Dead Man’s Eyes *** (1944, Lon Chaney Jr, Jean Parker, Paul Kelly, Thomas Gomez, Jonathan Hale, Acquanetta) – Classic Movie Review 3,756

Reginald Le Borg’s nice and twisty 1944 thriller film Dead Man’s Eyes is the third Inner Sanctum series entry starring Lon Chaney Jr. 

Director Reginald Le Borg’s nice and twisty 1944 thriller film Dead Man’s Eyes is the third Inner Sanctum series entry starring Lon Chaney Jr as Dave Stuart, an artist who is blinded by his jealous assistant and model Tanya (Acquanetta) when she puts acid instead of eye fluid in a bottle in his bathroom.

His fiancée Heather Hayden (Jean Parker)’s father Stanley (Edward Fielding) offers his eyes for an operation to restore his sight, but Stuart would have to wait till the father dies as he decides to leave his eyes in his will to Stuart. When he dies suddenly, murdered, the artist is of course the number one suspect.

Dead Man’s Eyes is a spooky, but unfortunately ultra-cheap-looking Inner Sanctum mystery series entry. Chaney Jr’s performance and the movie’s sheer weirdness keep it going through all its longueurs and hesitations.

Much credit goes to Dwight V Babcock and his original screenplay. Thomas Gomez is a standout as pushy police Captain Drury dogging the hero.

The cast are Lon Chaney Jr as Dave Stuart, Acquanetta as Tanya Czoraki, Jean Parker as Heather ‘Brat’ Hayden, Paul Kelly as Dr Alan Bittaker, Thomas Gomez as Captain Drury, Jonathan Hale as Dr Sam Welles, Edward Fielding as Dr Stanley ‘Dad’ Hayden, George Meeker as Nick Phillips, and Pierre Watkin as The Lawyer.

The low-budget series of six Inner Sanctum Universal movies starring Lon Chaney Jr and based on the popular radio show that aired from January 7 1941 to October 5 1952 is as follows: Calling Dr Death (1943), Weird Woman (1944), Dead Man’s Eyes (1944), The Frozen Ghost (1945), Strange Confession (1945) and Pillow of Death (1945). The Inner Sanctum radio show of 526 episodes was created by producer Himan Brown.

The films in the series are followed by Inner Sanctum, a 1948 American film noir directed by Lew Landers based on the Simon and Schuster book series and the Inner Sanctum Mystery radio series.

Universal bought the screen rights to the book series from publishers Simon and Schuster in June 1943. The Inner Sanctum Mysteries feature a stream of consciousness voiceover that Calling Dr Death screen-writer Edward Dein said he added to his script on Lon Chaney Jr’s insistence. Except for Pillow of Death, the films all start with a sequence featuring the bobbing head of David Hoffman staring out of a crystal ball, warning how each audience member is capable of murder.

After Dead Man’s Eyes, Chaney was back as the Wolf Man in House of Frankenstein (1944). The same year’s The Mummy’s Curse (1944) was Chaney’s third and final appearance as Kharis.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,756

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