ShangLuda Admirable film.

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

jadedalex 'Inner Sanctum' has nothing to do with the radio show, and the title hardly prepares one for a rather ugly story. To me, this is quintessential film noir...low budget, a dark film that plays like a nightmare.Charles Russell is hardly the face of evil, as say, Robert Mitchum could play. But this man does not look right. An early scene sees the man killing a woman, and then quite willing to murder a boy. He menacingly tells the Mary Beth Hughes' character twice: 'you're real pretty, when your lips aren't moving...'There is a mysterious psychic doctor character who relates the gruesome tale to a woman on a train. This was a very clever ploy to give the whole piece a 'recurring nightmare' effect, another outstanding feature of film noir at its best.Is it a great movie? I was a bit disappointed in the ending. I found the usually pleasing Lee Patrick more than a bit abrasive as the doting mother. But I was fascinated in the piece enough to watch it twice. Like the movie 'Strange Illusion', the movie stays in your head...much like a recurring nightmare!

dougdoepke You just know when the movie opens with Dr. Velonious's (Lieber) white-capped face more craggy than Mt. Everest that the remainder is a must-see. Seems the aristocratic doctor is something of a psychic. Aboard a train during a fierce rainstorm he warns a comely brunette not to use a nail-file since it could stab her. He then proceeds with a dark tale told in flashback of just such a happening.It's noir all the way, from railways of fate to doom-ridden characters to a mysterious spider woman, except in this case it's a man. When Harold (Russell) shows up at the boarding house, the ladies are smitten. Heck, even sterling bad girl Mary Beth Hughes flutters more eyelash than sheets in a windstorm. Except Harold's got more on his mind than a dalliance. Instead, he's after the mischievous little boy who knows he stabbed a woman with a nail-file, of all things. Seems like what goes around comes around, which is definitely the case here.Catch that great array of colorful supporting characters. Few could shift from fat-man joviality to sneaky malice faster than Billy House; or maybe the oddest looking boy in movies, Dale Belden in a fine pivotal performance; or Hughes who could easily lead a parade of Hollywood's favorite cheap blondes. Then there's lead actor Russell who remains a deadpan enigma throughout. He's new to me, but does well as a man of mystery. And who could have expected hack director Lew Landers to meld these components, including a good tight script, into such a stylish whole. Likely, it's the artistic highpoint of a long career. I guess my only gripe is the cheap forest sets that nevertheless manage the right noirish atmosphere.Fans of the old radio show should be pleased with the results, though I don't think there were more movie follow-ups. Too bad. Nonetheless, this little 60-minutes remains an obscure sleeper, with one of the best fatalistic endings on record.

Martin Teller I picked up the "Midnight Mysteries" cheapo DVD set for some other noirs (THE SCAR, THE RED HOUSE, WOMAN ON THE RUN) but I hadn't seen this one before. A low-budget thriller in which a murderer hides out in a boarding house... but one of the occupants may have witnessed his crime. There's nothing too special going on here, but it has a brisk pace, some snappy dialogue, and Mary Beth Hughes (most famous for THE OX-BOW INCIDENT, or perhaps the Mystery Science Theatre fodder I ACCUSE MY PARENTS) is a steamy presence. Radio star Charles Russell isn't particularly riveting or anything, but he carries the film well enough. Some of the comic relief is kinda stupid, but some of it actually works. The child actor who plays a key role is a bit annoying, but not intolerably so.

secondtake Inner Sanctum (1948)A short, bizarre, surprisingly captivating film. It's totally Twilight Zone when you get to the last two minutes, so hang in there for the hour before that. It has a noir quality that makes it moody, and it has some truly artsy expressionist segments montaged in during the flood, partly as psychological metaphor. The director, Lew Landers, has an astonishing 100 plus movies and a lot of early television to his name, and I'm guessing there are some other sterling moments among them.But for the moment we have Inner Sanctum. There is a candid, campy acting throughout that's fresh and entertaining, from the boy who's a convincing sweetie to the reporter who's a total bumbling hoot (watch him cheat at checkers). If it borders on deliberate comedy at times, it's more sustained by its tone of utter innocence among the townspeople, so they joke and make odd comments exactly the way real people would. The candid quality is at odds with the one rather stiff character, the lead man, who carries some kind of weight around beyond even his crime. Such is the film noir lead at its archetypal best, and this is from the height of post-war noir.So, a great movie it isn't but a movie with great qualities it is. No joke.