Monster March: The Invisible Man Returns (1940)

The Invisible Man Returns is something of a misnomer. The eponymous Invisible Man doesn’t actually return in this film; instead, we meet his visible brother, who shares the invisibility serum with a third man. More deceptive, though, is the promise that The Invisible Man Returns will be just as good as The Invisible Man. While the Universal Monsters had a series of winners in Frankenstein sequels, The Invisible Man Returns is a tragic snooze, retreading too much of its predecessor’s ground while squandering the perfectly good Vincent Price.

Geoffrey Radcliffe (Vincent Price) is sentenced to death for murdering his brother, despite his vehement protestations of innocence. While his cousin Richard Cobb (Cedric Hardwicke) consoles his fiancée Helen (Nan Grey), Geoffrey receives a visit in prison from Dr. Frank Griffin (John Sutton), the brother of the infamous and invisible Jack Griffin. Frank gives Geoffrey an injection of the same serum that turned Jack invisible, giving Geoffrey time to escape prison – and hopefully, before the serum’s madness kicks in, clear his name.

 

Just about the only place where The Invisible Man Returns transcends the original is, rightly enough, in its special effects. Seven years after the original Invisible Man dazzled us with effects that still hold up, Invisible Man Returns wisely ups the ante with a number of exceptional invisibility sequences, even when we consider the fact that this movie is more than eighty years old. Chiefly, Returns sets a number of its invisible-man shenanigans in broad daylight, including one mesmerizing sequence in which the invisible Geoffrey borrows clothing from a nearby scarecrow. Other shots are a little less technically sophisticated, including moving shrubbery and floating tree branches, but director Joe May also gets a few good kicks in when we glimpse this film’s Invisible Man amid smoke and rain – two conditions Jack Griffin took great care to avoid.

 

Aside from the special effects, the key to any good Invisible Man film is the voice of the titular man. Since we can’t, obviously, see the man, his performance relies so much on the voice alone. Claude Rains was a masterful choice, his precise mannerisms giving way to delightful fits of madness. In Returns, we have an equal auditory treasure in Vincent Price (though, at 29, his voice doesn’t have all the character and flavor you might be expecting). Whether cradling his beloved or toasting his own megalomania, even behind bandages and a heavy dressing gown, Price is fantastically equipped for the part. In short, Price is a hoot, all the more so in a potentially thankless role where he’s unseen until the very final moments of the film.

 

If you feel like you’ve read that sentence before, don’t be alarmed. The ending to The Invisible Man Returns is indeed nearly identical to the ending of The Invisible Man. In fact, a great deal of this sequel bears more than a passing resemblance to the 1933 original. There’s a healthy bit of narrative invention in the addition of a procedural plot in which Geoffrey sets out to prove his innocence, but it also ends up creating the same climax – an all-hands manhunt set in inclement weather. There’s a standout second act set in Richard Cobb’s mansion, a kind of closed-door mystery in which Geoffrey could be anywhere (or nowhere), and as the police go from room to room in search of their invisibly quarry, Cedric Hardwicke gets to slip from sanity into nail-biting paranoia.

 

Unfortunately, though, the successful moments in The Invisible Man Returns are few and far between. Unlike its predecessor, there is never really any doubt that Geoffrey will overcome his madness long enough to identify the real killer. (Indeed, you might even say that the onset of madness helps, as he assumes a kind of master criminal mentality in order to unravel the mystery.) While Geoffrey (and Price) do seem to be having a great deal of fun with their newfound ability, that revelry doesn’t always translate to the audience as it did in the original Invisible Man. Instead, at times the hijinks feel like distractions on the way to solving the murder – which, I might add, it wouldn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out who among the cast is suspiciously uninterested in the matter of Geoffrey’s innocence.

 

At 81 minutes long, The Invisible Man Returns is a bit too similar to its forbearer, overlong and unable to conceal the acts of light plagiarism. I suppose that I wanted Vincent Price to be more like Claude Rains or even (and more to the point) more like the Vincent Price of the 1960s. We do see some of that in the film, but – appropriately enough – the really good stuff is for the most part out of sight. Geoffrey Radcliffe is, for example, no Dr. Phibes, nor is he even quite Jack Griffin. More importantly, though, The Invisible Man Returns is no Invisible Man. Despite its few moments of fun, anyone can see that. 

The Invisible Man Returns is not rated. Directed by Joe May. Written by Lester Cole, Curt Siodmak, and Joe May. Starring Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Vincent Price, Nan Grey, John Sutton, Cecil Kellaway, and Alan Napier.

Tune in tomorrow for Franken-Friday, with Bride of Frankenstein (1935) starring Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, and Elsa Lanchester.

Next week for See-Thru Thursday, parachute behind enemy lines with the Invisible Agent (1942), starring Jon Hall, Peter Lorre, and Sir Cedric Hardwicke.