No, he doesn't. Although credited on screen as a sequel, this is only a follow-up in the loosest terms with the invisibility serum transported into a new plot with new characters. Misleading as the title may be, the film benefits by placing its own spin on the idea rather than constantly borrowing from the first film or heavily referencing it. The movie is also blessed by a (mainly vocal) early Vincent Price performance as the slowly maddening protagonist - a man who has used the serum to escape capital punishment for a crime he did not commit. While mainly a drama, there are some very funny moments as Price taunts those who have wronged him by pretending to be a ghost. He also has some very human moments as he desperately borrows a scarecrow's clothes, talking to the scarecrow like a dear friend in the process. The screenplay here only ever feels half-baked though with Price's search for those who framed him constantly taking a back seat to the police tracking him down. The antagonists are not particularly memorable either and Price solves the mystery a tad too early in, with the film gaining most of its zest from Price evading the law. His evasions are, however, quite clever - especially when the police try to 'smoke' him out and the special effects here are excellent throughout (a struggling invisible hamster is one of the film's best effects, if a hardly showy one). The dialogue is well scripted too. "Take away one of man's senses and you render him helpless," muses Price at one point, lamenting humankind's debatable inferiority to instinct-based animals.
Review of The Invisible Man Returns
