Subject: Retrospective: Invisible Man's Revenge, The (1944)

From: Dennis Schwartz <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 19:47:50 -0000

INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE, THE (director: Ford Beebe; screenwriter: suggested from
the book by H. G. Wells/Bertram Millhauser; cinematographer: Milton Krasner;
editor: Saul A. Goodkind; cast: Jon Hall (Robert Griffin), Alan Curtis (Mark
Foster), Evelyn Ankers (Julie Herrick), Leon Errol (Herbert Higgins), John
Carradine (Dr. Peter Drury), Gale Sondergaard (Lady Irene Herrick), Lester
Matthews (Sir Jasper Herrick), Leyland Hodgson (Sir Frederick Travers), Ian
Wolfe (Jim Feeny), Halliwell Hobbes (Cleghorn, Butler); Runtime: 77; Universal;
1944) 

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz 

This was the fifth 'Invisible Man' Universal filmed in its ongoing series for
the money making sci-fier. John Fulton's special effects are the unabashed star
of this film. There was one very good trick photography shot of Jon Hall putting
his invisible arm into an aquarium, the arm becoming visible like a bubble and
then with water delineating his invisible face to make it visible to those he's
threatening. But it is the script that does it in, as the Invisible Man is made
into a heartless villain and the storyline was very weak. 

Warning: spoilers throughout the review. 

Robert Griffin (Jon Hall) sneaks into London from Capetown on a ship, where he
escaped from a prison psycho ward after murdering two people. He visits the home
of his former partners in a South African diamond mine, Sir Jasper Herrick
(Lester Matthews) and his wife Lady Irene Herrick (Gale Sondergaard). They were
on a safari together in Africa and did not try to save him when he got into
trouble there, leaving him for dead five years ago. He has now come back to get
his half share of the wealth from the diamonds, but is told by the unscrupulous
couple that they don't have the money because of bad investments. He then tells
them he will instead take their estate, all the money they have, and their
beautiful daughter Julie (Ankers) as his bride. Irene spikes his drink with some
kind of sedative and they steal his legal contract he planned to use for proof,
tossing him out of their house as an unwanted guest in full view of their
servant, Cleghorn. 

In the woods, he's saved from drowning by a small-time con man, Herbert (Leon
Errol). He tries to help Griffin by going to Herrick's estate with a shady
lawyer, Jim Feeny, and threatening to sue. But the chief constable, Sir
Frederick Travers, is called by Jasper and the two con men are dismissed.
Griffin fearing he will be arrested, goes on the run and happens by chance to
come to the isolated home of an eccentric doctor, Dr. Peter Drury (John
Carradine), who has experimented with a new serum and has made his dog Brutus
invisible. Before you can say have some coffee, Griffin is also invisible--which
is the first experiment Drury ever did on a human. When he tells Griffin to get
some rest he wants to show him off tomorrow to the science world and get their
accolades, Griffin walks out on him and goes back to see Herbert as he plans to
get revenge on the Herricks. 

But first Griffin forces Herbert to get some money by going to a pub, where
Herbert plays someone darts for a wager of five pounds and wins because the
Invisible Man cheats as he runs the darts up to the bull's-eyes. He also hears
at the pub a reporter, Mark Foster (Curtis), say he's going after a story on the
rumor that there's an Invisible Man. But what gets Griffin's goat about the
reporter, is that he's the man Julie is set to marry. 

Griffin goes as an Invisible Man to visit Jasper, as he frightens him into
signing a confession of his misdeeds and signing over his estate to him. But
when he also wants Julie, he's told he has to be visible to have her. 

When Griffin returns to Drury's lab and requests being made visible again, he's
told that he would have to drain the blood out of some living person for that to
happen. When Drury says he's a scientist and not a killer, refusing to get
Foster over to the lab--Griffin instead drains Drury's blood to make him visible
again on a temporary basis as he will need a constant supply of blood. He also
burns down his house, but Brutus is now also visible and seeks revenge on
Griffin for what he did to his master. 

In this episode it's not the invisible serum that makes the man insane, as the
man is already mentally unbalanced. 

This hokum story could have and should have been more entertaining, but it still
had the presence of the legendary John Carradine to give the flick some spice to
it. But it was still a far come down from James Whale's original Invisible Man.

REVIEWED ON 9/19/2001     GRADE: C 

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" 

http://www.sover.net/~ozus 

[email-masked] 

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED   DENNIS SCHWARTZ

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