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When Dr. Benson's experiments in suspended animation result in a man's death, he is forced to flee San Francisco with the police in hot pursuit. He boards a luxury liner to Australia but a shipwreck lands him and a handful of survivors on a remote tropical island.

The island natives aren't very welcoming until Dr. Benson demonstrates his "powers" by reviving the comatose wife of the island chief. Now worshipped as a deity, the doctor's ego rages out of control as he begins to focus on his master plan: "Just as the natives worship me, so will the whole world."

Rather fun "mad scientist" thriller which starts in a street, then switches deftly to a luxury liner and then a tropical island - it all benefits from a great performance by Lionel Atwill who can play mad doctors in his sleep. The rest of the cast is good - the story is quite engaging, moves at a good pace, and is humorous, all overriding the story familiarity.

Dr. Alfred Morris is curious about the effects of an ancient nerve gas, used by the Mayans during rituals of human dissection to appease their gods. He takes medical student Ted Allison under his wing to assist him with his experiments in using the gas on modern animals. Despite Ted's enthusiasm for the success of their effort to revive Morris's dead monkey Jocko (who was earlier exposed to the gas and died), by using a fluid from the heart of another creature, Ted also has on his mind his girlfriend Isabel Lewis, of whom Morris has also become enamored.

Later, on the night of the duo's first experiment, Ted brings Isabel to Morris's house, where Morris notices Isabel's discomfort about her relationship with Ted. He confers with Isabel, saying that she does indeed need a man more involved with her love of music, secretly meaning himself. Isabel, however, is afraid of hurting Ted's feelings and getting him to understand what she wants, but Morris promises to take care of the situation himself.

Unbeknownst to Isabel, Morris's evil plan involves destroying Ted by exposing him to the lethal Mayan gas the next day, and in effect, making him a mindless ghoul who, like Jocko, must continually rely on the fluid of human hearts to survive (obtained by performing cardioectomies on freshly dead persons).

Ted and Morris start on a grave-robbing spree through several towns where Isabel is also performing on her tour. Morris tries to get Ted to return home, but Ted is committed to being with Isabel whenever possible, whenever he is not in his unknowing ghoulish state. But, when Ted does become a ghoul again, Morris once more uses him to try to kill off the one person Isabel truly seems to love-Eric Iverson, her partner and pianist.

David Bruce puts in a good performance as the unfortunate Ted who is used by his professor in some experiments and is turned into a heart robbing ghoul - Que: numerous foggy graveyard sequences and grisly act - of course not seen - of removing a heart from fresh corpses. But murder comes during these ghastly acts. George Zucco, the master of playing unhinged scientists, plays the professor and he is evil, manipulative, suffers from grandeur illusion by thinking that Isabel - who he wants for himself -would go for him, and ruins a young student for his own ends. It's a solid chiller all the way, significantly buoyed by Zucco and Bruce. Evelyn Anders is pretty as ever as Isabel and Turhan Bey plays her pianist and lover.

Artist David Stuart (Lon Chaney) is blinded by a jealous model whose portrait he is painting. His fiance's father generously offers his eyes for a sight restoring operation. There's only one hitch: Stuart has to wait until after the man dies.

Not surprisingly, when the benefactor dies a very premature death, suspicion falls on the artist. But there are other possible suspects such as the lovelorn Nick who is in love with David's fiancée ...

A solid Inner Sanctum entry that boasts a great performance by Chaney who goes blind, thanks to a lady in love with him. It's a mystery thriller and of course Chaney's the number suspect in killing his prospective father in law - after all he wants to see again. The twists and turns are nicely done and it's neatly concluded with the killer caught.