The Invisible Man's Revenge

(1944)**1/2

In the fifth installment of the Universal’s popular Invisible Man series Robert Griffin escapes from a psych ward and becomes a fugitive. His first stop is the palatial home of his former friends Jasper and Irene. His goal is to get half the money they owe him from a diamond mine in Africa they discovered together years earlier and to marry their daughter Julie, who is engaged to Mark, a young local reporter. Things don’t go according to plan and after being drugged by his “friends” he is tossed out their home like yesterday’s garbage. A chance encounter with a scientist eager to test his invisibility formula provides Robert with the ability to elude police and to have his revenge on his old friends. Meanwhile Mark begins to believe the rumors about an “invisible” man and he agrees to help the police apprehend this menace.



Separated at birth?

Although The Invisible Man’s Revenge returns the series to its more sinister roots (the previous two installments Invisible Agent and The Invisible Woman are just plain silly), the result is less than satisfying. The convoluted plot makes little sense and relies on coincidences and unlikely decision-making. Worse, many key questions are never properly answered. For example, did Robert’s friends really cheat him out of money? Given that they assumed he was dead, why would they keep his money for him during the 3 years of his absence? If indeed they did steal from him there is certainly no “revenge” as the title would have you believe. Also, why is Robert in love with Julie, a woman he has never even met? Finally, there are no sympathetic characters to root for; they all seem like a bunch of jerks. It’s a shame that this once promising franchise devolved into lazy script writing. With an idea as cool as invisibility it makes little sense that four vastly inferior sequels followed the excellent original.