"The Invisible Man Returns" + Married

Tonight's movie was "The Invisible Man Returns" (1940), the sequel to the classic 1933 original. I found it on dvd at Chatsworth Libe as part of the Universal Legacy Collection of "The Invisible Man" movies, totaling five in all, so I will be reviewing several more IM movies in the next week or so. I love the Universal Legacy Collection series, which are multiple dvd sets, because they not only give you all the original Universal Monsters, but you get all the sequels, too. Beginning in 2013, I first discovered the "Creature Of The Black Lagoon" Legacy and watched all of those films. Since then, I have also watched "The Wolfman", "Frankenstein", "Dracula" and "The Mummy" Legacy Collections, and I just love the heck out of 'em. I am a huge fan of all the great Universal Monsters (who isn't?), and the only Legacy Monster I had not seen was of "The Invisible Man". I mean, he's a man, but he's Invisible so that qualifies him as a Monster.

"The Invisible Man Returns" features English actors as well as Americans. The wealthy owner of an English coal mine sits in a prison cell awaiting execution for the murder of his brother. His girlfriend frets; an acquaintance - the manager of the coal mine - makes phone calls to prison officials to try and stop the execution. Finally, a doctor friend of the condemned man, who also knows his girl, is allowed to visit the man in prison, hours before he is to die.

Suddenly, the condemned man vanishes almost right before his jailer's eyes. It seems that the doctor friend who visited gave him a pill..........a pill that made him invisible. 

You have at this point already surmised that, from there, suspense follows.

You thought I was gonna say hijinx follows, which I usually do, but this is a scary movie, so we will go with suspense.

The story overall is not up to the standards of the original, which was based on a story by H.G. Wells, who sets a high bar to begin with. But because it's a Universal Monster Movie, made during the classic era, you get as always a lot of Gothic Atmosphere, magnificent interiors and set decoration. You get great lighting and special effects - and it should be noted that ol' Invisible himself was a very impressive effect for 1940, and done a bit better in the sequel. In the original, the masking was just a tad see through. Good performances as well, especially from Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the manager of the coal mine. He is not what he seems to be.

The plot is about uncovering the truth about a murder, but the real story of The Invisible Man is about power, the potentially ultimate power one would have if one were Invisible.

H.G. Wells was on a trip. He was a pretty far out guy for his time, when you consider that he wrote about Alien Invasion ("War Of The Worlds") and he did it in 1898! And he also wrote about Time Travel (in "The Time Machine") in 1895!

Talk about being Tuned In. H.G. knew what was happening before it ever happened.

So that was tonight's movie. The rest of the day was ordinary, no hikes or anything. Next week we will try to do some, in order to get some good pictures of Halloween Trees and the like.

Elizabeth, I hope all is well with you, if you are still reading. I saw your post yesterday about your friends who had gotten married. That was very inspirational.  :):)

I wanna get married too.  :):)