Customer Reviews

Inner Sanctum Mysteries: The Complete Movie Collection (Calling Dr. Death / Weird Woman / The Frozen Ghost / Pillow of Death / Dead Man's Eyes / Strange Confession)

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1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Inner Sanctum Collection from Universal includes all six Inner Sanctum films based on the wildly popular radio show which ran concurrently with them:Calling Dr. Death(released Dec/43),Weird Woman(released Mar/44),Dead Man's Eyes(released Nov/44),The Frozen Ghost(released June/45,)Strange Confession(released Oct/45)and finally Pillow of Death(released Dec/45).All of these films star Lon Chaney Jr.,though I must admit that I have never been a big Chaney Jr.fan;his late father cast a very large shadow he was never able to get out from under.But he does do a credible job throughout and though his co stars were often an uneven bunch,they got better towards the end of the series with the likes of Edward Bromberg,Douglass Dumbrille and future TV stars such as Milburn Stone and Lloyd Bridges.About one of his worst co stars was in Dead Man's Eyes,with Acquanetta playing Tanya.She was as stiff as they come and as her name implies,her acting was certainly all wet!
All of the films start out in a vacated room in which the center piece is a large table.On that table sits a large glass crystal ball,inside which is a disembodied head.The head tells us that WE are as capable of committing murder as those we are about to see.The films are a mixture of whodunits and psychological thrillers.Chaney is always the central character,playing a lawyer or neurologist ,his character getting sucked into events that seem out of his control and which he has no seeming way of stopping.When the plot gets thick he,more often than not,can be heard talking/thinking about what he has seen,is seeing or feeling at that moment.In other words we eavesdrop on his mind.
All the films are about 66 minutes long and would have been part of the filler of the bill in the theaters at the time,along with the newsreels,cartoons and the main feature.
I don't think there are any here that rate any more more than 3 stars,being the B's they were.All have been remastered very well though and look wonderful.There are no extras,but it is still nice to have this collection as these are rare little films that help fill in the bigger picture of Hollywood film history.Recommended.

This is a wonderful collection of B-Movies starring Lon Chaney Jr. He did these films over a period in which he was at the peak of his career. Even though these are low budget B-Movies, they are nevertheless highly entertaining and well done, and a special treat for any Lon Chaney Jr. fans.