"The Invisible Man Returns" -1940.

Tagline: "They can hear him! They can feel him! But they can't stop him!" Are you sure he's actually there? I mean, how would you know for sure? Maybe Harold from accounting is just messing with you.

Plot: Geoffrey Radcliffe is about to hang for the murder of his brother when he makes a miraculous escape

with the help of Dr. Griffin and his invisibility potion.

Problem: the stuff drives you slowly insane. His fiancee, Helen Manson (aka "Darling", since that's about all Geoffrey ever calls her) gets him some clothes

and bandages so he can appear somewhat normal

and Dr. Griffin finds an old house for Geoffrey to hole up in. An old house cared for by an even older, slightly dense, man named Ben

and his constantly howling hound dog.
But Inspector Sampson is on the case and he's no slouch.

Sampson has figured out the Invisible Man can be seen in smoke

and in the rain

and uses this to his advantage. Sampson is also well aware that Dr. Griffin and Helen are helping Geoffrey. What Sampson doesn't know is that Geoffrey has been framed by Richard Cobb,

former partner in their coal company.
Meanwhile, Dr. Griffin and Helen realise Geoffrey has to be stopped. Griffin uses Geoffrey's growing egomania as an excuse to toast him

with a drugged glass of champagne.

They tie him to a chair that just happens to have leg shackles. (What?...yours don't?) But Geoffrey uses a glass of water

as a weapon (clever!) and escapes.
"Mister" Willy Spears

has suddenly found himself in a much better-paying job within the company. Is it possible Spears knows that Cobb is the real murderer? Geoffrey knows. He toys with Spears for a while, messing with his car

and convincing Spears he is a ghost (which causes him to faint). After kindly reviving Spears,

Geoffrey gets a confession from him and decides to take things to the next level. As his madness takes over his mind, he makes Spears stand on a chair with a noose around his neck

to try to force a confession out of Cobb. But Cobb kicks the chair out from under Spears,

breaks free and runs to the cops for protection. Sampson pulls a few tricks out of his bag,

and even wounds Geoffrey, but The Invisible Man can't be stopped (they should have read the poster) and he chases Cobb down like a dog.

Geoffrey throws Cobb onto a coal car and tries to choke a confession from him,

but the coal car is moving further and further away from the gathered crowd. Geoffrey is shot (or maybe shot at) again and falls from the cart seconds before it dumps it's contents onto the ground, along with Cobb.

The dying Cobb confesses the murder to Helen,

who is still desperate to find her invisible lunatic boyfriend (how many times can a person say that in their lives?). Bleeding profusely (we assume) Geoffrey finds a scarecrow,

steals it's clothes and finds his way back to Griffin's office.

But you can't operate on a patient you can't see and none of Dr. Griffin's animal experiments (note Invisible Guinea Pig)

have produced a cure. Griffin calls for blood donors and soon finds enough blood to keep Geoffrey alive for a while longer. Soon the donated blood has an interesting side effect: it reverses the invisibility. Slowly Geoffrey becomes visible again

and (we assume) recovers from his wound. No word on the charges of escaping from prison, kidnapping, extortion, uttering threats or assaulting police officers . Apparently, all is forgiven.

Things I learned from this movie: 1- this was Vincent Price's very first horror movie....13 years before his role in "House Of Wax" cemented him firmly in the genre...here he is finally visible at the very end of the movie,

giving his trademark Vincent Price "Look-Of-Incredulity",
2- if you don't really have a hand I don't think you can still call it a "handkerchief",

3- I'm not sure if grabbing a policeman by the seat of his pants is considered "assault" but it's certainly not a good idea,

4- as I watched scenes where Geoffrey was invisible, it occured to me: "technically, this is one of the first films to feature male full-frontal nudity",

5- here's what a syringe of invisible blood looks like, (on a seperate note, if Clark Kent and Clark Gable were fused together it would be Dr. Griffin)

6- another actor who has to "flick" the bullets out of the end of the pistol,

7- musical chairs: you're doing it wrong,

8- if Darth Vader had a steam-punk cousin,

9- you'll probably want to get that chair cleaned...if you follow my meaning,

10- that's not the "Safety Dance"!

11- floating guns don't kill people, crazy-ass invisible people kill people.

Useless, boring and quite possibly tedious trivia:
Vincent Price was only "seen" as the Invisible Man once, but he was the voice of The I.M. again in "Bud Abbott And Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein" (which I have recently purchased).

Nan Grey was Helen "Darling" Manson.

Not too terribly famous for her acting, Nan retired from acting to marry singer Frankie Lane

and then dabbled in inventing, eventually patenting a cosmetic mirror for near-sighted people. One of her biggest clients was another former actress: Princess Grace Of Monaco. Grace Kelly, in my opinion was the most beautiful woman that Hollywood ever had the good fortune to latch onto.

Alfred Hitchcock formed the same opinion, casting her as the female lead in three of his movies. But, again, I digress....

John Sutton was Dr. Griffin.

Of British descent, Sutton was born in what is now Pakistan but was then British-ruled India. Sutton had itchy feet and spent his youth working in the British territories in jobs as varied as big game hunter and tea plantation manager. He worked with Vincent Price two more times: "The Bat" in 1959 and "The Return Of The Fly", also in '59.

Also quite famous for appearing in Jane Eyre (1943) and The Three Musketeers (1948).

Cecil Kellaway was Inspector Sampson.

Arguably most recognised from "Harvey" (1950) with James Stewart (Kellaway played Dr. Chumley) he was also in a plethora of A-list movies like "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner", "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (the original, not the tasteless Jack Nicolson remake). His early career included an uncredited part in "Gunga Din" (1939). He was "Mr. Stebbins" in that, if you're a Gunga Din fan. Also "Earnshaw" in "Wuthering Heights"

and "Professor Thurgood Elson" in "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms"

(1953) and "Professor Plumcutt" in "The Shaggy Dog" (1959). Eventually traded his smocks for robes and played several men of the cloth.

He never did play Tom Bosley's father, although he should have.

Here's the kicker, though: Kellaway was offered the iconic role of Kris Kringle in "Miracle On 34th Street" but turned it down. He did play Santa Claus much later (on the TV show "Bewitched")

but never in movies. So who did get the part as Kris Kringle/Santa Claus in "Miracle"?....his cousin, Edmund Gwenn.

And while we're on the topic of famous TV shows of the 60's, let's talk about Alan Napier.

Napier played "Mister" Willy Spears in this movie but is much better known for playing a butler. He was "Alfred" on the long-running, much-loved and totally hokie TV show "Batman", taking care of Adam West long before West became mayor of Quahog.  As a tribute to Napier, Tim Burton gave "The Joker" (Jack Nicolson)

the last name "Napier" in the movie "Batman" (1989). Why? I assume because he was his "a-number one (heavy breathing)...a-guyyy". Don't get the joke? Watch Batman. Sheesh! I have to spoon feed you now?

"Guess That Mess"!

Holy crud! What in the name of Blue Hell is that?!....I'm getting out of here!