At first I wondered why this wasn't better known among horror aficionados - it's got a great title, was directed by Tod Browning, co-scripted by Eric Von Stroheim, and gets off to a strong start with Lionel Barrymore and a fellow old codger escaping from Devil's Island. (I've got a soft spot for Devil's Island escape sequences). The old guy dies but not before telling Barrymore that he's a mad scientist who can shrink things a la the doctor in Bride of Frankenstein, and he has a crazy wife who has a similar hairstyle to Elsa Lanchester in Bride of Frankenstein, so when Barrymore says he wants to wreck some Count of Monte Cristo style revenge you think "ok he's going to use the shrinking things machine and kick some arse" which isn't a bad idea for a horror film, if a little more Bela Lugosi/Monogram than Lionel Barrymore/MGM.
But anyways that does happen a bit, but Barrymore actually spends most of the rest of the film in drag as a little old lady. It's played straight believe it or not, and is just plain silly.
Maureen O'Sullivan is always likeable as Barrymore's estranged daughter; Frank Lawton is wet as her fiancee. I wish the actors playing the people Barrymore gets revenge on had been stronger. Rafaele Ottiano - who I don't recall ever having seen in anything before - is fun as the crazy widow of the mad scientist.
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