The next Universal Monsters movie (that I haven’t previously seen) is Invisible Agent, and honestly, it feels like a huge step up from The Invisible Woman, but too often goes for the comedic angle instead of playing itself as a straight thriller, which I think it could have done brilliantly.

This time we are introduced to the grandson of the original Invisible Man (though the timeline doesn’t work), Frank Raymond (Jon Hall). He’s approached by a group of Nazis who are working with the devious Baron Ikito (Peter Lorre) to reveal his grandfather’s formula.

He refuses. He won’t give in to either side on the blossoming war, but when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, he decides to go to the Americans and offers the serum, if he’s the one to use it. The government acquiesce and goes undercover to learn about Germany’s plans to attack America.

Using passcodes and identifiers, Frank meets up with Maria Sorenson (Ilona Massey), who is working to mine information from the Nazis, by cozying up to them, including Karl Heiser (J. Edward Bromberg).

Heiser ends up being a little too comedic, he’s playing the script he was given, but the role could have been made a lot scarier, and consequently, the story tighter.

There are betrayals, double-crosses, and Frank will be left wondering who to trust, and apparently, not bothered by the serum. In fact, he doesn’t get anywhere near the madness that plagued his grandfather.

So that’s too bad, because again, it could have added a ticking clock to the story.

In the end, it;s a wartime thriller, that got an Oscar nod for Special Effects, though it didn’t win.

I do like Maria’s arc in the tale, and how most of it plays out. I don’t like that the Nazis were mainly portrayed as buffoons, they should have been shown in a darker light, but I get it, it had to be reflective of the time, and it’s easier to deal with an enemy when you laugh at them.

There’s a lot of charming moments throughout the film, and Hall seems to get the assignment. I love that they plunge the story into wartime Europe, it just wasn’t as white-knuckle thriller as it could have been.

Still, this one is a solid entry, for me, into the Universal Monsters series, and except for some comedic Nazis, I really liked this one. Though, having said that, Lorre could have been given more to do.