“You couldn’t make a man invisible. You’re just talking. Your bullshiting.”
Robert Griffin (Jon Hall) has escaped from a mental institution in Cape Town. He believes that his former friends Sir Jasper Herrick (Lester Matthews) and lady Irene Herrick (Gale Sondergaard) cheated him out of a share in a diamond field and a fortune and left him in the jungle to die.
Griffin makes his was to England and appears at the Griffin estate the “Shortlands” demanding his share. Jasper tells him that the diamond fields were lost in a series of bad investments. They offer him a share of their estate. He wants it all. And he wants them to arrange for him to marry their daughter Julie. The Herrick’s try to reason with Griffin but they come to believe he is mad. They drug him and throw him out of the house.
When Herrick trips and falls into a nearby pond he nearly drowns until he is saved by Herbert Higgins (Leon Errol). Griffin tells Herbert his tale. Herbert tries to cash in on his new found friend by blackmailing the Herricks. The Herricks call the chief constable Frederick Travers (Leyland Hodgson). When it backfires Griffin is ordered to leave the area.
Griffin comes upon the home of scientist Dr. Peter Drury (John Carradine). Drury has developed a formula that will turn creatures invisible but he hasn’t yet tried it on a human. Griffin volunteers. Drury warns Griffin that the formula could be dangerous and that there are no guarantees. Griffin wants to go ahead with the procedure anyway. The formula works and Griffin is now invisible. With his new found freedom and his list of people who wronged him Griffin heads back to the Herrick’s looking for revenge.
“The Invisible Man’s Revenge” was released in 1944 and was directed by Ford Beebe. The special invisible effects are just as good this time as in the last four movies.
All through the movie I was hoping that Griffin wasn’t insane or evil or delusional. Did he really go insane or was he put in the asylum by accident. Did the Herricks cheat him or did they really think he was dead. What confused me a little was that Jon Hall played in both this movie and “The Invisible Agent”, and that his characters name in the movie is Griffin, which was the invisible man’s name in the first movie. I expected a reason for both coincidences, but there wasn’t any.
Hall’s character may have been wronged, but it may not have been the Herricks that wronged him. His character would normally have been sympathetic in some ways but insanity and deliberate murder has a way of shooing away the mists of compassion. Griffin may have been looking for revenge on invisible ghosts. I wanted to root for him, but he wouldn’t let me. I actually liked the “mad” doctor better.
Taken alone it’s a fine movie, when compared to the others it’s average at best.