Calling Dr. Death

Lon Chaney Jr. stars as psychiatrist Mark Steele, who is an amiable man with a loyal nurse named Stella(played by Patricia Morison). Unfortunately, he is married to a wild, mean, and unfaithful wife(played by Ramsay Ames) who refuses to divorce him. After a mysterious blackout one weekend, Dr. Steele has no memory, but is told by the police that his wife has been brutally murdered, and the Inspector on the Case(played by J. Carol Naish) doggedly pursues him, convinced of his guilt. The man she was having an affair with is caught, but did he do it, or someone else? Reasonably good film could have dispensed with the head-in-a-crystal ball routine, but acting is good(especially Naish in a role quite similar to later "Columbo"!) Not bad for a low budgeter.

The first of Universal's fun series of thriller films under the Inner Sanctum banner. Each one starred Lon Chaney, Jr. in different roles. In this one, Chaney plays Dr. Mark Steele, a neurosurgeon and expert hypnotist. Steele's unfaithful wife (Ramsay Ames) is found murdered and he's a prime suspect. But Steele has lost his memory of the last few days and can't remember if he killed her or not! So he gets his nurse (Patricia Morison) to hypnotize him so he can try to remember what happened.

Chaney's great in this. I'm sure at the time he welcomed the chance to get out of playing movie monsters. Morison and Ames are lovely to look at and good in their roles. The always-solid J. Carrol Naish plays the hard-nosed police detective investigating the case. Holmes Herbert appears in one of his many butler roles. I really like this series. A little silly at times but it just adds to the entertainment value for me. It has that distinct look and feel Universal movies had at the time. Calling Dr. Death is a very good start to a fun, enjoyable series of mystery thrillers.

1943's "Calling Dr. Death" began Universal's six film 'Inner Sanctum' series based on the thriving radio show, all but one included in the popular SHOCK! package of Universal classics issued to television in the late 50s. The first three definitely benefit from the ambitious direction of Viennese-born Reginald Le Borg, recently graduating to features after nearly 30 shorts in seven years. All six titles starred the studio's top horror icon Lon Chaney, who does look the part of neurologist Dr. Mark Steele, despite awkward dialogue and characterization. Playing his faithful nurse Stella is luminous Patricia Morison, in her element as cool femme fatales in such films as "Hitler's Madman," "Dressed to Kill," "Danger Woman," "Tarzan and the Huntress," and "Song of the Thin Man." Steele is married to the beautiful (and faithless) Maria (Ramsay Ames), who enjoys her wealth and stature, refusing to grant him a divorce. Naturally, he becomes the prime suspect when she's horribly murdered, struck dead by a fireplace poker, then her face destroyed by acid. The most striking element used by Le Borg comes when Steele arrives at the scene of the crime, the camera effectively 'becoming' the doctor as he slowly approaches the front door and meets Inspector Gregg (J. Carrol Naish). Alas, the mystery angle falls flat, the killer's identity fairly obvious, so it's up to Naish's tenacious investigator to maintain a faithful vigil on things, and his Columbo-like determination does not disappoint. There was a detective in all but one future Inner Sanctums, none of which enjoyed the stature held by Naish. Other notable roles are played by David Bruce ("The Mad Ghoul") and Fay Helm ("The Wolf Man," "Night Monster," "Captive Wild Woman"), while actor David Hoffman provided the same mysterio crystal ball introduction for all but the last entry, "Pillow of Death." Reginald Le Borg had made his feature debut with the still unreleased "The Mummy's Ghost" (also with Chaney and Ames), and did two more for this series (along with "Jungle Woman" and "Destiny") before moving over to PRC (later titles included "The Black Sleep," "Voodoo Island," "Diary of a Madman," and "So Evil My Sister"). "Calling Dr. Death" made four appearances on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater- May 24 1975 (in the middle of a rare triple bill, preceded by 1940's "Chamber of Horrors" and followed by 1933's "Secret of the Blue Room"), Aug 14 1976 (following 1965's "Monster Zero"), Sept 10 1977 (following 1941's "The Wolf Man"), and Feb 19 1983 (solo).

I hadn't intended to purchase this Set - and only did so after constant prodding by Joe Karlosi; in essence, these films are no worse than the lower-profile sequels of the Universal monster pictures, such as the follow-ups to THE MUMMY (1932) and THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933).

This was the first of six "Inner Sanctum" mysteries all starring Lon Chaney Jr. (with his frequent voice-over linking them rather naively with the concurrent noir subgenre) and featuring portentous - and hilarious - intros by a disembodied head in a crystal ball! It's not too bad in itself, with the plot overly familiar but fairly involving - Chaney's mind goes blank one weekend and when he comes to, discovers his unloving wife has been murdered! Of course, he's the chief suspect of dogged detective J. Carroll Naish (the best thing about the entire film) though it's the woman's lover, named Robert Duval(!), who's actually accused - and convicted - of the crime. The characters are all relatively engaging (Chaney is a celebrated neurologist with beautiful Patricia Morison as his devoted assistant) and the plot development plausible enough, making for an entertaining and fast-paced 63 minutes. The final revelation, then, is at once surprising and satisfying.

the music is very good and a cast with Lon Chaney Patricia Morison J.Carrol Naish makes this a great little b movie. Also Ramsey Ames is Quite stunning as always. These inner sanctum movies are a lot of fun if you are a fan of the thirties and forties Universal horror pictures. The director Reginald Leborg was a skilled director who never got the credit he deserved. The movie has some very interesting camera techniques rarely seen in pictures of this era. Patricia Morison once said that Lon Chaney came up to her and shook her hand and told her that it was an honor to work with her. She was quite touched by this and had a number of nice things to say about Lon in an interview she gave about ten years ago.