Tags:
Film: The Invisible Man’s Revenge
Year: 1944
Director: Ford Beebe
Writer: Bertram Millhauser
Starring: Jon Hall, Leon Errol and John Carradine
Review:
This film begins with a crate being taken from a ship. We see a knife cut through the canvas and a man played by Jon Hall emerges.
We then shift to a family in a large estate. The father is played by Lester Matthews. His wife played by Gale Sonderaard. Their daughter is played by Evelyn Ankers and she is seeing Alan Curtis. They go off on a date. Hall shows up at the house and sees them leave. He seems to know who Ankers is.
Hall knocks at the door and the butler, played by Halliwell Hobbes, allows him to enter. It appears that Sondergaard and Matthews went on an expedition together. Hall was hit in the head and knocked out. He was left with another member of their group. He told them that Hall had died. Hall confirms that he is still alive. He has come with a contract they made with him that a diamond mine he found. They inform him that they did make a lot of money off that mine, but they lost it all in bad investments. This angers Hall and he wants half of their money, but they won’t do that. Hall is given a drink and he can’t handle it. He is escorted out of the house. They think he is psychopathic and that he isn’t the same man they knew.
He then stumbles down to a river and falls in. On the bridge above him is Leon Errol. This man is a drunkard. He helps him out of the river and takes him back to his house. They come up with a plan to try to blackmail the family. They hire Ian Wolfe to go with Errol to try to get money of out of them. This is broken up though when Leyland Hodgson, who is the head of the police, shows up. This is shut down and the two leave.
Hall then decides there has to be another way to get them to change his mind. He ends up at the door of a doctor, played by John Carradine. It appears that this doctor has come up with a formula to make things invisible. He already has animals in his house that are, including a large dog. He convinces Hall to be his first human subject. It works too. Carradine then wants to show the medical community what he did, but Hall doesn’t agree to this and flees.
He then goes back to Matthews’ house and attacks him. He gets him to sign over all of their money to him if they were to pass away. Hall really wants to have Ankers’ hand in marriage as well, but her parents don’t want that. He then leaves and he visits Errol. He wants him to make him food and we learn that Errol is behind on his rent. Hall offers to take him to a local pub to win it.
They end up at a place where Curtis is. Hall messes with him a bit. He ends up leaving and Hall gets Errol into a game of darts. Hall cheats by directing the darts to the bulls-eye. The man feels cheated and he gets punched by Hall when he wasn’t ready. They leave.
Carradine ends up coming with a way to bring his dog back from being invisible. Hall sees what he does through a window and decides that he needs to come back to being seen. Carradine isn’t sure it will work, because it takes a complete blood transfusion. Hall will allow him to find someone, but when he calls the police instead, Hall decides to use Carradine’s blood.
Will Carradine survive this or will he be drained? Will Hall becomes visible forever or is he going to need more blood? Will he get what he wants from Matthews’ family or is he going to be thwarted?
This sequel is interesting, because unlike the original one, this man seems to be insane to due to a head injury before he becomes invisible. This to me makes him almost more dangerous. I thought the acting was pretty good in this one. Carradine is a film legend, especially in horror films and he has a nice bit part in this one. I think Hall does well in his role as well. Errol adds some good comedy to this film. There was an issue where I thought the dog was going to die and I was pretty upset, but I can tell you that it survives.
I did have some issues with this film. First was that I was confused by Hall wanted to stop being invisible as quickly as he did? He did get Matthews to sign over all of estate to him, but why wouldn’t he stay invisible and just kill him, then try to return? My version is much more cold and calculated, but this film was lighter and not that dark. I think I’d like that more personally. I also don’t understand why the dog came back from the blood transfusion and why it didn’t work forever for Hall, only on a temporary basis. Now finally, I’m confused as to why previous films have the ability to bring the invisible people back and this one didn’t. Two of the films have a formula that the same family made, so it makes sense that they have found a way. The other problem is there are four different films, having three different formulas and only one of them has a serum to fix it. These films don’t really seem to be connected outside of that.
Now with that said, I do think this film is enjoyable to watch. It isn’t the best film in the series though. I think the acting is okay. The story is interesting to have someone who is crazy becoming invisible instead of seeming them sink into madness like the original one. I think this film is too light for that though, if they would have taken it into a darker tone I feel it would have been better. Now I want you to keep in mind that this film is from the 1940’s and it is in black and white. If that is a problem, avoid this one. If not I would recommend giving it a viewing.
My Rating: 5 out of 10