Inner Sanctum is one of my favourite old time radio shows. A mix of mystery and horror. Often campy horror, but horror nonetheless. Always entertaining. Apparently, Universal Studios thought so as well and obtained the film rights to produce a total of six Inner Sanctum movies during the 40's, the program's heyday, which became ongoing vehicles for its bankable star, Lon Chaney Jr. And I was lucky enough to stumble upon the set of all six of these movies languishing on a clearance rack earlier this year.
Or so I believed.
Most of the Inner Sanctum radio shows I've listened to would be considered horror. Sure, there were some that suffered from the "Scooby-Doo Effect" of a real person disguising his crime as a supernatural force, but the show would never be mistaken for a detective story. But perhaps Universal wasn't aware of this.
These movies are each little more than an hour long, so I watched two last night. I chose Dead Man's Eyes and The Frozen Ghost. Horrifying titles indeed.
In Dead Man's Eyes, Chaney plays an artist who is accidentally blinded and finds it difficult to cope. His sympathetic elderly future father-in-law wills him his own eyes, to be transplanted after his death. Naturally, he's dead within days.
Wonderful, I thought. I know where this is going. The eyes will retain the essence of the old man and our hero will be possessed by the visions of his fiancée's deceased father.
But no. They were just ordinary eyes. And the remainder of the movie was a detective story focused upon finding the murderer.
Onward then to The Frozen Ghost. Obviously a horror movie.
This time, Chaney plays “Gregor the Great”, a well-known hypnotist who may or may not have killed a man through a mind trick during his stage act. The incident troubles him, and after leaving his girlfriend/stage partner, he takes refuge at a wax museum/mansion run by Madame Monet. Because isn't a wax museum the obvious place to take refuge when you're feeling troubled? Madame Monet then mysteriously disappears after fainting during an argument with Gregor. Was she killed in the same hypnotic way?
This time, Chaney plays “Gregor the Great”, a well-known hypnotist who may or may not have killed a man through a mind trick during his stage act. The incident troubles him, and after leaving his girlfriend/stage partner, he takes refuge at a wax museum/mansion run by Madame Monet. Because isn't a wax museum the obvious place to take refuge when you're feeling troubled? Madame Monet then mysteriously disappears after fainting during an argument with Gregor. Was she killed in the same hypnotic way?
Wonderful, I thought. I know where this is going. The creepy assistant at the wax museum is turning people into wax figures. Or perhaps the wax figures are alive and are themselves responsible.
But no. They were just ordinary wax figures. And the remainder of the movie was a detective story focused upon finding the missing woman.
As 1940's B-movie whodunits go, these weren't terrible. They just weren't terribly spooky. But there are four remaining. I haven't given up hope. Not with titles like Pillow of Death and Weird Woman.