Calling Dr.
Death (1943) - 6.5
"This is the Inner Sanctum. A strange fantastic world controlled by a mass of pulsating flesh. Yes, even without knowing you can commit murder". So starts the first film in the Inner Sanctum series. These words are spoken by a man's eerie head (David Hoffman) inside a crystal ball. The Inner Sanctum has a long pedigree starting as mystery books published by Simon & Schuster in 1930. In 1941 the books were scripted into a radio show as presented by the book publisher. The radio show ran till 1952 whereupon it was picked up for a syndicated TV show in 1954 for a year and 40 episodes. One would have to guess this format of different characters each week may have had some influence on TV shows in the future.
There was also of course the Universal film series that went on for six films; all starring Lon Chaney Jr. who somehow managed to fit them in between such films as Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, Son of Dracula, a couple Mummy movies, House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula. He was Universal's go to guy for B horror films. J. Carroll Naish who is also in this was another actor who showed up in lots of horror films - often disguised so that he is barely recognizable. Kind of the Lon Chaney Sr. of his time. This isn't really a horror film - it is more just a murder mystery garbed in horror music and cues. And stares into space by Chaney.
He plays a psychiatrist, Dr. Steele, who uses hypnosis on his patients to delve into their psychosis or their inner sanctum. He also talks to himself internally in hushed whispered tones as if he is afraid someone may be in his brain listening to him. He hates his wife and when we meet her (the lovely Ramsay Ames) so do we. She is nasty, cruel and open about her cheating on him. "I like having the title of a doctor's wife. I have money, position and there is nothing you can do about it". She may as well have sent a gilt-edged invitation to kill her. And someone does. But our good doctor has no recall of the period in which she was murdered and an even more annoying Columbo type detective (Naish) keeps showing up to question him. Steele's pretty nurse (Patricia Morison) is in love with him and he with her. If only he knew whether he had killed his wife. There is a nice expressionistic dream sequence towards the end that reveals all.
Weird Woman (1944) - 6.0
In his hushed panicked inner narrative, Lon Chaney Jr. says "In my lectures I have always said man takes two steps forward and one step back. But maybe it is one step forward and two steps back". That explains the world today. Definitely two steps back in many ways. This is almost a version of Goodbye, Mr. Chips but not quite. Only if Greer Garson had been a High Priestess of Voodoo. Which admittedly would have been rather cool. Professor Norman Reed (Chaney) is a long-time bachelor dedicated to his studies and his students. His specialty. Pagan religions and superstition.
He has a typical Meet Cute scenario with Paula (Anne Gwynne) when he goes on a trip to research his book somewhere in the South Pacific. He comes across a voodoo ceremony but not the fanatic fast rhythm beats of a tom-tom driving men into a frenzy. This is closer to a Hawaiian luau with the natives in bright garb and gentle singing and slow hip movements. How charming. Could put it in Vegas and make a fortune. He sees a white woman swaying to the music and goes to introduce himself - oops - don't you know when you have crossed a line that means death! Paula who is the daughter of a now dead professor stops him in time - don't go further - but being a Westerner he of course does. And gets very sick. The song they were singing - not for tourists - it is the Dance of Death!
He recovers, marries her and brings her home to his small university town where the jealous Evelyn Ankers gives her the evil eye. This place is more dangerous than the jungle. It is the professor eat professor world of university politics and the ambitious women surrounding them. Turns out you can take a voodoo priestess out of the jungle but you can't take the voodoo out of the girl. "Do, do that voodoo that you do so well, For you do something to me, That nobody else could do, Let me live 'neath your spell".
She is slipping out at night to the local graveyard to perform rituals to protect her husband. He finds out and destroys all the charms and then shit begins to rain down on him. A chippie college student infatuated with him, her jealous boyfriend, a spiteful university wife, suicide. In those horror house inner thoughts he thinks maybe I screwed up. Yes, you did. Reed must have his own voodoo going to have all these beautiful women wanting to bed and bathe him. I need some of whatever he has because he is as charismatic as a burnt out light bulb. The chippie calls him dreamy and dynamic. I bet no one ever said that about Chaney before or since. Good performances all around especially by the bitter wife played by Elizabeth Russell so full of vitriol and acid that I expected her head to explode. This is the second film in the Inner Sanctum series.
Dead Man's Eyes (1944) - 5.5
Here is a safety tip for all you kids out there. If you have identical looking bottles - one with eye wash and the other with acid, you should probably not keep them together in the same cabinet. This goes double if you have the "Venezualan Volcano" hanging around your apartment messing with your cabinet. It could lead to blindness. In this third of the Inner Sanctum Mysteries that is exactly what happens. Of course, some might say he was already blind to prefer another woman to our Volcano but that is a matter of taste. I know what mine would be. Though Acquanetta is listed seventh in the cast credits, it is her along with the star Lon Chaney Jr who get their names in the big print. As it should be.
She has become something of a cult figure though she only appeared in eleven films but she was The Ape Woman in Captive Wild Woman and Jungle Woman and later in Tarzan and the Leopard Woman. Compared to those roles this is a pretty mild one but she gets a lot of screen time to show her inability to bring much emotion to her acting. Much better at becoming an Ape Woman. She is a model for aspiring painter Chaney who is engaged to Jean Parker, wealthy daughter of a zillionaire. One day our sweet Acquanetta accidentally mixes up the bottles and when Chaney washes out his eyes, his corneas are burnt. That rich father tells Chaney that when he dies his eyes can be used in an experimental operation - or as the news paper headlines say a " Weird Operation" - to get his sight back. Safety tip number two. Never tell people what you are leaving them whether it is eyes or money. It is a shortcut to death and sure enough dad is murdered that night with Chaney hovering over him. Safety tip number 3. Don't hover over dead bodies.
A duller outing than the first two. Basic murder plot with a bunch of suspects. I fully expected that when he got the eyes he would be able to see the former owner of the eyes being killed but unable to prove it as he went to the electric chair. I should have written the script. These first three films were all directed by Reginald Le Borg and with a name like that you expect a classy background and you get it. Born in Vienna to a wealthy banking family, he first studied music composition at the Arnold Schoenberg School. Then went into banking but after the Big Crash he wandered into film. Not a great director by any means - primarily B films - but those first two films showed some nice style - as well as Jungle Woman. Later he was to direct a number of the Joe Palooka films.
"This is the Inner Sanctum. A strange fantastic world controlled by a mass of pulsating flesh. Yes, even without knowing you can commit murder". So starts the first film in the Inner Sanctum series. These words are spoken by a man's eerie head (David Hoffman) inside a crystal ball. The Inner Sanctum has a long pedigree starting as mystery books published by Simon & Schuster in 1930. In 1941 the books were scripted into a radio show as presented by the book publisher. The radio show ran till 1952 whereupon it was picked up for a syndicated TV show in 1954 for a year and 40 episodes. One would have to guess this format of different characters each week may have had some influence on TV shows in the future.
There was also of course the Universal film series that went on for six films; all starring Lon Chaney Jr. who somehow managed to fit them in between such films as Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, Son of Dracula, a couple Mummy movies, House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula. He was Universal's go to guy for B horror films. J. Carroll Naish who is also in this was another actor who showed up in lots of horror films - often disguised so that he is barely recognizable. Kind of the Lon Chaney Sr. of his time. This isn't really a horror film - it is more just a murder mystery garbed in horror music and cues. And stares into space by Chaney.
He plays a psychiatrist, Dr. Steele, who uses hypnosis on his patients to delve into their psychosis or their inner sanctum. He also talks to himself internally in hushed whispered tones as if he is afraid someone may be in his brain listening to him. He hates his wife and when we meet her (the lovely Ramsay Ames) so do we. She is nasty, cruel and open about her cheating on him. "I like having the title of a doctor's wife. I have money, position and there is nothing you can do about it". She may as well have sent a gilt-edged invitation to kill her. And someone does. But our good doctor has no recall of the period in which she was murdered and an even more annoying Columbo type detective (Naish) keeps showing up to question him. Steele's pretty nurse (Patricia Morison) is in love with him and he with her. If only he knew whether he had killed his wife. There is a nice expressionistic dream sequence towards the end that reveals all.
Weird Woman (1944) - 6.0
In his hushed panicked inner narrative, Lon Chaney Jr. says "In my lectures I have always said man takes two steps forward and one step back. But maybe it is one step forward and two steps back". That explains the world today. Definitely two steps back in many ways. This is almost a version of Goodbye, Mr. Chips but not quite. Only if Greer Garson had been a High Priestess of Voodoo. Which admittedly would have been rather cool. Professor Norman Reed (Chaney) is a long-time bachelor dedicated to his studies and his students. His specialty. Pagan religions and superstition.
He has a typical Meet Cute scenario with Paula (Anne Gwynne) when he goes on a trip to research his book somewhere in the South Pacific. He comes across a voodoo ceremony but not the fanatic fast rhythm beats of a tom-tom driving men into a frenzy. This is closer to a Hawaiian luau with the natives in bright garb and gentle singing and slow hip movements. How charming. Could put it in Vegas and make a fortune. He sees a white woman swaying to the music and goes to introduce himself - oops - don't you know when you have crossed a line that means death! Paula who is the daughter of a now dead professor stops him in time - don't go further - but being a Westerner he of course does. And gets very sick. The song they were singing - not for tourists - it is the Dance of Death!
He recovers, marries her and brings her home to his small university town where the jealous Evelyn Ankers gives her the evil eye. This place is more dangerous than the jungle. It is the professor eat professor world of university politics and the ambitious women surrounding them. Turns out you can take a voodoo priestess out of the jungle but you can't take the voodoo out of the girl. "Do, do that voodoo that you do so well, For you do something to me, That nobody else could do, Let me live 'neath your spell".
She is slipping out at night to the local graveyard to perform rituals to protect her husband. He finds out and destroys all the charms and then shit begins to rain down on him. A chippie college student infatuated with him, her jealous boyfriend, a spiteful university wife, suicide. In those horror house inner thoughts he thinks maybe I screwed up. Yes, you did. Reed must have his own voodoo going to have all these beautiful women wanting to bed and bathe him. I need some of whatever he has because he is as charismatic as a burnt out light bulb. The chippie calls him dreamy and dynamic. I bet no one ever said that about Chaney before or since. Good performances all around especially by the bitter wife played by Elizabeth Russell so full of vitriol and acid that I expected her head to explode. This is the second film in the Inner Sanctum series.
Dead Man's Eyes (1944) - 5.5
Here is a safety tip for all you kids out there. If you have identical looking bottles - one with eye wash and the other with acid, you should probably not keep them together in the same cabinet. This goes double if you have the "Venezualan Volcano" hanging around your apartment messing with your cabinet. It could lead to blindness. In this third of the Inner Sanctum Mysteries that is exactly what happens. Of course, some might say he was already blind to prefer another woman to our Volcano but that is a matter of taste. I know what mine would be. Though Acquanetta is listed seventh in the cast credits, it is her along with the star Lon Chaney Jr who get their names in the big print. As it should be.
She has become something of a cult figure though she only appeared in eleven films but she was The Ape Woman in Captive Wild Woman and Jungle Woman and later in Tarzan and the Leopard Woman. Compared to those roles this is a pretty mild one but she gets a lot of screen time to show her inability to bring much emotion to her acting. Much better at becoming an Ape Woman. She is a model for aspiring painter Chaney who is engaged to Jean Parker, wealthy daughter of a zillionaire. One day our sweet Acquanetta accidentally mixes up the bottles and when Chaney washes out his eyes, his corneas are burnt. That rich father tells Chaney that when he dies his eyes can be used in an experimental operation - or as the news paper headlines say a " Weird Operation" - to get his sight back. Safety tip number two. Never tell people what you are leaving them whether it is eyes or money. It is a shortcut to death and sure enough dad is murdered that night with Chaney hovering over him. Safety tip number 3. Don't hover over dead bodies.
A duller outing than the first two. Basic murder plot with a bunch of suspects. I fully expected that when he got the eyes he would be able to see the former owner of the eyes being killed but unable to prove it as he went to the electric chair. I should have written the script. These first three films were all directed by Reginald Le Borg and with a name like that you expect a classy background and you get it. Born in Vienna to a wealthy banking family, he first studied music composition at the Arnold Schoenberg School. Then went into banking but after the Big Crash he wandered into film. Not a great director by any means - primarily B films - but those first two films showed some nice style - as well as Jungle Woman. Later he was to direct a number of the Joe Palooka films.