For tonight’s movie I’m hitting two classic Halloween elements at once. One is a Universal Monsters movie and the second is Vincent Price. This was Price’s fourth movie role and his first horror. Yes, this is Vincent Price’s first horror. Of course since he plays the titular character, you don’t actually see him for the vast majority of the movie. He does get off a laugh though! The movie is directed by Joe May, with a screenplay by Lester K. Cole and Curt Siodmak. Milton Krasner provides cinematography and Hans J. Salter and Frank Skinner provide the score.
Geoffrey Radcliffe (Price) has been sentenced to death for the murder of his brother Michael, a crime he did not commit. On the night before his execution his friend Dr. Frank Griffin (John Sutton), the brother of the original invisible man, visits him, giving him the invisibility drug. Deterective Sampson (Cecil Kellaway) from Scotland yard is not fooled however, remembering the case of the original Invisible Man and is on his trail. Geoffrey meets up with his fiancé Helen (Nan Grey) at a remote farmhouse and is already struggling with the side effects of the drug that lead to madness. The race is on for Dr. Griffin to find a cure, while Geoffry attempts to find who really killed his brother.
The Price of Invisibility
Often when you watch an early movie from a great actor, their performance is a little underwhelming. This isn’t the case here. The voice isn’t quite what you would remember from price, but the performance was classic Price. What always made the actor stand out to me, especially in horror was that while he would deliver an authorative and powerful performance he would do it with a great vulnerability behind it. In many ways he makes the perfect tragic horror character. This is one of the reasons why my favorite version of “I am Legend” is his “The Last Man In The Earth”.
It’s a shame Price never got to play a werewolf. But this isn’t far from it, a tragic hero on the verge of madness. His performance is subtle compared to his later horrors were he would ramp everything up to eleven, but covers a range of emotions. We get sadness, self loathing, despair, anger, and megalomania. We even get some maniacal laughter. It’s a shame we don’t get to see him until the very end. So it’s like half a performance. Price aside, the effects are actually incredibly good for 1940. So full credit to Universal’s FX wizard John Fulton. Some of these effects even hold up today.
Conclusion
The plot is more complicated than the previous Invisible Man movie. The film is also ten minutes longer, though still falling under the hour and a half mark. Indeed it’s probably a little short for the content, leaving it feeling a little rushed. Not drastically so, but film doesn’t waste time. The supporting actors are reasonable, but don’t stand out. The music is somewhat uninspired, mostly reusing music from previous Universal horror movies. There’s nothing remotely scary on display here and the mystery has no real depth to it. None of this is overly bad, just very average for the period.
There are two elements that raise this movie from being merely average. Vincent Price and the quality of the effects. Without that, this movie would be a five out of ten. However price is the perfect choice for the invisible man and the effects have aged remarkably well. As a result this is a strong 6/10 and a recommendation. If you like Price or Universal horror, then put this one on your list.