The Bloody Pit #66 - THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS (1940)

With this episode Troy and I start a new thread of shows focused on an unjustly neglected area of classic horror - the Universal Horror films of the 1940's. Not that there hasn't been attention paid to some of the movies of this period but, beyond the respect given to THE WOLF MAN (1941), there is a general distain for these later entries in the cycle. We're not sure we can rectify this injustice but we do plan to shine a light on the (admittedly) lesser 40's output with hopes of elevating their reputations a bit. Surely even the least charitable fans recognize how the various Mummy and Frankenstein sequels add some bizarre ideas to the Universal Monster Universe that make the entire sequence richer. Right?

We start with the first Invisible Man sequel THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS (1940) which gives us the chance to talk about the very young Vincent Price. Of course, he's invisible for most of the movie but the rest of the cast is more than capable of holding your attention. The film sports some high quality special effects and some foggy, creepy atmosphere so, regardless of the fact that the story is more of a murder mystery than a horror film, it feels like a proper continuation. Under discussion is the difficult attitude of the director, the consistently excellent score, the haunting beauty of Nan Grey and the odd sound of Vincent Price's voice. We are able to stay almost completely on the main subject and both of us manage to keep all our clothes on which means we avoided going mad - unlike some people we could name! (Anybody got a hit of monocane? I got the cash! Really!!)

At the end of the episode we read out a few emails we've received prompting some off topic discussion. It's always good to know there are folks out there enjoying what we're doing. If you have any comments, the show can be reached at [email protected] and we'll be thrilled to hear from you. We end things with a feisty little punk song and Vincent ranting us out the door! Thanks for listening.