Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS**** Where introduced to this weird movie by what looks like a talking head-David Hoffman-trapped inside a fishbowl that tells us to expect the worst in human depravity as well as murder in the tale that he, or it, is about to tell us. This has to do with Monroe Collage sociology professor "Handsome Norman" Reed, Lon Chaney Jr., who's wife Paula, Anne Gwynne, that he met married and brought back to the states from a far off south sea island has been acting strange lately on her midnight excursions in the wilds. It turns out that Paula has been practicing voodoo that if found out can have her committed as well as cost him his job.It turns out that and old flame of Reed's his secretary Ilona Karr, Evelyn Ankers, is out to expose Paula's strange behavior to the collage board and have Reed canned from his job as an act of revenge in him dropping her for the younger and far more prettier Paula. Ilona goes so far as getting 18 year old student Margaret Murcer, Louis Collier, who's got a crush on Reed to work as his new secretary. Ilona knowing that the love sick Margaret will end up making a pass at him and by the straight as an arrow Reed not responding to it will get a heart broken Margaret to charged him with sexual harassment for turning her down. To make things even worse for Prof. Reed Ilona spreads a rumor that he planted the story that his fellow professor Millard Sawtelle, Ralph Morgan, plagiarized his PHD thesis causing him to flip out and end up killing himself.***SPOILERS**** The last straw in this weird tale of the unhinged is Margaret's jealous boyfriend collage student David Jennings, Phil Brown, trying to get even with Reeed for stealing, and later kicking out of his office, his girlfriend who in a life and death struggle with Reed ends up getting shot and killed by his own hand with Reed, who was just defending himself, charged with David's murder! It was the supernatural that evened things out here with Ilona who felt that she was in control being cursed through Paula's voodoo rituals that ended with her not only being exposed in all the crazy things that happened in the movie but also paying for what she did with her life.

lugonian WEIRD WOMAN (Universal, 1944), directed by Reginald LeBorg, is the second of the "Inner Sanctum" mysteries based on the radio series owned and copyrighted by Simon and Schuster Publishers to star Lon Chaney Jr. (billed as Lon Chaney). Aside from a movie title that could easily be confused with that of COBRA WOMAN (Universal, 1944), which also features Lon Chaney in support to Maria Montez and Jon Hall, it's somewhat of an awkward title for a character supposedly that of a young girl raised on the South Seas islands whose practices in voodoo rituals to be suspected of witchcraft and murder.Following the fade-in of a man's head seemingly floating inside a crystal ball introducing himself as saying, "This is the Inner Santum, the fantastic world controlled by mass of living, cult seeking flesh. The mind, it destroys, distracts, creates monsters. Yes, even you, without knowing, can commit murder," the story introduces Norman Reed, a college professor, who, late at night, receiving a telephone call from Evelyn (Elisabeth Russell) informing him that his wife, Paula (Anne Gwynne), supposedly asleep for the night, to be seen rushing home. Pretending to be in bed asleep, Norman returns to his study recalling his initial meeting with Paula on the South Seas island among the natives dancing to the music of "the dance of death" while venturing there for the thesis of his book. Learning Paula to be the daughter of his deceased friend, Professor Clayton, and raised by a priestess, the two get better acquainted, return home to the states with Paula. Coming to Monroe University where he teaches, Norman introduces his new bride to the staff, including Ilona Carr (Evelyn Ankers), a college librarian in love with Norman, who's not please by the news. With the success of his published book, "Superstition vs. Reason and Fact," a series of unforeseen circumstances occur to disrupt Norman's marriage, including the mysterious suicide of Norman's friend, Professor Millard Sawtelle (Ralph Morgan); numerous "death chant" phone calls to Paula; Norman's arrest for David Jennings (Philip Brown) death in self-defense; and poisonous thoughts through the minds of others, including Sawtelle's widow, Evelyn, who strongly suspects the "witch wife" Paula to be responsible.Possibly the best, or at least, one of the best in the "Inner Sanctum" unit, other than having the doll-faced Anne Gwynne and Evelyn Ankers on equal status under Lon Chaney, it's Ankers, Chaney's frequent co-star ("The Wolf Man" (1941), "The Ghost of Frankenstein" (1942), "Son of Dracula" (1943), who gets the most attention with her performance, and one of the very few to showcase her so well. Elizabeth Russell, better known for her cat-like facial features that offered frightening moments in Val Lewton's CAT PEOPLE (RKO Radio, 1942), also gets an honorable mention here as well. Among others in the cast include: Elisabeth Risdon (Grace Gunnison); Harry Hayden (Professor Septimus Carr, Ilona's brother); Lois Collier (Margaret Mercer, a student with a crush on Norman working as his assistant, which has her jealous boyfriend, David Jennings, angry enough to want to kill him); and of course, the uncredited David Hoffman as the introducer as "The Inner Sanctum." Surprisingly short at 64 minutes, which could have gone a little bit longer, WEIRD WOMAN, with its eerie underscoring, Chaney's narrative train of thought, and what's to occur one minute past midnight, makes this a very well-paced mystery with some horror overtones to highly recommend.This, and the other five "Inner Sanctum" Lon Chaney mysteries, which usually played on broadcast television as part of horror fest during and prior to the 1970s, was reportedly remade years later as BURN, WITCH, BURN (American International, 1962) starring Janet Blair and Peter Wyngade. Distributed to home video in 1998 on a double bill to THE FROZEN GHOST (1945), the last of the Chaney-Ankers collaborations, WEIRD WOMAN is also available as a three film package ("Calling Doctor Death" and "Dead Man's Eyes") on DVD. Next in the "Inner Sanctum" series, DEAD MAN'S EYES (1944). (***)

oldblackandwhite Well, Lon Chaney Jr. that is. After being cast as various monsters, most famously The Wolfman, and a moron in Of Mice And Men, Chaney must have found temporary relief the Inner Sanctum series of second feature mystery potboilers, in which he was the sophisticated leading man, nattily dressed and sporting a pencil-line mustache like Errol Flynn. And he's surprisingly believable in this mode. Just goes to show you how those 1940's pinstriped, double-breasted suits with padded shoulders could spruce up any mug. Considering Chaney's bulk, just picture what an unbelievable sex symbol he would have made dressed like the average young to middle age guy now -- with a goofy tee shirt, knobby knees showing beneath baggy shorts, with a ball cap on backwards like the dumbest of the Bowery Boys! Thank God for the old black and white movies when men dressed like men instead of overgrown Beaver Cleavers! But I digress...In Weird Woman, Chaney is a suave college professor, the love idol of not just one, but three beautiful babes -- Anne Gwynne, Evelyn Ankers, and Lois Collier. Gwynne is his wife, a pretty, young half-savage he has brought back from a sociology study in the South Seas. The orphan of another professor, she was brought up by the savages, unfortunately with all their heathen superstitions, something of a problem for the logic-minded prof. Even more of a problem is the bimbo co-ed Collier, who has a serious crush on him. Biggest problem of all is Ankers, the librarian he had been using before he brought the little brown babe home, now as the bimbo describes her, "a jealous old cat." Ankers, scheming for revenge, is behind all the mischief that occurs -- not a spoiler, this is known all along. How all this unfolds, how it affects the professor, his superstitious wife, and the rest of the campus, and the way the villainess gets her comeuppance is all very suspenseful and entertaining.Even more entertaining is how well the authors of this story (Fritz Leiber Jr novel, Scott Darling adaptation) understand and reveal the cut-throat inner dynamic of a college faculty. Real life professors and administrators and their spouses may find their portrayal as snippy, catty, licentious, insecure, and overly competitive uncomfortably close to home! If this movie were remade today, no doubt the much adored professor would be a woman, still with the pin-stripe suit -- but the spurned librarian would still be one, too! Changing times, changing times! But it wouldn't be such good a movie in any way, even with a zillion-dollar budget and the top "talent" available today.Weird Woman, along with the other 5 low-budget pictures in the Inner Sanctum series, is a good example of how the big studios of Old Hollywood without halfway trying could turn out entertaining, good-looking movies. All well-acted by Chaney and the other second tier actors involved, artistically filmed with lots of spooky night scenes, well directed with an intense psychological angle, scored with appropriately eerie music by Roy Web, all maintaining a fun creepy atmosphere throughout. Great little filler movies, the longest only 67 minutes. If you like the first one you watch, have a double feature!

JoeKarlosi One of the better films in Universal's INNER SANCTUM series of mysteries to star Lon Chaney, and based on the novel CONJURE WIFE. As a suave and calculated writer of a recent book about dispelling false superstitions, Lon is married to a lovely young girl named Paula (the adorable Anne Gwynne) whom he first met at a voodoo ritual on an island some years ago and who is still interested in the occult, magic, and strange rituals. When all sorts of odd occurrences and deaths transpire, the blame is laid at the feet of the "witchy" Paula, much to her husband's chagrin. This installment benefits from a good cast. Anne Gwynne has always received my vote for the most attractive of the '40s Universal babes, and Evelyn Ankers (THE WOLF MAN, THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN) is a close second and earns extra points in this one for portraying a baddie this time around, much against type. Elizabeth Russell turns in a strong and compelling performance. Director Reginald LeBorg makes good use of dark, windy nights and eerie atmosphere to nice effect. The subject was tackled again later for the 1962 British film BURN WITCH BURN. *** out of ****