John Carradine plays a scientist, Drury, who has perfected an invisible serum, though it has no relation to the work that the Griffin family was working on in previous films. We are introduced to him when an escaped psychotic murderer, Robert Griffin (Jon Hall) – no relation escapes to the U.K.

It seems that he’s not only escaped his psychiatric hospital but he’s come to England to confront Jasper (Lester Matthews) and Irene (Gale Sondergaard) Herrick. They were partners traveling across Africa, tracking a diamond field, when Griffin was injured and reportedly dead.

The Herricks made it rich, and now Griffin has come looking for his cut, and he’s going to weasel his way into the family as well, with the Herrick’s daughter, Julie (Evelyn Ankers).

When he meets Drury, Griffin is convinced he’s nothing more than a mad scientist, until he is introduced to Drury’s invisible dog and bird. Taking the serum, Griffin goes on a crime spree, bringing havoc to the Herrick’s estate.

Unlike the Griffins in the earlier films, Drury has a cure, unfortunately, it involves murder. Griffin can change back if he receives a transfusion of blood from another person. Not just some of their blood, but all of their blood. Murder.

The effects are solid, if a little predictable from what we’ve seen in the rest of the series. The story is different from what we’ve seen before, and works as a bit of a crime thriller but it’s not as engaging as some of the supernatural tales the Universal Monsters have given us before.

Hall gives a solid performance, and he actually has above-the-title billing. The franchise isn’t tired, but it is getting a little worn. It just needs to have a little more oomph injected into it.

Unfortunately, it may have come a little too late. There’s only one film left in the series, and it’s Abbott and Costello meet The Invisible Man.

Still, the characters and monsters endure, and sure, not all of the stories are going to be great, and some have better moments than others, but they all form a wonderful whole, and it’s easy how to see they entertained generations and continue to do so.

And for the time, the effects are solid, well-crafted, and except for things like screwing up their internal timelines, they are all good fun. But man, I can’t wait to see how Abbott and Costello deal with this Universal Monster.