by Dennis E. Power
(with much assistance from Matthew Baugh, Win Eckert and Chuck Loridans)

PART EIGHT

The Dundering Duo's double involvement with the Invisible Man.
After the war in La Miranda Florida, a U.S. military project wanting to create an invisible intelligence corps to counteract Soviet espionage calls together two of the surviving invisible men Geoffrey Radcliffe and Frank Raymond. They underwent invisibility under controlled situations. A ruckus at the Castle, the mansion on a small island in the cove, made the Project Director fear that Russians were either spying on the project or were attempting to disrupt it. He asked Geoffrey Radcliffe, who was currently invisible to investigate. He found the danger all over  but scared the daylights out of two bumbling shipping clerks. These immortals were currently using the names Chick and Wilbur.(1)

These two bumbling former shipping clerks a couple years later encountered another Invisible Man while posing as private detectives. This is Tommy Nelson a boxer accused of killing his manager. Having escaped from jail, Nelson talks, Bud and Lou as their characters are called in the theatrical portrayal of these events, into accompanying him to the home of fiancée, Helen Gray. Helen's Uncle Dr. Phillip Grey is working on a serum for invisibility and a re-agent to counteract it. Tommy wants Dr. Grey to inject him with the serum so Tommy can prove his innocence. Dr. Gray is reluctant to inject Tommy with the serum so Tommy does it himself. Dr. Philip Grey was using a serum based on the original monocaine derivation.

    Tommy began to become affected by the psychosis but was able to clear his name by staging a fight with the fat chubby immortal called Lou as his boxer who was supposed to take a dive but did not. When the gangsters try to kill Bud and Lou, Tommy intervenes. Tommy is nearly killed by a knife thrust. They break up the gang with enough evidence to clear Tommy.  A transfusion by "Lou" actually works a reagent and eradicates the invisibility serum from Tommy Nelson's system.  Any story however of Lou becoming affected by the invisibility serum is however spurious.

    Dr. Philip Grey had begun his research on the invisibility serum when he discovered an old notebook among his grandfather, Arthur Grey's effects. This notebook was the missing third book of John Hawley Griffin. Griffin may have given it to the elder Grey himself or else Arthur Grey might have gotten it along with some of his sister's effects after her death. Arthur Grey was the brother of Rebecca Grey, John Hawley Griffin's wife.(2)

Click here for a Griffin family tree graphic

NOTES

THE DUNDERING DUO

1. The careers of these two immortals variously known by hundreds of names in their existence will be explored in a forthcoming article tentatively called Immortal Befuddled. Although various comedy teams have put their own indelible interpretations of these two characters, they are using portrayed as a thin man accompanied by a heavier man. The incident at the Castle in La Miranda, Florida is shown in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Universal 1941 The later incident with Tommy Nelson as an Invisible can be seen in Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man Universal 1951

2. Let's play follow the notebooks. John Hawley Griffin kept three notebooks on the course of his experiments. After being ejected from the Inn in Iping he has Mr. Marvel steal them. When Mr. Marvel hides in the Jolly Cricketer, he leaves the notebooks behind. The proprietor of the Jolly Cricketer sells the three notebooks. After much searching John Hawley Griffin manages to find one of the notebooks, the middle one. He leaves this to his sons. Jack Griffin uses this notebook to create a similar serum. This middle book was inherited by Jack brother Francis Griffin. The first notebook somehow ended up in the hands of the German High Command. They used it to create monocaine in order to run some invisibility experiments. This notebook ended up in the hands of Dr. Peter Drury, he had it in his possession when he was nearly killed by Robert Griffin. This notebook passed into the hands of Frank Griffin. The third notebook was of course held by the Gray family.

Invisibles Timeline
1897 Invisible Man by H.G. Well (John Hawley Griffin. OIM Original Invisible Man)
1898 League of Extraordinary Men (John Hawley Griffin)
1922 Invisible Man (John (Jack) Griffin)
1929 Invisible Murderer with William Carpenter as the Invisible Man
1931 Invisible Man's Return (Frank Griffin----- with Geoffrey Radcliffe as the IM
1935 Invisible Man's Revenge  (Robert Griffin) the IM
1938 Invisible Woman (Kitty Caroll)
1942 (twenty years after Invisible Man) Invisible Agent (Frank Griffin a.k.a. Frank Raymond)
1948 Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Geoffrey Radcliffe IM)
1949 Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (Tommy Nelson IM)
1966 Invisibility Affair Willard Morthley and Kerry Griffin inventors of the OTSMID (Omnidirectional Total Spectrum Molecular Interpenetration Device) which can render objects invisible
1974 Daniel Westin  becomes an Invisible Man
1998 Darien Fawkes surgically implanted with quicksilver gland to become an Invisible Man
1999 Sebastian Caine has a brief and deadly career as an Invisible Man as seen in The Hollow Man

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