The Invisible Woman is an American science fiction comedy film directed by A. Edward Sutherland. It is the third film in Universal Pictures' The Invisible Man film series, following The Invisible Man and The Invisible Man Returns, which were released earlier in the year. It was more of a screwball comedy than a horror film like the others in the series. Universal released The Invisible Woman on December 27, 1940. The film stars Virginia Bruce, John Barrymore, John Howard, Charlie Ruggles, and Oscar Homolka, and features Margaret Hamilton, Charles Lane and Shemp Howard. Plot Wealthy lawyer Richard Russell (John Howard) funds the dotty old inventor Professor Gibbs (John Barrymore) creation of an invisibility device. The first test subject for this machine is Kitty Carroll (Virginia Bruce), a department store model who has been fired from her previous job. The machine proves quite successful, and Kitty uses her invisible state to pay back her sadistic former boss, Mr. Growley (Charles Lane). While the Professor and the invisible Kitty are off visiting Russell's lodge, gangster Blackie Cole (Oscar Homolka) sends in his gang of moronic thugs—including “Hammerhead’ (Shemp Howard)—to steal the device. Once the machine is back at their hideout, they cannot get it to work. Kitty is now visible, and Blackie sends the gang to kidnap her and the Professor. Kitty learns that alcohol will restore her invisibility, and, with Russell's help, she exploits this to defeat the gang. Cut to the end of the film. Kitty has married Richard and become a mother. After an alcohol rub, their infant son begins to fade from view. “Hmmm,” the Professor says to the audience. “Hereditary!” Cast Cast is sourced from the book Universal Horrors: Production After the success of The Invisible Man Returns, Universal Pictures began work on a followup and signed Curt Siodmak to develop the idea in 1940 with comedy writers Frederic I. Rinaldo and Robert Lees. Universal gave the film a $300,000 budget. Margaret Sullivan had originally been slated for the role of the invisible woman because she owed Universal one more film in her contract. Director John Cromwell approached Sullivan about playing the lead in So Ends Our Night, and she failed to report to Universal for The Invisible Woman. Sullivan received a restraining order preventing her from working elsewhere. Eventually, she was allowed to finish So Ends the Night, as long as she continued work on two