The Invisible Man Returns (1940)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Joe May

Writers:

H.G. Wells (characters)
Joe May (story) ...

Release Date:

12 January 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

The owner of a coal mining operation, falsely imprisoned for fratricide, takes a drug to make him invisible, despite its side effect: gradual madness.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Antidote | Invisible Man | Scotland Yard | Madness

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Cedric Hardwicke	...	Richard Cobb
Vincent Price	...	Geoffrey Radcliffe
Nan Grey	...	Helen Manson
John Sutton	...	Doctor Frank Griffin
Cecil Kellaway	...	Inspector Sampson of Scotland Yard
Alan Napier	...	Willie Spears
Forrester Harvey	...	Ben Jenkins

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #5921)

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Vincent Price's first horror film, 13 years before House of Wax (1953) typecast him in the genre. He also provided the voice of the Invisble Man in Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The wires holding the gun are clearly visible.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mr. Cotton: I - I can't believe it's going to happen. Just two more hours, and they're going to kill him.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Who Made Roger Rabbit (2003) (V)

The Invisible Man Returns (1940) ***

I had watched this twice as a kid on Italian TV and remember loving it; however, as was the case with THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942), when I caught up with it again as an adult via DVD, it proved something of a let down! Mind you, it's still a pretty good film and John P. Fulton's trick work is as brilliant as ever. And yet, I felt that it tried a bit too hard to duplicate those elements which made the original so successful to begin with: the eccentric Englishness so unique to Whale's work, for instance, comes off as somewhat heavy-handed this time around; the very young Vincent Price has yet to come into his own as a horror icon and his lapses into madness are overdone, not matching Claude Rains' menacing delivery. Besides, the identity of the villain is no mystery here! Still, while I particularly missed the wit of the original, Joe May's expert handling and Milton Krasner's effective lighting give the film a suitably Germanic feel at times. Ultimately, I feel that of all the first sequels to the original Universal monster films (BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN [1935], DRACULA'S DAUGHTER [1936], THE MUMMY'S HAND [1940] and FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN [1943]), this one is perhaps the least impressive - as all the others seemed to go in different directions.