Such a frustrating disappointment

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The screeching white cockatoo gives a. Better performance than the screeching Ramsay Ames in the very first of the "Inner Sanctum" series, part of Universal's "quota quickies", and pleasant time fillers if you can get past the ridiculous plots. Lon Chaney Jr. is a troubled doctor married to harridan Ames who whispers his thoughts to the audience in an annoying manner. A scene with the bellowing Ames makes him unsure if he killed her (after she boasted that he didn't have the guts), and his loyal nurse (Patricia Morison) gives him an alibi. When Ames' lover (David Bruce) is arrested for her murder, Chaney begins to feel that he's more than just somehow involved. But that's just the beginning of his nightmare, one that only Dr. Death can cure him of.Some great photographic choices give this a unique look, particularly Chaney walking into the cottage to see his wife's corpse. The audience gets to see everything here from Chaney's mind, a great technical aspect that helps this at least on that front. But the constant whispering from Chaney eventually becomes headache inducing, not aided by Chaney's one note acting. Ir goes into overkill when Chaney undergoes hypnosis. Elements of the script too are ridiculously over the top and extremely melodramatic, although Broadway vet Patricia Morison (the original "Kiss Me Kate") adds a touch of class...in fact, the only touch of class. Veteran character actor J. Carroll Naish plays a particularly obnoxious detective who seems to sneer every word. Like "Lucy wants to be a writer", this is evidence of "How not to write a script".

An eminent neurologist, whose psyche is starting to fracture because of his bad marriage, is starting to unravel as his no-good wife continues to harass him, flaunting her adultery and basically challenging Dr. Steele to do something about it (she taunts his inability to free himself from her, not knowing what could possibly result as he contemplates in his tormented mind the idea of murdering her). When her body is found in Steele's hunting lodge, her face destroyed by acid, could the doctor be responsible? Even worse, Dr. Steele was found by his assistant, Stella, in his office, suffering amnesia, unable to determine his whereabouts during the weekend his wife was murdered. Duval, Maria's lover, is the one arrested for the crime because he was there near the time of the murder, had a quarrel with her over leaving Steele, and seems like as good a candidate as any to kill the woman who could not abandon the position and social standing attributing to a life of luxury and prominence which comes from being married to a prestigious neurologist. Sentenced to the electric chair in court by circumstantial evidence, Duval seems doomed to die for a crime he didn't commit as Steele tries to unlock the mystery of his *lost weekend*. Talking to Duval, Steele is convinced he's hiding something—but what? An Inner Sanctum Mystery starring Lon Chaney Jr who, at this time in his career, continued to mine the sad pathos of Lawrence Talbot with characters like his Doc Steele, a wrongfully mistreated innocent, caught in a trap, seeking to escape. Maybe Steele isn't suffering from lycanthropy, but he's unsure of what took place for two days, having a hard time living with the thought that someone is possibly sentenced to death for a crime he might have actually committed, needing to reveal the concealed truth behind what actually happened and why. Of course, with any mystery, revelations regarding the true character of certain individuals emerge: Duval isn't a saint by any imagination and nurse Stella (the stunning Patricia Morison) may not be an angel Steele believes her to be. J. Carrol Naish is wonderful as Inspector Gregg, the detective on the case who seems convinced that Steele is behind the murder of his wife and often muses about his feelings to the doctor, a cynical air about him which seems to hit a nerve on every occasion they meet. My favorite scenes are between the uncomfortable Chaney and confident Naish, the insinuations and accusations freely offered by the cop to the man he considers (we think) the likely killer. Hypnosis is a device used in the plot to unearth the sinister details (Steele uses hypnosis as a technique to help his patients acknowledge what it is that has caused them such psychological crisis) behind Maria's violent death, explaining the unusual explosion in Steele's office (acid was used here as well) which led to certain important files in a cabinet being burned, and how a gambling debt, along with thousands of dollars taken from the doctor by his wife, was the culprit behind everything. Fay Helm, despite maybe one real scene, leaves quite an impression, as a nasty bitch who laughs in Chaney's face, mocking him, earning our immediate disgust because she has no qualms against torturing her devoted husband. Morison (the Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock Holmes film, "Dressed to Kill" may be her most memorable role), I would have loved to see Universal use in more Gothic horror movies; not sure why she wasn't. I must admit that I found the disembodied head in the crystal ball setting up these Inner Sanctum Mysteries to be a bit tacky, but it has a charm that goes with that particular era in horror. Most of the film has Chaney, whispering in voice-over, explaining Dr. Steele's thoughts to us.

Hypnotist's faithless wife is murdered and cops suspect him until a likelier suspect emerges who may or may not be guilty.Old radio fans no doubt recognize the Inner Sanctum origins of this film and the series that followed. Those old radio half-hours emphasized the mysterious and the darkly psychological and were nearly always entertaining. (In fact, I think the origins of post-war noir lie as much in these radio shows as they do in the better-known movie precursors.) Fortunately, this series, like its radio namesake, trades on the offbeat and chilling, and though these programmers fail to reach the memorable level of Columbia's comparable Whistler entries, the Inner Sanctum movies have their own virtues and are worth catching up with.This first entry doesn't really grab until the last 15 minutes or so. Then it takes off with a surprise ending and especially with the surreal dream sequence. There's one got'cha in the sequence that shows real imagination. Yes, the storyline doesn't always make sense and I'm still puzzled by some of the relationships. Then too, looks to me like Chaney's not too interested in his part as the psychologist. Catch that one confrontational scene with faithless wife Maria (Ames) where both deliver their lines like they've been woodenly memorized. Nonetheless, Ames is drop-dead gorgeous in her high-fashion gown circa 1943, while Morison (nurse Stella) has the most fetching over-bite this side of Gene Tierney. All in all, this hour of intrigue is spotty but does show promise for future entries. (In passing—those Chaney voice-overs conveying his private thoughts are a carry- over from radio where they were necessary to prevent "dead air.")

Calling Dr. Death (1942) ** (out of 4) First film in the Inner Sanctum series has Lon Chaney, Jr. playing a doctor who begins to think he murdered his wife during a jealous rage. This sixty-minute film feels like it should have been a ten-minute short at the very most. The story is pretty thin and the supporting players are all rather bland. Chaney is good but another actor probably would have been better in the role. The "flashbacks" on the end of the film to reveal the killer had quite a few unintentional laughs.Available on DVD through Universal.