THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE (1944)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

Aside from an Abbott and Costello flick, REVENGE was the last in Universal's "Invisible Man" series. Wikipedia mentions that the studio made some effort to lure Claude Rains back to the part that he made famous. But when Rains passed, Universal defaulted to Jon Hall, who had played another invisible character in the last entry, INVISIBLE AGENT.

Though the new unseen star is named Robert Griffin, he's not related to the Griffin of the first film, nor does the invisibility-process stem from that character's mad science, as had been the case in various sequels to the original. Writer Bertrand Millhauser evidently attempted to follow in the footsteps of the first movie, because this time much of the attraction is that the Invisible Man is once again an unstable madman, first seen escaping an asylum after killing two guards.

That said, the opening scenes make it hard to tell if he's more sinner than sinned-against. Griffin makes a beeline for the ritzy home of Jasper and Irene Herrick (Lester Matthews, Gale Sondergaard). Griffin accuses them of leaving him to die during a venture to Africa, where the three of them discovered a diamond mine. Griffin wants a share of all profits from the mine, but the Herricks put him off, claiming the money's all been lost. Griffin, who still has a copy of their shared deed despite his having come directly from the asylum, threatens legal action. Irene, for her part, just happens to have a sleeping-pill handy, and she drugs Griffin and steals his deed. While the Herricks are never shown to be guilty of murder, they're still far from nice people. Not only do they have their servants eject Griffin, they later use the local constables to try to drive him away.

But Griffin stumbles across mad Doctor Drury (John Carradine), who needs an experimental subject for his invisibility process. Griffin agrees, hoping to use the power to achieve his ends. (Perhaps to save money, Griffin really does very few invisible stunts.) But he manages to terrorize Jasper and Irene enough that they're willing to let him share in their estate. Griffin then decides he wants them to also persuade their daughter Julie (Evelyn Ankers) to marry him, despite the fact that Julie already has Mark, an age-appropriate beau.

However, to marry anyone, Griffin has to undo his invisibility. He witnesses Drury restoring visibility to an earlier subject, his dog Brutus, with a blood transfusion. When Drury won't help Griffin commit murder so that Griffin can go back to normal, the madman kills the scientist and uses his blood to return to normal. However, Griffin's course is then complicated by two forces. One is Brutus, who "hounds" (sorry) Griffin's track seeking revenge for his master. The other is that one blood transfusion is not enough, and soon Griffin must look for more victims. 

Aside from the bland Julie and her equally blah boyfriend, no one in REVENGE is a very nice person. Most Universal monster flicks make the main monster the source of all trouble (however sympathetic he might be otherwise), while at worst the support-players are just cloddish fools. But Griffin loses all sympathy once he starts plotting to use blackmail to force Julie into marriage with him. By the conclusion, Jasper and Irene are still alive, which is probably meant to imply that they're not guilty of attempted murder and that Griffin just has a persecution complex. But they're rich assholes anyway, and two low-income specimens who try to take advantage of Griffin's legal claim are no better. Drury's a mad scientist, and the constable is a creep who automatically sides with rich people. Still, Jon Hall takes top acting honors here as the maddest of the Invisible Men.