'The Frozen Ghost' ventures forthfrrom the Inner Sanctum

The Frozen Ghost (1945)
Starring: Lon Chaney Jr., Evelyn Ankers, Milburn Stone, Elena Vergougo, Martin Kosleck, and Tala Birell
Director: Harold Young
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

When a heckler dies during one of his performances, a celebrated stage mentalist (Chaney) becomes convinced that he has a genuine ability to kill people with his mind. He retreats from public life and into the refuge of a wax museum run by friend (Vergougo) while his agent (Stone) and fiance (Ankers) try to help him deal with guilt and delusions. But when strange events start occurring at the museum, including the disappearance of its owner, he grows ever more convinced of his supernatural powers... while the police become ever more convinced that he is a murderer.

"The Frozen Ghost" is the fourth entry in Universal's "Inner Sanctum" series starring Lon Chahey Jr. in a different role each time (with frequent co-star Evelyn Ankers similarly showing up in several of them). It's another quirky mystery that walks the line between thriller and horror while delivering a series of twists and turns, some of which will be not be surprising to most modern veiwers both others are as effective now as they were in 1945 when the film was first released.

Lon Chaney Jr. is in fine form as the tortured and perpetually confused Alex Gregor, as he basically spends the film as a sad-sack whose life keeps collapsing in the most nightmarish ways--be it on the professional, romantic, or completely mundane front. Gregor is a character who can't even go for a walk without some horrible development cropping up to make him even more miserable... and to make it even more certain that he is doomed.

On first glance, it might seen a little overkill that have a mentalist with apparently real psychic powers hiding in a creepy wax museum with an even creepier staff who may or may not have sinister motives, and who has friends who may or may not be trying to hide bad intentions behind their helpful smiles, but it works here. The film remains engaging and entertaining from beginning to end. Fans of Chaney and of classic Universal horror and mystery films should check it out.

'Dead Man's Eyes' starts lame but gets better

Inner Sanctum: Dead Man's Eyes (1944)
Starring: Lon Chaney Jr., Paul Kelley, Acquanetta, Jean Parker, Edward Fielding, and Thomas Gomez
Director: Reginald Le Borg
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

David (Chaney) is blinded when he mistakenly puts acid in his eyes instead of eye-wash. When his elderly future father-in-law (Fielding) is murdered after willing David his eyes for transplant, he becomes a prime suspect with lots of motive and no alibi beyond being blind.



Successful crime dramas, thrillers, and horror films usually work because they foreshadow what's coming, be it the obnoxious rich uncle delcaring, "you'll get my fortune over my dead body!" or the weird gypsy woman warning the characters not to go into the woods after midnight. Lack of foreshadowing makes the mystery or horror film feel forced and slipshod, and the wrong kind of foreshadowing makes viewers roll their eyes.

Like the foreshadowing in "Dead Man's Eyes". The main character, David, lives and works in a small studio apartment. It is so small, in fact, that it has only one sink that serves as both kitchen, bathroom, and the place to his brushes. Above the sink is a shelf... where David keeps the eye-wash he uses daily right next to the acid he uses to clean his brushes. And he keeps these two liquids in identical bottles. Right next to each other.

I'm sure you can see the coming disaster that's invariable going to strike, especially given the title of the movie. And, sure enough, one day, David grabs the wrong bottle (maybe by accident, but most likely not, given his model is a South American psycho who is insanely jealous of David's fiancee and madly possessive of him) and pours acid in his eyes instead of eye-wash.

I almost shut the DVD off at that point, because I wasn't in the mood for wasting my time on fodder for Movies You Should [Die Before You] See but wanted to be entertained by something good. And this film was not looking promising.

I'm glad I stuck with it, though. because once it got past the monumentally stupid set-up, it turned into quite the thrilling little mystery, with a nice array of suspects and enough plot twists to keep suspicion on almost everyone up to the end--including the main character, David.

The film is also fun, because of the many strong performances. Acquanetta is great as David's crazy model, and she's also the easy suspect for all the nefarious going-ons in the film. And if the movie had stayed as weak as it began, she would have been the only suspect. But Lon Chaney Jr. also gives a fine performance, one that gives viewers the idea that there's something a little off with his character. The other actors are excellent in their parts too, and, supported by a clever script, they turn what started out as a disaster into a fun viewing experience.

"Dead Man's Eyes" is the third of six movies in the "Inner Sanctum" series. Like the two previous ones, Lon Chaney Jr. gives an excellent performance. It might well be that these films feature Chaney at his best. If you liked him as the reluctant wolfman in Universal Pictures' monster-mash films, you absolutely need to check him out in these pictures.

'Weird Woman' has Lon Chaney Jr at his best

Inner Sanctum: Weird Woman (1944)
Starring: Lon Chaney Jr., Anne Gwynne, Evelyn Ankers, Elizabeth Risdon, and Lois Collier
Director: Reginald Le Borg
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

While studying native rituals and superstitions, an anthroplogy professor (Chaney) falls in love with marries the daughter of an old mentor (Gwynne). Upon his return to the United States, he discoversn that his wife is a fervent believer in the native gods and that she has been practing rituals that she believes will protect him from the evil intentions of one of his colleagues (Ankers). Appalled that his wife believes in such supersitious nonsense, he forces her to destroy all the charms and fetishes she owns... but as soon as he does this, his life and career start falling apart.

"Weird Woman" is a decent adaptation of one of Fritz Leiber's best novels, "Conjure Wife". It features a nice, tight script, great performances by the entire cast, and a surprise ending that at the same time manages to reinforce and cast doubt on the film's central premise--that the "powers of the supernatural" are nothing but supersition and fear causing believers to act in ways that create self-fulling prophecies.

Of particular note in this film is by Lon Chaney Jr., who is seen giving one of the best performances of his entire career. The character he is playing could easily have come across as a self-satisfied jerk in the hands of an lesser actor. His attitude toward his wife and her beliefs is obnoxious in the extreme, and some of his interactions with the staff and students of the college he teaches at borders on high-handed with a wiff of false humility. But Chaney infuses the character with an air of insecurity that makes the viewer accept and even forgive his behavior.

"Weird Woman" is one of the best entires in the "Inner Sanctum" movie series, and it's one of the best films to come out of the Universal Pictures' horror revival in the 1940s. Fans of classic mystery films, the Universal Pictures horror collection, and Lon Chaney Jr. will all find a lot to like in this one.

Death makes a house call....

Inner Sanctum: Calling Dr. Death (1943)
Starring: Lon Chaney Jr., Patricia Morison, J. Carrol Naish, Ramsay Ames, Fay Helm, and David Bruce
Director: Reginald LeBorg
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A brilliant hypnotherapist (Chaney) becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his shrewish, unfaithful wife (Ames) when he suffers an unexplained blackout during the weekend she was murdered.

"Calling Dr. Death" was the first of six films based on the popular radio drama anthology series "Inner Sanctum", each starring Lon Chaney Jr. in the lead role. It is a series that belongs both in style and quality with Universal's Wolf Man and Mummy pictures of the early 1940s--most of which also starred Chaney--in that these films a low-budget B-pictures that vary greatly in quality... and rarely manage to touch the heights of Universal's horror films from the early 1930s.

Like the radio series they draw from, the "Inner Sanctum" films are more mysteries than horror flicks, but it varies from installment to installment how far they lean toward which genre.

"Calling Dr. Death" is a straight mystery that, despite being rather slow-moving manages to generate quite a bit of tension as its multi-layered plot casts suspicion first on one character, then another... and ultimately seems to settle on a conspiracy between two characters. Eventually, the film relies on a surprise twist, which was well-executed and very dramatic, even if it pointed back to the character I had initially thought would be the killer. The method used was also similar to what I had figured, but the motivation was completely different, but it fit logically with the rest of the film's storyline. (The twist ending must be a lost art.)

Featuring a solid cast, with Chaney as the high-strung hypnotist and J. Carrol Naish as the relentless, hard-nosed police detective who is hellbent on proving "Dr. Death" guilty of killing his wife, leading the pack. Ramsay Ames was almost unrecognizable as the shrewish wife, and Patricia Morison.

This isn't the greatest of mystery films, but it's got a great cast and it pays off nicely if you're a little patient with it. If you're a fan of Lon Chaney Jr. and a classic B-movie mysteries, it's worth checking out.