1944's "The Invisible Man's Revenge" brought the infrequent Universal series to an end, apart from 1951's "Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man." It's appropriate that Jon Hall repeat the role again, after playing the heroic "Invisible Agent" in 1942; here, his Robert Griffin, no relation to prior Griffins, isn't so much a madman as a man who believes himself to have been wronged, and with Lester Matthews and Gale Sondergaard as the objects of scorn, you too may feel they were indeed guilty of the alleged crime (leaving him behind in the jungle to die after leading them to a fabulous diamond mine). The expected comedy relief is ably supplied by Leon Errol, whose dart game echoes the James Whale original, but goes on a tad too long. Lovely Evelyn Ankers is again wasted in a peripheral role, as she often was in Universal horrors, leaving the way open for the scene stealing John Carradine to command the screen, in only two scenes, as Dr. Peter Drury, the source of Griffin's invisibility, with transparent pets such as a parrot and a dog, whose later visibility will doom any future plans for our nonhero ("in this house, you've got to believe what you CAN'T see!"). Former adversaries in 1937's "The Hurricane," Jon Hall and John Carradine would once more oppose each other in 1957's "Hell Ship Mutiny." Director Ford Beebe ("Night Monster") was one of Universal's finest journeymen, again finding a slot for his father-in-law, Cyril Delevanti, selling Griffin some new clothes before nearly getting himself killed. Among the smaller parts are Doris Lloyd ("The Wolf Man"), Ian Wolfe ("The Raven"), Billy Bevan ("Dracula's Daughter"), and Skelton Knaggs ("House of Dracula"). All five entries, even 1940's "The Invisible Woman," appeared on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater.

I think it is possible that I liked this film even more than I would have because the night before I'd watched the previous installment in the Invisible Man franchise--THE INVISIBLE AGENT. THE INVISIBLE AGENT was such a remarkably bad film that by comparison, THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE looks brilliant--even though I realize it's just a B-movie and not much more.

The film begins with a maniac escaping from a mental hospital. It seemed that he killed three men in the process and is not about to let himself be captured. While he's psychotic, he also seems reasonably rational at first. Because of this, he's not easy to spot. Plus, some of what he thinks and does makes sense. For example, he tracks down an old business partner to demand his rightful share of a fortune in diamonds. However, the partner blew much of the money due to bad investments and so the maniac demands EVERYTHING--including the partner's daughter! Well, the partner and his wife are naturally aghast and soon throw him out--that is, after they take the partnership paper away from the maniac.

Later, a nice but wacky scientist (Robert Carradine) finds the crazy guy and offers to let him be the first human to try out his invisibility formula. Little does Carradine know that this will unleash a madman's reign of terror. Oddly, this is a reversal of the plot of the original INVISIBLE MAN (1933), as it was the formula that made the man paranoid and murder-hungry.

While the special effects and story aren't nearly of the level of the original INVISIBLE MAN, it is very interesting and worth watching. I do agree with another reviewer who complained that it was hard to like anyone in the film. Making some of the characters a bit more sympathetic might have improved the film a bit. Still, a nice time-passer and a film light-years better than the previous invisible film.

A rather weak and confusing script makes The Invisible Man's Revenge not nearly up to the standard set by the first Invisible Man film and the stylish performance of Claude Rains as the scientist who discovers the secret of invisibility and its trap.

Our invisible protagonist in this film is Jon Hall who has come over to Great Britain from South Africa in the belief that Lester Matthews and Gale Sondergaard cheated him out of his half share of a diamond mine. Let's say that their actions don't allay his suspicions and Hall gets quite the bum's rush out of their house.

Alone and paranoid Hall stumbles on scientist John Carradine who's been working on the matter of invisibility. He offers himself as a guinea pig to Carradine and of course Carradine sees Nobel Prize in his future.

Of course Hall has other plans to use the invisibility as a method of revenge. He also considers an alternative to killing and stealing from Matthews and Sondergaard. Hall gets one look at their lovely daughter, Evelyn Ankers, and decides it might be easier to marry the fortune. That is if he can get rid of her boyfriend Alan Curtis.

The motivations of these characters is quite confusing at times, you're not quite sure who to root for. Even in the end, someone had a marvelous idea for the Invisible Man to get his comeuppance involving man's best friend and blew it in the execution.

One very interesting performance in the film is Leon Errol, away from the comic parts he usually had. He's still got some funny moments, but he's also a blackmailing scoundrel as well.

The Invisible Man's Revenge is far from the best in the series. Even Abbott&Costello's film with them ranks better than this.