For a performance by an actor mostly utilized through voice only, Vincent Price is truly memorable. Yes, he allows that famous profile to be covered in gauze, and on occasion, his voice is muffled. But as the British aristocrat falsely accused of murder, Price is both comical and touching, and in this, the first follow-up to 1933's masterpiece "The Invisible Man", the result is above average.
There's a truly memorably sequence when he gently talks to a scarecrow as he strips it of its clothes, obviously freezing in his unexposed nudity, and a comical one where he uses his voice to scare a witness of the actual murder he was accused of into thinking he is his own ghost. Price's voice goes from petrified to relieved (as he escapes from death row) to sudden calm, then worried as he faces pending insanity. His voice is truly convincing as he expresses all of these emotions.
The other memorable performance is by Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the obvious villain, and the final sequence on a coal loading device is pretty frightening. What makes this entry stand above its follow-ups is the fact that the actual invisible man is allowed to be truly worthy of sympathy, and with that, Price's performance is outstanding.
There's a truly memorably sequence when he gently talks to a scarecrow as he strips it of its clothes, obviously freezing in his unexposed nudity, and a comical one where he uses his voice to scare a witness of the actual murder he was accused of into thinking he is his own ghost. Price's voice goes from petrified to relieved (as he escapes from death row) to sudden calm, then worried as he faces pending insanity. His voice is truly convincing as he expresses all of these emotions.
The other memorable performance is by Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the obvious villain, and the final sequence on a coal loading device is pretty frightening. What makes this entry stand above its follow-ups is the fact that the actual invisible man is allowed to be truly worthy of sympathy, and with that, Price's performance is outstanding.