Amnesiac and psychopath Robert Griffin (Jon Hall) escapes from an asylum after regaining his memory, and seeks out his old cohorts, the Herricks (Lester Matthews, Gale Sondergaard), demanding his cut, and more, in a diamond mine. Thrown out and on the run, he happens to stop at the home of a scientist (John Carradine), who turns Griffin invisible.
The Invisible Man series turns dark once again with this 5th film. While the title character is named Griffin, like the first Invisible Man, there is no other connection. Nothing suggests he’s a decedent, and the serum comes from a new, wacky scientist. It’s hard to say if the drug still causes insanity as Griffin is already over the deep end.
Where The Invisible Man’s Revenge doesn’t work is in several plot contrivances, and in its comedy. Having Griffin, lost and on the run, happen to come upon a house where a scientist just happens to be looking for an experimental subject for his invisibility drug, rips credibility to pieces and stomps on it (and it would be nice if everyone didn’t have the same blood type, or perhaps blood types don’t exist in this world). The so-called comedy is in the form of a helpful bum who tries one greedy scheme after another, or is forced into them by Griffin. An overlong dart game (gosh, he wins by having the Invisible Man run the darts to the target; what a surprise) takes up time, but does nothing else for the film besides dissipate the tone.
When acting as a horror film, The Invisible Man’s Revenge is nearly the equal of The Invisible Man Returns, with Hall making a much more convincing villain than he did hero in The Invisible Agent. He drips malevolence. The gray nature of all the characters makes it more interesting as well. Griffin has been cheated and the Herricks may have tried to kill him years ago. They are good and loving people in many ways, with a touch of larceny. Exactly what happened, who is guilty, and what is fair is never spelled out.
The FX are the best in the series (well, they should be as it is the last in the series). The most impressive trick has Griffin splash water on his face to become momentarily visible. It holds up fifty years later.
The ending is manipulative, which isn’t a bad thing on its own. It will either make you cheer or groan. I’m on the cheering side.