Format: DVD from Cortland Public Library on downstairs television.
Of the great Universal monsters, it’s probably the Invisible Man who gets the least play, or is at least remembered the least. And yet, believe it or not, there’s a good half dozen films featuring, if not the actual character, at least the same basic concept. In the original, Claude Rains injects a concoction in himself that turns him invisible, but it drives him mad and fills him with a strange belief in his own supreme power. We’re going to tread on some similar territory in the sequel, oddly named The Invisible Man Returns.
Why odd? Because our original invisible man isn’t going to appear in this. What we are going to get is the brother of the original, Dr. Frank Griffin (John Sutton), who isn’t even going to be the main character here. Frank works as the doctor at a coal mine, evidently treating the miners. The mine is owned by a man named Geoffrey Radcliffe (Vincent Price), who happens to be on death row for the murder of his brother. The day of his execution, he is visited by Dr. Griffin, who somehow manages to get a syringe of the formula into the prison, which effects Geoffrey’s escape.
