I didn’t love this one. It seemed to want to play a little too light-hearted considering the things the film could have done. Of course, I am looking at it from a modern view point, as opposed to being in the time, and realizing that it was just a very expensive b-movie.

There are a couple of very cool things in this one, the film shifts the invisible character from a man to a woman, it’s right there in the title, and it has a couple of familiar actors in supporting roles, there’s Shemp Howard as a gangster, and Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch of the West herself as a housekeeper.

Professor Gibbs (John Barrymore) has created a machine, not a serum, that can turn someone invisible. His work is financed by an almost broke playboy, Richard Russell (John Howard), and Gibbs needs a little more cash and a guinea pig. He’s placed an ad in a paper looking for a suitable and willing subject.

A department store model (was that a thing?), Kitty Carroll (Virginia Bruce) takes the deal and uses it to get revenge on her boss and generally have a good time.

Unfortunately, a group of gangsters have also heard about the machine, and want to use it to help their boss get over the Mexican-American border.

Wackiness ensues, and this one definitely leans towards the lighter and goofier, which is a little unfortunate. I’m not saying you can’t gave fun within the genre, but the two previous films in the series fell into the horror-thriller category, and this one wanted to be more madcap romance, which is a total departure from the series.

It could have been a lot of fun if played a little straighter, and honestly, it lacks the ticking clock aspect of the previous films as there is no threat of Kitty descending into madness. In fact, she’s delightfully playful throughout the film.

I’m sure there are those who love this one, but nowadays, when you say something like the Universal Monsters, it conjures an image, and this one just didn’t stand up to it. It’s not that it’s unenjoyable, it’s a bit of a hoot actually, but it wasn’t inline with the rest of the Universal Monsters brand.

And this one is delightful for just having both a Wicked Witch and a Stooge in the film. Hopefully, however, there are more scares to come with the Universal Monsters. Let’s see what happens when I dig into the next film in the Monsters series, The Mummy’s Tomb!