatively unrelated sequels that bore little resemblance to the first The Invisible Man film, 1944’s The Invisible Man’s Revenge brings murder and power-hungry insanity back into the story. Jon Hall, who starred in The Invisible Agent two years prior, returns as a new character, Robert Griffin, who isn’t related to any of the Griffins that appeared in the first two films. Instead, he’s a murderous man intent on forcing a family to give him all of their wealth and their daughter’s hand in marriage.
Griffin becomes invisible by tricking a scientist, Dr. Drury (John Carradine), into believing that he will help the doctor in his invisibility research. In reality, Griffin plans on using the invisibility to force the Herricks, Sir Jasper and Lady Irene (Lester Matthews and Gale Sondergaard), to give over a part of their estate and their daughter, Julie (Evelyn Ankers), in marriage. Now, the Herricks are far from innocent in this affair (you’ll have to watch the film to find out more about them), and their own deception drives Griffin even more insane.
Helping Griffin and adding some much needed humor to the story is Leon Errol as Herbert Higgins, an opportunistic cobbler who is low on money and sees his partnership with Griffin as a way to increase his cash flow. There is a hilarious sequence in the film where Griffin helps Higgins win a dart game in order to make rent for the month.
Griffin learns from Dr. Drury that he can become visible with a blood transfusion. The only problem with that is that the donor has to die because they must be drained of their blood. Drury proves this with a transfusion that he gives to his loyal dog, Brutus, who plays a key role later in the film.
In Griffin’s way stands a reporter named Mark Foster (Alan Curtis), who happens to be engaged to Julie. He quickly figures out who Griffin is and what he’s really up to, and the duo battle one another as Griffin attempts to take Foster’s blood in order to become visible once again.
It was refreshing to see a return to horror with The Invisible Man’s Revenge. Jon Hall, John Carradine, and the rest of the cast did excellent jobs. Despite Griffin being a clear cut villain in the film, the Herrick family wasn’t necessarily as pure as the driven snow, either. Dr. Drury appeared to mean well, but he gets caught up into Griffin’s terrible plan and may or may not pay a severe price.
I really liked this film. It is often seen as Universal’s last major attempt to bleed out a little more money from the The Invisible Man franchise, but it’s still a very good film in my opinion. Give the film a chance. You just might like it.
Thanks for reading. I’ll have something a little lighter for you all to check out in tomorrow’s Thirty-One Days O’Horror entry!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 