Customer Reviews

Inner Sanctum

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A know-it-all seer (Fritz Leiber, Sr., Shakespearean actor and father of the sci-fi writer) on a train performs a couple of cheap parlor tricks (tells time without looking at a watch, foretells when the train is about to reach a curve in the track), creeping out the beautiful, dark-haired stranger sitting next to him. The low rent Nostradamus drags the movie into a flashback when he begins to tell her about a brutal railroad murder committed by Harold Dunlap (Charles Russell.) Deftly told in as a nifty, wraparound flashback, INNER SANCTUM was directed by the prolific Lew Landers and features a cast of competent and undistinguished actors. It's a Poverty Row production from 1948 that relies on psychology and character interaction to provide the thrills and chills.
After the curtain raising murder Dunlap dumps the body on the rear car of the departing train and backs into the tall shadows of the desert station. Practically deserted, that is. There's someone else there, someone who likes to watch the trains pass by at night and who may, or may not, have seen Dunlap do the foul deed. Before Dunlap has a chance to crush the skull of this maybe witness they're called away. Dunlap attempts to hitchhike as far away from the scene as possible, but there are heavy rains and bridges are washed out. Before the night is out Dunlap is renting a room at a local boarding house in this small burg in the Pacific Northwest. Dunlap finds himself, inevitably, boarding in a house filled with well-realized characters, including the maybe witness from the train station.
INNER SANCTUM is very similar to Orson Welles' "The Stranger" and Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt." As in those movies, a weak and relatively powerless character learns a terrible secret about an accepted member of the community, a secret they can't reveal and one that puts them in grave danger. Unlike those other movies, though, INNER SANCTUM doesn't lift the hood on its killer and examine his engine. Russell is good as the mysterious stranger, but a little less mystery might have served this one better. Late in the movie we sort of find out why he killed the woman on the train, but the revelation is too late and otherwise unsatisfying. If the dialogue doesn't shimmer, a gem burbles up to the surface now and then - `You're pretty... when your lips aren't moving' is a decent enough tough guy line. By restricting the sets to boarding house, park, train, train station and a few other minor locales, and shooting a lot of night scenes, Landers effectively disguises the movie's low budget ambience. INNER SANCTUM is a diverting little crime thriller that probably could have been better and certainly could have been a lot worse.

"Inner Sanctum Mysteries" was a popular radio program in January 7, 1941-October 5, 1952. The stories were surreal and eerie about people and situations that happen every day, but "Inner Sanctum" had a twist.
This "Inner Sanctum" film is truly based upon the radio program of the same name. It is from 1948 and will give you goosebumps. There are no monsters, no red blood, just a good eerie story about fate. I won't give away any of the plot, but the film starts with a woman on a train and a nice older gentleman sitting next to her tells her exactly what will happen next, but simply tells her as a gentle warning. He is always right and can tell what time it is without a watch. He has no need for such contrivances. The nice man proceeds to tell the woman a real story about a woman coming off a train.
In the cast: Charles Russell, Mary Beth Hughes, Billy House, Dale Belding, Fritz Leiber, Nana Bryant, Lee Patrick, Roscoe Ates, Eddie Parks and Eve Miller.
This film is truly an insomniacs weird dream. The film is highly interesting to watch and only runs 62 minutes long so you can get back to bed to sleep...if you dare.

Best line: "When you tell a woman that's over 40 she is beautiful, you ain't a liar--you're a philantrophist". said by Roscoe Ates as "Willie".

Prior "Inner Sanctum" movies:
Calling Dr. Death (1943)
Weird Woman (1944)
Conjure Wife (1944)
Dead Man's Eyes (1944)
Strange Confession (Original Title: The Imposter [1945])
The Frozen Ghost (1945)
Weird Woman (1945)
Pillow of Death (1945)

Note: An "Inner Sanctum" tv series was made in 1954.

There are two films and one tv-movie that uses the title "Inner Sanctum", but they are not of the above genre. They are late-night adult films, "Inner Sanctum" (1991) and "Inner Sanctum 2" (1994).
Seduction: Three Tales from the "Inner Sanctum" (1992-TV).

You have been warned!

Don't pass up this masterpiece of a classic thriller! Filled with suspense . Buy it you won't be disappointed. I also recommend "Nightmare Alley" also a wonderful movie filled with suspense and mystery!

This neglected noir gem from 1948 is one of the better Alpha dvds I've purchased. I'm surprised that I'd never heard of Charles Russell before watching this film. He gave an incredible performance given the limitations of a 62 minute movie.

Russell plays Harold Dunlap, a man who's just murdered his unfaithful wife at a train station. What he doesn't know is that a young boy sees him dumping her body on the departing train. He tries to flee the small town, but because of a bad flood all the bridges are destroyed. He's then forced to go to the only motel in town, but unfortunately for him the boy who spotted him dumping his wife's body lives upstairs!

Dunlap then tries different ways to get rid of the suspicious brat (trust me, this kid is one of the ugliest brats in the history of cinema!) while avoiding the temptations of a sexy young blonde (Mary Beth Hughes) who also lives in the building. This well-directed and well-scripted film noir makes the most of its low budget and is suprisingly very entertaining. Both the picture and sound quality are pretty good (all things considered). Highly recommended for fans of the genre.

This review is for the DVD released by Alpha Video in 2004.

The story starts out on a train where an elderly eccentric man and a young woman strike up a conversation. Soon it becomes obvious that this man has an uncanny knack for predicting the future and warns the young woman not to exit the train at the next stop. What this has to do with the plot isn't obvious at first but the story suddenly switches to a man named Harold Dunlap (Charles Russell) who is being chased by a woman in front of a train station and the woman attempts to stab the him, but is thwarted by the Dunlap and she ends up getting stabbed either by accident or self-defense - its not at all obvious. Dunlap puts the dead woman on the back balcony of a passenger car as it rides away. He then realizes that a young boy saw him put something large on the back of the train. Later due to a serious flood, Dunlap is trapped in that local rural town and is forced to stay at a small hotel where the young boy happens to be living. But Dunlap also meets an attractive and worldly young woman named Jean Maxwell (Mary Beth Hughes) who immediately shows some interest in Dunlap. Of course Dunlap's goal is to avoid being recognized by the boy and being connected to the death of the woman he put on the train.

This is clearly a low budget movie with a virtually unknown cast. The acting was actually pretty good with each of the locals adding some humor to the plot but the story seemed to get bogged down until Jean and Harold start confronting each other about their lives. Even though Harold is preoccupied with his tenuous situation, Jean senses that Harold has something to hide and reassures him by saying, "All of my life I've been attracted to the wrong kind of guy". But later as things start to unravel, Harold uses some very poor judgment in handling his situation and Jean discovers this and tells him, "You're pretty awful! You're even too bad for me!" - which a zinger of a line for this movie! So to summarize, the movie has its merits, especially the chemistry between Harold and Jean, and has a nice twist at the end, and since this is a low priced DVD, I would rather recommend the movie than discourage people from viewing it, especially if you are a fan of the classic film noir.

As for the DVD quality, as is the case with many of Alpha's releases, it's essentially an un-restored, non-enhanced transfer from a film with some intermittent wear. The picture lacks sharpness and contrast one expects from a DVD and the sound is fair. But if you are a little forgiving about the picture quality, you should be able to follow the story without any problems or major distractions.


Movie: B-

DVD Quality: C

Though not as perverse as DETOUR, this moody little potboiler about a loser on the run & the boy who witnesses a murder will hold your attention. Rather slow & talky due to such a limited budget, this is typical post WWII antidote to technicolor escapism; there are some unintended subtexts - probably because of more naive times - that will leave you intrigued or baffled. As added interest, blonde smart cookie, Mary Beth Hughes (The Great Flammarion, Charlie Chan In Honolulu), plays the Lana Turner part with her usual relish providing the film's best one-liner. As for the dvd itself, this is a very good print for Alpha Video & quite on a par with a lot of costlier releases. You could do worse, but if you prefer "film noir" on a bigger budget with big stars & studio sheen look elsewhere.

The Lew Landers directed "Inner Sanctum" is a brief but decent thriller filmed in the film noir style featuring a cast of veritable unknown actors.

The film is a recounting of a story told by a spooky looking clairvoyant type doctor played by Fritz Lieber to a high falooting attractive young woman aboard a train.

The main plot surrounds a gentleman named Harold Dunlap played by Charles Russell. Russell disembarks a train at a dark and deserted railway station in a small town quarreling with his girlfriend. In a violent confrontation he kills the girl and hoists her body back onto the platform of the now departing train. Little does he know that he's been observed by a young kid, Mike, played by a freckle faced, gap toothed Dale Belding who'd been hiding near the station.

Looking for a way out of town Russell is picked up by local newspaperman McFee played by aptly named and rotund Billy House. House informs Russell that due to the flooding of a nearby river, all the access roads out of town are closed. He drops him off at a local boarding house to get a room.

The boarding house is full of a host of odd characters and also an attractive Mary Beth Hughes playing Jean Maxwell, the niece of the landlady, who becomes a Russell love interest. It just so happens that the kid Mike lives there as well. At first Mike doesn't recognize Russell but little by little, he begins to realize that he was the man at the station.

Russell begins to feel the noose tightening around his neck as the flood keeps on delaying his ability to depart and he feels compelled to do harm to the kid to protect his secret. The tension and desperation is nicely built up by director Landers giving the film some definite high points.

Even at 62 minutes this cheapo noir overstayed its welcome by about 30 minutes.

Some guy mad at his girlfriend stabs her to death at a train station and dumps her body on an outgoing train. He tries to leave town but he can't because the roads washed out. With nowhere to go he stays at a boarding house but a young boy who lives there thinks the stranger looks like a man he saw at the train station earlier. Now he's gotta shut this kid up before people get wise.

It might sound good but it ain't. The acting is passable but the script feels like it was slapped together over lunch. Also the Alpha Video DVD is sorry with a sucky picture and a low humming sound.

Of the two DVD mfrs. linked here, ALPHA is best-known and most widely available. Like that outfit, SYNERGY offers unrestored dubs from "best available sources," with quality that varies from only fair to very good. Neither provides commentary, closed captioning, deleted scenes or other bonus features.


INNER SANCTUM is a low budget noir goodie that has a most excellent eerieness to it. We open with a woman filing her nails; she's warned by an eccentric named Dr. Valonius to stop using the sharply pointed rasp, as the train they're in is about to go around a tight curve. Even though he's never taken this ride before, the prescient Valonious "knows" she'll cut herself and sure enough, the stubbornly unheeding gal does.

In the next gloomy scene, a story Valonius tells, we witness a man heave what appears to be a body in a canvas bag onto the caboose platform of a stopped train. He's seen by a pre-teen freckle-faced boy, and this jumpy guy almost bashes the unsuspecting kid's brains in with what looks to be a tire iron. Instead, the youngster's mother arrives just in time, and she angrily drags her wayward son home.

There's been a river flood, roads are closed and the bridge is out, so the killer (he obviously is) gets trapped in town. He ends up boarding at the home of the very child he wanted to murder just an hour earlier. The boy suspects he's the man who tossed a large bag onto the train and had a bloody arm, but isn't sure. Obviously, his life is in danger as long as this stranger remains in the house.

We won't reveal the entire plot, but the story ends as it began: with Dr. V. and the lady, who again won't listen when he advises her not to leave the train. What occurs next is the sort of finale that Rod Serling would use to great effect on his TWILIGHT ZONE TV series.

"Inner Sanctum" is a fine programmer peopled by first rank 'B' actors (if such a category exists) and is highly recommended!


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(6.6) Inner Sanctum (1948) - Charles Russell/Mary Beth Hughes/Dale Belding/Billy House/Fritz Lieber/Nana Bryant/Lee Patrick/Roscoe Ates/Eve Miller/Eddie Parks

This odd story of strange circumstances wrapped around a nifty little tale told on a train is certainly true to the spirit of the INNER SANCTUM radio show of the same period. The ALPHA dvd is really quite good and all involved in this TWILIGHT-ZONISH nightmare turn pretty good performances...Highly recommended for fans of bizarre fiction/film, and a bargain to boot!...just don't go too near the river!!!