The Invisible Man Returns

Willie Spears: [Gasps] ‘Ghost!’
Geoffrey Radcliffe: [Sneezes]
Willie Spears: ‘What kinda ghosts sneeze?’
Geoffrey Radcliffe: ‘It's cold in the other world, so cold!’

The second film in the Invisible Man series of Universal classic horror, this one is also very much a mystery movie that also has a lot of comedic bits in ways similar to the original film, although it never gets as silly as some of the films in this series that come after.

One of Vincent Price’s earliest forays into horror, he plays our lead, the often invisible Geoffrey Radcliffe. It also features Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Richard Cobb, Nan Grey as Helen Manson, John Sutton as Dr. Frank Griffin, Cecil Kellaway as Inspector Sampson and Alan Napier as Willie Spears.

This movie is less a return of the invisible man and more of a new invisible man going down a similar path. This is something that features in later invisible movies in this series as well. In this particular film, our leading man Geoffrey is accused of murdering his brother, which he did not do. To help find the real killer, he and his girlfriend Helen turn to their friend Frank Griffin, who is the original invisible man’s brother, to use the formula to make Geoffrey invisible as well. Their plan is to use the power of invisibility to find the real killer while Dr. Griffin works on a cure for the dangerous side effects of the formula that brought his brother low in the previous picture.

Geoffrey’s sudden disappearance from his prison cell, especially since it occurs after Dr. Griffin had visited him, arouses the suspicions of Inspector Sampson, who remembers the case of the original Dr. Griffin and his invisible escapades. The inspector is thus watching for both the invisible Radcliffe and both Dr. Griffin and Helen for leads on his whereabouts for most of the film.

"Are you claiming that you made the steak invisible a well?"

As Geoffrey seeks to clear his name, the police are after him as they still consider him to be his brother’s murderer as they lack evidence to the contrary. What follows is a movie that is certainly entertaining, and with Vincent Price onboard, one can hardly go wrong, but it also feels like a rehash of the previous and largely better original Invisible Man film combined with a whodunit. This makes it less horror than the first film, although the deleterious effects of the invisible formula show up here as well, albeit to a lesser extent, and this film has a happier ending than the original movie.

The original Slim Goodbody

The special effects are good for the time, similar to the first film’s surprisingly decent effects. There are some fun moments with smoke, grabbing the clothes from a scarecrow, and of course the scene in which the introduction quotes occur. Some of the later films see a noticeable decline in this quality, but this one does not. I have a special enjoyment of practical effects as these were all we had when I was a kid, and when they’re done this well and this long ago, it feels especially impressive.

The highlights of the performances belong to Price, Hardwicke, and Kellaway, while the rest are at least good; I found Dr. Griffin a bit on the blander side. A lot of these older movies, horror or no, have these supporting male characters that are there because the studio feels they are needed, but don’t give them enough to do when such a character isn’t the main heartthrob or focus of the plot, so they can feel superfluous at times. He’s nowhere near the worst in this category, and Sutton makes the best of it which helps elevate the character a bit more than average, thankfully. Grey plays the love interest well enough here; I feel she gives it more presence than many other of these ‘hapless love interests of men becoming monsters’ often did, and she’s resourceful enough to make Helen more than just a helpless love interest. Price seems like he’s having a ball in this role, as it allows him to demonstrate his ability to play someone sinking into madness while also having some lighter moments, but Price makes every role shine so that’s no surprise here.

"Couldn't you hold something besides a loaded gun to prove that you're invisible?!"

Everything hinges on our invisible protagonist, whom we find sympathetic almost immediately. The police guessing that he’s invisible so early on is a bit of a letdown, as they don’t catch him till almost the end, despite knowing, or at least surmising, that he’s invisible for most of the picture. We also have a solid idea of who the murderer is almost as fast as the police guess that Geoffrey is invisible, so a lot of the possible suspense that could have really seen this movie rise to similar heights of its immediate predecessor is lost, which is a shame.

Just having Vincent Price onboard gives it a bit of a boost, and it is worth a watch to be sure, but it could have been even better had it not spelled so much out so early. It’s not a bad movie, and was a fun watch, but it had so much more potential and could have been great instead of merely good.

Two and a half invisible men out of four.

— Alan Napier is probably most recognized for playing Alfred Pennyworth, Batman’s butler, in the 60s TV version of Batman.

— Vincent Price had another tie-in with Alan Napier in the aforementioned 60s TV version of Batman, where he played Egghead on occasion.

— Nan Grey also played Lili, the subject of the countess’s attempt at art in Dracula’s Daughter.

— Sir Cedric Hardwicke returns to Universal Horror in both The Ghost of Frankenstein and The Invisible Agent.

— Cecil Kellaway is another one of those actors from this time period that starred in a bewildering number of films, usually as a supporting character like he is here, and even played Santa Claus, a role I feel he’s a natural for, on the TV show Bewitched.

Morella is a Gen Xer who likes strange things a bit too much.

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