The Invisible Man Returns

"They hear him! They feel him! But they can't stop him!"

1940 1h 21m EN

😐

6.3

MID

★6.3TMDB · 146

HorrorScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The owner of a coal mining operation, falsely imprisoned for fratricide, takes a drug to make him invisible, despite its side effect: gradual madness.

“They hear him! They feel him! But they can't stop him!”

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Cast

Cedric Hardwicke
Richard Cobb
Vincent Price
Geoffrey Radcliffe
Nan Grey
Helen Manson
John Sutton
Dr. Frank Griffin
Cecil Kellaway
Inspector Sampson
Alan Napier
Willie Spears
Forrester Harvey
Ben Jenkins
Ernie Adams
Minor Role (uncredited)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Joe May
Writers: Curt Siodmak, Lester Cole, Curt Siodmak
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

81 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.3M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

86 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "The Invisible Man Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Joe May, shot by Milton Krasner. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Hans J. Salter. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Frank Gross shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Cedric Hardwicke and Vincent Price and Nan Grey carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Joe May directs. Milton Krasner behind the camera. Hans J. Salter scores. Frank Gross cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

181 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Shot for just $0.3M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
386 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Part of the "The Invisible Man Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Joe May, shot by Milton Krasner. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Hans J. Salter. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Frank Gross shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Cedric Hardwicke and Vincent Price and Nan Grey carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "They hear him! They feel him! But they can't stop him!".
10IMDB entry: tt0032635 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 15 themes, including "monster", "insanity", "scotland yard", "sequel".

The technical file

Cinematography: Milton Krasner
Original score: Hans J. Salter
Editing: Frank Gross
Costume design: Vera West
Runtime: 81 min · 1h 21m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $281,743
Original language: EN
IMDB: The Invisible Man Returns (1940)

Part of

The Invisible Man Collection

The Universal Production film series beginning with 'The Invisible Man' in 1933 and followed by four sequels up to 1944.

Also by

Joe May

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2018-10-01
★ 7/10
Tasty sequel, far from lazy. Falsely imprisoned for fratricide, Geoffrey Radcliffe (Vincent Price) takes a drug to make him invisible and thus escape. But as he sets about trying to clear his name, the side effect of the drug, gradual madness, threatens to usurp his plans. It was never going to be up on the same level as the first film, The Invisible Man (1933), a genuine classic Universal Studio production that does justice to the great H.G. Wells writing. But instead of going for a lazy cash in, this sequel puts its own stamp on the invisible man premise and rounds out as an intelligent story with dashes of humour and sadness placed within. John Fulton's effects work is still amazing for the era, the cast list is boosted by the likes of Cecil Kellaway, Cedric Hardwicke and Nan Grey, while the finale is rewarding and worth waiting for. Faults? A couple, such as the real murderer is revealed too quickly, thus we lose mystery momentum, and director Joe May often lets the pace sag. But these fail to stop the film from achieving its entertaining aims. It hardly constitutes horror as such, but there's good dramatic worth, berserker science and a cast making the material work. 7/10
CinemaSerf2022-06-23
★ 6/10
This is quite a good, if a little preposterous sequel. Vincent Price - or, that is, his voice - owns a successful mining business who is framed for killing his brother. With but two hours to go before he goes to the gallows, he turns to his friend who has devised a secret drug that can render the user invisible - but at a cost: continued exposure leads to madness. Once he has used the drug to escape from prison, he attempts to track down the real culprits from his close confederates - including Sir Cedric Hardwicke, John Sutton and a glamorous Nan Grey. The ever vigilant "Inspector Sampson" (an on-form Cecil Kellaway) is also on the trail of the transparent fugitive and all in all, we have a decently paced mystery thriller with some quite fun dialogue and special effects that bely that fact that this was made at the very start of WWII with not much of a budget.