#joemay

Based on the unexpected quality of the previous movie in the Invisible Man series, I was looking forward to The Invisible Woman. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot happening here to prevent your mind from wandering. At 72 minutes, it’s repetitive and generic. It'll disappear from your mind as surely as its heroine does.

Professor Gibbs (John Barrymore) has developed a process that’ll make anyone invisible. He just needs a subject to test it on to ensure his continued funding from Dick Russell (John Howard). After putting an ad in the newspaper, department store model Kitty Carroll (Virginia Bruce) volunteers. While she uses her new-found invisibility to get revenge upon her jerk of a boss, Mr. Growley (Charles Lane), a group of mobsters have their own nefarious plans for the machine…

Unlike the previous Invisible films, this one’s a comedy. Russell’s butler is always fainting, falling down or getting knocked over. The crime boss who wants to make people invisible employs a trio of goons who might as well be the Three Stooges (in fact, one of them is played by Shemp Howard). While Jack Griffin was strangling his enemies to death with his bare hands, Kitty is pretending to be her boss’ conscience while she kicks him in the behind. While invisible, she gets drunk and the flustered men around her barely know what to do while she runs circles around them. There are some laughs, the kind that you’d find in a sitcom. In fact, the ending comes straight out of a TV show that's run out of ideas but desperately wants to go on for another season.

There’s an overall lack of imagination throughout and while the special effects were impressive for the time, they’re noticeably worse than in The Invisible Man Returns (released earlier the same year) or in the 1933 original. If you find yourself watching this screwball comedy, it moves quickly enough for you not to be bored but you won’t care about the plot. You’ll be more amused by random things throughout, like Professor Gibbs’ maid, played by Margaret Hamilton (better known as the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz) or the realization that, for the time, this was considered a risqué film because of the scenes in which Virginia Bruce disrobes down to her underwear and then runs around naked (although invisible) for most of the film. How times have changed…

The Invisible Woman is not really any worse than some of the other bad Universal Monsters sequels but it doesn't feature any of the original “monsters” and isn't in the same continuity as the other movies. Completists will watch it once and that's it. Everyone else needn't bother. (On DVD, March 5, 2020)

You think Hollywood’s fascination with pre-established properties is bad today? At least now filmmakers let you know when there’s more to come with sequel hooks and open endings. Back when Universal did it in the ‘40s and ‘50s, they’d just retcon whatever was necessary to make a second movie happen. I went into The Invisible Man Returns scoffing. He died at the end of the last movie! What kind of ludicrous explanation would they give to validate his “return”? To my surprise, they pulled it off.

Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe (Vincent Price) has been sentenced to death for a murder he didn't commit. Dr. Frank Griffin (John Sutton), the brother of the original Invisible Man, injects his friend with the invisibility formula - allowing him to escape his cell. Now, Radcliffe must find the true murderer before the solution which has given him his freedom also drives him mad.

Aside from the revelation that Jack Griffin had a brother, everything about this story feels natural. Even if the person who developed a way for someone to become invisible was killed and the method he used "lost", the discovery would change EVERYTHING. It’s made world news, meaning the police (led by Cecil Kellaway as Scotland Yard Detective Sampson) rapidly figure out Dr. Griffin was an accessory to Radcliffe’s escape. He’s trying to hide his involvement while also attempting to put the finishing touches on a way to undo the invisibility formula. Meanwhile, Radcliffe’s fiancé, Helen (Nan Grey) is trying to help her beloved, while avoiding suspicion and becoming worried he'll turn on her. The last Invisible Man went on a reign of terror that killed at least a hundred people. Even with the authorities employing sophisticated techniques to try and find Radcliffe, he’s on the loose. How long before he commits the crime he was sentenced for? You’ve got a mystery, a ticking clock and all these players trying to carefully navigate around each other. It’s all the essentials for a great thriller.

Like the original film, The Invisible Man Returns contains amazing special effects. In fact, this follow-up outdoes its predecessor in a few scenes. I have no idea how they did it with the limited technology of the time.

At a brisk 81 minutes, the picture is exciting even before you realize Vincent Price voices the titular character. It’s a good story that takes things in a different and welcome direction while offering the same dazzling visuals as before. If you’re a fan of Universal’s classic monster movies, you probably own this one as part of a collection but have been avoiding it because you sat through a few too many lousy sequels and figure this would be more of the same. That's far from the case. The Invisible Man Returns is a worthy successor to the original masterpiece. (On DVD, February 26, 2020)