Best movie ever!

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This entry in the Inner Sanctum series is better than some of the others. Lon Chaney still does his half-whisper-talking-to-himself-thing but it's not nearly as annoying in this one. The ladies, who are all smitten with Lon, thankfully are not given to arbitrary loud screaming at every opportunity. Anthropologist Margaret Mead would have had something to say about the accuracy of the belief systems of the "island" as it is a strange mix of multi-ethnic casting, voodoo, Hula-type dancing and a mixed bag of costuming. Strange and a tad jarring. Speaking of jars... the disembodied head makes an appearance in this I.S. offering and once again is almost unintelligible. Thanks to watching this film via Svengoolie, we now know that the sophomoric lad grew up to be Luke Skywalker's Uncle. Wow! Got some time ? Watch this one. It's fun.

"Weird Woman" is the second in the "Inner Sanctum" film series, an adaptation of the Fritz Leiber, Jr. story "Conjure Wife". It's good fun in the tradition of the Universal black & white thrillers, taking a psychological approach to its story of college campus politics. Lon Chaney, Jr. is likable as always in the role of Professor Norman Reed, who meets a lovely young woman, Paula (Anne Gwynne), in an exotic setting. The young woman is extremely superstitious, and it's suspected later that she could be using black magic to help Norman, whom she marries, to get ahead. It turns out that somebody else is scheming, and scheming, to make life Hell for both Norman and Paula. Now, anybody watching can easily figure out Whodunit, but as directed by Reginald Le Borg, this entertaining little movie moves right along, with some amusing plot twists and supporting characters. Evelyn Ankers, who'd been Chaney's co-star in the horror classic "The Wolf Man", does well here in a change of pace role as a colleague with whom Norman had been involved. It's particularly interesting to note all of the attention Chaney gets from the opposite sex here, as no less than three females, including Lois Collier as adoring student Margaret Mercer, fixate on him. The theme is a pretty good one, of superstition vs. reason; Paula takes the former so seriously that it's devastating for her when Norman forces her to destroy her totems. She and Norman eventually have to work to clear his good name when he's implicated in both a suicide and a murder. The movie overall is no great shakes, but it's still an agreeable diversion, and like many of the genre films of the era, it has a reasonably short running time, telling and wrapping up its story in a trim 64 minutes. The same story would again be filmed as "Burn, Witch, Burn" in the 1960s and "Witches' Brew" in the 1980s. Seven out of 10.

Weird Woman (1944) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Second in the Inner Sanctum series has a college professor (Lon Chaney, Jr.) marrying a former voodoo princess (Anne Gwynne) only to have his ex (Evelyn Ankers) seek revenge. This was certainly better than the previous film but like that film this one here leaves a lot to be desired. I'm a big fan of Ankers and it was nice seeing her play the bad girl instead of the girl always being saved by the hero. She does a very good job here as does Gwynne. The ending is very effective but can't overcome slowness in the first part of the film.

While doing field research, Professor Norman Reed (Lon Chaney, Jr.) meets and falls in love with a beautiful, exotic woman. He marries her and brings her home. Things couldn't be any better for the Professor. That is, until he discovers his wife is still practicing the voodoo type ceremonies of her homeland. He forbids her from carrying on with the superstitious mumbo-jumbo. But at what price? Professor Reed's life is suddenly turned upside-down and he faces the ultimate – a charge of murder. Is it the voodoo or something more close to home but equally sinister that threatens Professor Reed's future? Of the six Inner Sanctum mysteries, Weird Woman is one of my favorites (Pillow of Death being the other). I suppose some who've seen the movie might think I've overrated it, but these kinds of movies work for me. Weird Woman is a quick-paced mystery that, at just over 60 minutes, never outstays its welcome. The "mystery" isn't really hard to figure out, but the all the back-stabbing and other trickery is a lot of fun. The cast is a blast. Besides Chaney, Weird Woman features some of the best females working in B-films of the 40s – Anne Gwynne, Evelyn Ankers, Lois Collier, and Elizabeth Russell. Overall, I've go very few complaints.One thing that really puzzles me every time I've seen Weird Woman is the way the script has almost every female in the cast react to Chaney. Watching beautiful women like Gwynne, Ankers, and Collier swoon after Chaney is a hoot!