The Invisible Man Returns

The Invisible Man Returns (1940)

Directed by: Joe May
Written by: Lester Cole & Kurt Siodmak, based (sort of) on The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
Starring: Cedric Hardwicke, Vincent Price, Nan Grey, John Sutton, Cecil Kellaway, Alan Napier, Forrester Harvey

Watched this when I got home from the other movie on wednesday (hardcore watching, oh yes), whilst feasting upon popcorn flavoured mini rice cakes. Those mini cripsies, you know? Cripsies? Eh, I'm not going to correct that.

Anyway, I saw this once a long time ago, on a double bill with The Invisible Man. This one is about the original invisible man's brother, who uses the magic potion to spring his buddy out of prison (the guy was falsely accused of murdering his brother, so you know he's okay). Unfortunately, he hadn't worked all the kinks out, and his friend goes nuts trying to find the guy what framed him and killed his brother.

And it's got a very young Vincent Price in it. You don't see him until the very end of the movie, and it doesn't sound like him. Weird, weird, weird. At the end, he doesn't really look right either. Very bizarre.

I remember that freaking me out the last time I saw it. That time, I recall I liked this one better than the first one (it's sort of the same movie, just with a happy ending (kinda like The Fly and Return of the Fly - same movie 'cept in the second one the guy doesn't die. Also the 'mishap' isn't really his fault in the sequel, in both cases. Sure, he shouldn't have been dabbling in that stuff, but he took safety precautions).

Anyway, I think the first one holds up better the second time around, but this movie is still sort of amusing. It's kinda silly. Very silly, actually.

As opposed to the other Universal horror franchises of the '30s through '50s, the Invisible Man series goes a lot more for humour. The other ones sort of wound up meeting Abbott and Costello in the end, but it took them long enough. And that wasn't funny, it was just sad.

So, yeah, kind of cute. I like Vincent Price, even though he sounded like somebody else.

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