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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Saturday, March 28, 2020

Inner Sanctum (1948)

Starring Charles Russell, Mary Beth Hughes, Dale Belding, Billy House, Fritz Leiber
Directed by Lew Landers
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

An elderly doctor on a train tells to a woman a cautionary tale of a murderer on the lam who finds himself stranded in a small town. 

Although purportedly based on the Inner Sanctum novels and radio show, the movie lacks a host or even a creaking door, and is unrelated to the Inner Sanctum films starring Lon Chaney Jr.  It most closely resembles a film noir, with a suspense thriller plot and possessing a cast with no big names.  Made on a low budget independently, it's nevertheless quite watchable, as the murderer (Charles Russell) moves into a boarding house, only to discover the young son (Dale Belding) of one of the tenants witnessed his disposal of the woman he killed.  He tries to find a way to stay undetected but with the bridge out of town flooded, he's caught in a figurative trap.  I wouldn't say there's any standout performances, although most play their parts well, but the film is cleverly written and culminates in a nice twist ending.  

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