Inner Sanctum (1948)

 

It's late at night and a young woman is talking to a strange old man on a train. He tells her a chilling tale of the murder of a young woman by her lover and of the killer's bid to escape suspicion by lying low in a lodging house of a small town. However the son of one of the boarders bore witness to the dumping of a body.

Sounds like standard enough fair for a 1940s Noir thriller yet there is a twist in Inner Sanctum that makes it akin to an episode of The Twilight Zone or a strip from a pulp horror comic.

Directed by Lew Landers (probably best known for his 1935 horror movie The Raven) Inner Sanctum stars Charles Russell and Mary Beth Hughes with a great cameo from Fritz Leiber Snr. (father of the science fiction/horror author fritz Lieber Jr.) as the seer, Doctor Valonius.

As with a previous run of Universal films collectively known as the Inner Sanctum Mysteries, this film was inspired by the Inner Sanctum Mystery radio show which was itself inspired by the Inner Sanctum Mysteries series of thriller books published by Simon and Schuster.

With Thanks to John Chadwick for introducing me to this film 👍