Stubs - The Invisible Man Returns

The Invisible Man Returns (1940) starring Vincent Price, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nan Grey. Directed by Joe May. Screenplay by Curt Siodmak and Lester Cole. Suggested by the novel The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells (London, 1897). Associate Producer: Ken Goldsmith. Run time: 82 minutes. Black and White. USA. Horror.

As an actor, Vincent Price is best remembered for his roles in horror films. One of his earliest roles in such a film came in The Invisible Man Returns, a sequel to The Invisible Man, which had come out seven years prior.

Following the commercial success of Son of Frankenstein, Universal Studios announced the development of The Invisible Man Returns in March 1939. The film went through a few screenwriters, including W.P. Lipscomb, and directors, including Rowland V. Lee, before choosing Lester K. Cole and Curt Siodmak to write the script and Joe May to direct.

The production, which got underway on October 19, 1939, was apparently plagued from the start. By the second week, it was already behind schedule. The $243,750 budget and the 27-day planned production days were not adequate for the special effects. Production ended on November 11 and was followed by three to four days of post-production work needed to be done for the special effects. The film would be released on January 12, 1940.

The film opens in the downstairs of a manor, where the servants discuss the impending execution of Geoffrey Radcliffe, at 8 o’clock, for the murder of his brother. Some cannot believe he would do it, others think the guilty verdict proves he committed the crime.

Upstairs at the manor, Geoffrey’s fiancée, Helen Manson (Nan Grey), and cousin Richard Cobb (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) hope there can be some sort of reprieve. Geoffrey’s best friend, Dr. Frank Griffin (John Sutton) arrives from the lab and Richard tries calling the Home Secretary about a pardon, but the Secretary is in Scotland and cannot be reached by phone.

Frank, however, is granted permission to visit the prisoner for 10 minutes by the Prison Governor (Edward Fielding).

When they come for Geoffrey, for the execution, they find he is gone. The guards are immediately arrested. Of course, Scotland Yard is called and Inspector Sampson (Cecil Kellaway) is on the case.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey, invisible and presumably nude, finds a suitcase left for him in the woods, and Helen hides with him in a nearby cottage.

Helen Manson (Nan Grey) nurses Geoffrey after his escape.

The guards tell Sampson about Frank’s visit. Even though they were in the cell with them, playing cards, they did not see what happened, only that out of their sight, he disappeared, leaving only a pile of clothing in his place. Sampson figures out Frank was involved in the escape. Dr. Griffin is the brother of Dr. Jack Griffin (Claude Rains), from The Invisible Man (1933).

Inspector Sampson (Cecil Kellaway) visits Dr. Frank Griffin (John Sutton).

Inspector Sampson even visits Frank while he works to discover the antidote to the invisibility formula. Geoffrey, meanwhile, takes refuge in Frank’s office, where he discovers that Willie Spears (Alan Napier), a new hire and a lowly miner in the Radcliffe mines, has been promoted to the position of mine superintendent by Richard, who is also next in line to be heir to the Radcliffe fortune.

 Willie Spears (Alan Napier) confesses to Geoffrey.

Suspicious, Geoffrey follows Willie and manages to force Willie’s car off the road. Terrorized and frightened, Willie confesses that Richard is the real killer.

Richard Cobb (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) is literally surrounded by police at one point.

Even though Richard is surrounded by police, Geoffrey shows up at the mansion and has Richard at gunpoint. Richard manages to escape and the police swarm the house and fill it with smoke, as a way to see Geoffrey.

Inspector Sampson uses smoke in the search for Geoffrey.

But he manages to overpower one of the policemen and, wearing his uniform and a gas mask, reveals his identity to Helen. She helps him escape by pretending to faint and have Geoffrey carry her out of the house.

Geoffrey starts to rant about taking over the world.

Frank had made a promise to Geoffrey that he would stop him from causing anyone harm if he shows signs of the madness that inflicted the original invisible man nine years earlier. At an uneasy dinner, Geoffrey rants about taking over the world and Frank drugs his champagne.

They seek to restrain Geoffrey, who convinces Frank that he’s better. Thinking the effects of the serum were only temporary, Frank let’s down his guard and Geoffrey overpowers him and escapes.

Geoffrey chases Cobb to the mine and the two struggle on the coal elevator. The police also arrive and Geoffrey is shot by Sampson. But Richard is fatally wounded in the fall. Just before he dies, he confesses to the murder.

Even though he’s been cleared, Geoffrey is still in danger. Having escaped, he takes the clothes from off a scarecrow and then makes his way back to the mine, where he collapses. Frank can’t operate, since he can’t see Geoffrey’s internal organs, and Geoffrey has also lost a lot of blood. Needing a transfusion, Frank asks for volunteers and many men at the mine sign on to help.

The blood transfusions counteract the serum and Geoffrey becomes visible.

The blood transfusions succeed in making Geoffrey (Vincent Price) visible again.

At the end of the film, Geoffrey’s fate is left ambiguous.

Budgeted at $243,750, the film garnered $815,000 at the box office, which might not seem like a lot these days, but was considered a hit. As an example, at New York's Rialto Theatre, the ticket sales were equal to that of Tower of London, which was their previous all-time record breaker in the previous season.

The reviews at the time were somewhat mixed. Writing for The New York Times, film critic Frank S. Nugent wrote, the film “is a mite on the ghostly side, too, although neither so horrendous nor so humorous as the first one was. Blame that on time and Topper, which have given us several other peeks at the unseen. Somehow, we were not as astonished as once we were when a man unrolled a bandage from his head and revealed no head, or when he shucked off his clothes and became nothing but a nothing, or when he went for a stroll in the woods and all we could see were twigs snapping back and underbrush being trampled.” He adds, “This camera hocus-pocus still has its fascination, of course, for fantasy has been fascinating since Melies made his 'Trip to the Moon,' but the script is annoyingly unoriginal.”

Other reviews were more positive. Archer Winsten, writing for The New York Post, praised the film, at "the suspense, accruing from all sides, mounts to an impressive total" and specifically praised Hardwicke who "accomplishes his shift from early suavity to gibbering fear with a conviction rarely seen in unimportant or trick effect films.”

The special effects were done with Price being draped in black velvet and working against a set draped in black velvet. The Academy would also notice the special effects, nominating John P. Fulton, Bernard B. Brown and William Hedgcock in the category Best Special Effects; The film lost to The Thief of Bagdad.

You do feel like you’ve seen this story before and sadly, at least to modern audiences, it is not really scary. It’s a sort of murder mystery with an invisible sleuth, and one that has gone mad at that. I can’t imagine this film had the same impact as the original film on audiences at the time.

It’s really hard to judge Vincent Price’s performance, since for 99% of the time, he is a disembodied voice and for the 1% he’s on screen, he doesn’t speak. If you’re watching this film because of him, you are likely to be disappointed. This, however, was near the beginning of his work in horror, which would include a whole list of films: House of Wax (1953), The Fly (1958), House on Haunted Hill (1959), Return of the Fly (1959), The Tingler (1959), House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Haunted Palace (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964) The Last Man on Earth (1964), Witchfinder General (1968), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Theatre of Blood (1973).

Price also spoke about working with Hardwicke, who he recalled "didn't like doing this film; he was facing home problems at the time. We became very close." Even before I knew this, I couldn’t imagine Hardwicke would include this film in any list of his work. He seems to be under utilized and was apparently underwhelmed himself with the picture.

Nan Grey is also underused as the fiancée. A pretty woman, she got into films when she was 16 with Warner Bros., The Firebird (1934), and by the time she was 23, made her last film Under Age. This was her second film in the Universal Monsters’ sequels, having appeared Dracula's Daughter (1936). This would not be a film on which to judge her acting.

The film is not only not scary, it’s rather dull. A lot of what made the first film unique had already been wrung out of the franchise. However, this wouldn’t be the last sequel. There would be The Invisible Woman (1940), Invisible Agent (1942), The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944). I would imagine by then, the well would have run dry with sequels, though remakes of the original film would continue, most notably Hollow Man (2000) and Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man (2020).

I can’t say I was overly impressed with this sequel, and it feels much like a money grab for Universal, cashing in, or hoping to, on a certain nostalgia for the golden era of its monster films. But this falls short, way short, of the original and if you want to see a classic Universal horror film, the original is a better choice than this one.