Rent Inner Sanctum Mysteries: The Complete Film Series (1945)

Late-Night Thrills - Inner Sanctum Mysteries: The Complete Film Series review by CH

At the same time as it adapted the radio series The Whistler, Universal Studios took on a version of the Inner Sanctum. As with Richard Dix in the other series, this gave a different rôle in each of these six hour-long films to Lon Chaney. Two episodes suggest the variety on offer. In one a doctor turns hypnotism upon himself in order to prove that he did not murder his wife during a weekend which saw him embroiled with a nurse out of town. There are pleasing twists here, and some fine lighting, a tale which scarcely prepares one for another episode in which Chaney visits a remote island for a study of ritual - and returns with material for a book - and a woman he has married there. A situation which doubly riles other academics: there is a parade of outraged women, some of whom had their own designs upon him. Here is a tangled thread, perhaps too much so. If, on this showing, the Inner Sanctum - well shot as it is - does not entrice as readily as The Whistler it certainly shows how much can be done within an hour.

on Weird Woman - Inner Sanctum Mysteries: The Complete Film Series review by Steve

The second- and best- of half a dozen Universal psychological mysteries, linked to the popular radio series The Inner Sanctum. This is as close to horror as any of them got and is the original film version of Fritz Leiber’s famous supernatural novel The Conjure Wife. Though this favours a realistic explanation. Which is actually a debit.

All six star Lon Chaney Jr, which is their main weakness. He’s a limited actor with little charisma and certainly not the dreamboat the script promises. He plays a sociology professor at a small college who researches a book about witchcraft in the Caribbean and then marries a local woman who secretly practices voodoo.

So it's about rationality versus superstition. There is a satirical element, with the hothouse of US academia portrayed as an arena of malign competition where only the weird woman's magic can keep her husband safe. When the man of science sets fire to her runes, all hell breaks loose…

There’s a fine support cast of '40s B-picture stalwarts. Plus a really unusual organ score. But Reginald Le Borg cannot raise this above the limits of his budget and it lacks atmosphere and suspense. Still, at 60 minutes, the story is robust enough to survive. Though the 1962 remake, The Night of the Eagle, is far superior.