The Invisible Man Returns

I actually could have sworn I reviewed this so many years back.

Nine years after Jack Griffin went insane through experiments on the visible spectrum, we follow a man named Geoffrey framed for murder who with the help of Jack's brother becomes invisible to achieve justice or revenge as the doctor desperately seeks a cure before the madness sets in, in this 1940 minor classic. This is a very well done sequel with enough links to the original but ultimately being it's own thing, you don't even have to watch the first film to follow it and enjoy it. Vincent Price before he became synonymous with the horror genre is our unseen lead and at first you might not be able to tell it's him since he went for a more american-lite accent and yet very much like Claude Rains can get so much emotion and fringing insanity through just his voice alone with not an awful lot of physical acting involved, though I will say his striking height helped accentuate his presence. The film's effects are much more complex and sophisticated in the seven year gap between productions to the point where I really was rather impressed and wondering how they achieved certain tricks, they no doubt used the same black velvet technique but the wire work is insane here and some shots go on for quite some time, no editing shortcomings to be had, so it's a strong improvement on a film that already had some groundbreaking effects. I like the relationship betwen Geoffrey and his love interest Helen, she's a real ride or die even when the mania starts to seep in she's stalwart in helping her man and even I couldn't believe the happy ending to this movie so hell yeah Nan. Usually the title monster bites the dust seconds before a The End in these Universal horror pictures so I'm a happy camper. You would think considering we see Jack Griffin's brother named Frank in this he would be the invisible man and would have a much bigger focus, but he's a solid supporting character racing against the clock to cure Geoffrey, and once again a real one willing to help in any way and you can tell he's rather conflicted with the idea of potentially having to kill his friend before he kills others, it's a solid performance. Of course it wouldn't be a 40s Universal Monster movie without Sir Cedric Hardwicke in there somewhere who despite being top billed isn't in it a great deal and I kinda wish he was considering his importance to the plot later. The visuals are decent, obviously they were workshopping more on the effects side but the sets, the woods, the costuming all still look on par with any other movies in this series but I would have loved to see more spooky atmosphere. In many ways I like it better than The Invisible Man and yet in the same vein as Star Trek it won't surpass the original's popularity and iconic presentation. It's a very good movie but undoubtedly a B-tier addition to the hallowed halls of classic movie monsters, so I give it 3 stars, 7.5/10, and I hope I saved the best for last as we conclude the whole Halloween season with the finale to the Frankenstein trilogy tomorrow.

Rope

This was the film I was most excited to see this week.

The minute I heard of this concept, two upper class men murder their friend and place his body in a box and hold a party where all the guests surround this unbeknownst to them makeshift coffin, I couldn't wait to see it. And not only that but the movie is shot as one continuous take, with 5 cuts (yes I counted) much like Birdman which only fascinated me more to see it. And to think this isn't considered one of Hitchcock's masterpieces, or even one of his major films. That is reaching incomprable levels of bullshit. This is easily top 5 quality for his movies in my ranking. Really the only landmark I hear for this film is this is the first movie that Hitchcock made with Jimmy Stewart, which is nice to see how this relationship started, but are you kidding me that's it? The technicals for this movie alone could be a review in and of itself, the camera movements, the backdrops, the technicolor print, just what the hell were people sleeping on this for? Everyone quotes the classic example of suspense with Hitchcock as the bomb under the table. That changes today. The example henceforth is the maid clearing the stuff off the top of the box, bit by bit, with long walks inbetween, ready to put some books inside the box, that is the purest example of suspense I have ever seen. And while Jimmy does a real good job, more subdued until the end where he gives a great monologue, the shining star here is John Dall as one of the killers Brandon. He is devilishly wicked in this role, always so cool and loving every moment, he has such charm and affability that you could almost forgive him being a killer. The script is also really good, it's not full of that morbid comedy you might suspect, but the discussion considering the right of murder by superior individuals while incredibly easy to make fun of because well...all the characters are upper class white people, is still good writing. I dare say this is the high point of the week, I greatly enjoyed it more than Shadow Of A Doubt so I give it 4 stars, 9/10, might be a bit high but I feel it's that good. Check it out and get this movie more attention!