The Frozen Ghost

"The Frozen Ghost" might just be the quintessential wacky 1940s B-movie mystery, packed with enough plot to fill any six films, and uncertain of which of those six films it really wants to be. While it may not be the most serious of the "Inner Sanctum" series of low-low-budget thrillers made by Unversal between 1943 and 1945, it is likely the most entertaining. Part murder mystery, part wax museum horror film, part romance, "The Frozen Ghost" gallops along at a nonsensical pace and features a rich group of actors, all of whom are peculiarly cast. Leading the pack is Lon Chaney, who tried to escape the heavy Wolf Man and Mummy makeup with this series, and who does a pretty good job as a stage hypnotist tormented by the thought that he might have killed someone during his act. This might be Chaney's best stab at a leading man role, though it is undermined by the fact that every single female character in the film, from age 16 to 40, falls madly in love with him at sight, much in the way Roger Moore's version of James Bond was a walking aphrodisiac. While Chaney was a passable leading man, ascribing this rampant sex appeal to him is as fantastical as brain transplants. Douglas Dumbrille, a smooth British actor given to silky villains, plays the tough American detective, and Martin Kosleck, usually cast as a cold as ice Nazi, here appears as a road-company Peter Lorre lunatic. And Milburn Stone -- "Doc" on "Gunsmoke" -- shows up as Chaney's harried agent. But don't even worry about the caprices of the casting or plotting. Just sit back, try to keep up with it, and enjoy the kind of anything-goes film-making that doesn't exist anymore.

1944's "The Frozen Ghost" was fourth of the six 'Inner Sanctum' mysteries (released only an entire year after completion), later included in Universal's popular SHOCK! package of classic horror films issued to television in the late 50s, its intriguing title and stronger than usual cast perhaps explaining its more frequent showings than the four other SHOCK! titles. As a vehicle for Lon Chaney however, it's probably the weakest, repeating his pity party from the previous entry, "Dead Man's Eyes," this time as Alex Gregor, successful stage hypnotist, whose latest subject, an alcoholic skeptic (Arthur Hohl), succumbs while going into a trance. The amazingly cloddish and unsympathetic Gregor has no one but himself to blame for all his subsequent troubles, blaming his mesmeric powers for the man's fatal heart attack, and ending his engagement to his lovely partner, Maura Daniel (Evelyn Ankers). Gregor's business manager, George Keene (Milburn Stone), hits upon the brilliant idea of having his downtrodden client begin working at the wax museum of Valerie Monet (Tala Birell), whose teenage niece, Nina Cordreau (Elena Verdugo), quickly develops a crush on the older man. Unhappily, this conflicts with Valerie's own designs on Gregor, who continues to behave in such a crestfallen manner that one would think that any self respecting female would preferably flee from him with great haste. Once the action shifts to the waxworks, Chaney's hapless histrionics fade into the background, actually not a bad thing, as Universal's latest discovery, Martin Kosleck, was making his feature debut for the studio (following a 13 chapter serial, "The Great Alaskan Mystery"), as Rudi Poldan, curator and former plastic surgeon of dubious accomplishment, who hasn't entirely given up his experiments. With so many broads hot for the disturbed yet dull-as-dishwater Gregor, Rudi has his sights set on young Nina, displaying his knife throwing abilities when rebuffed (as they were in "The Mad Doctor," "The Mummy's Curse," and "Pursuit to Algiers"). This entry's police detective is played by Douglass Dumbrille, usually cast as surprise killers, rather more amiable than his predecessors, but also more bland. Exotic beauty Tala Birell, an enticing 36 at the time, was mainly reduced to Poverty Row titles at this juncture, others of interest including "The Lone Wolf Returns," "One Dangerous Night," "Isle of Forgotten Sins," "The Monster Maker," "The Power of the Whistler," "Philo Vance's Secret Mission," and "Philo Vance's Gamble." Dimpled darling Elena Verdugo was no stranger to Lon Chaney, previously providing his love interest in "House of Frankenstein," and still proving an eyeful opposite Lon in 1952's "Thief of Damascus." She also did "Little Giant" (Abbott and Costello), "The Sky Dragon" (Charlie Chan), "The Lost Tribe" (Jungle Jim), and "The Lost Volcano" (Bomba the Jungle Boy), before switching to television, where she endured as Robert Young's devoted nurse on MARCUS WELBY. It was a bittersweet swansong for the departing Evelyn Ankers (after 29 Universal features in four years), clearly pregnant with her only child, whose movie career covered only 11 more films. As for Chaney, this lukewarm repeat role clearly did him no favors, somewhat reviving himself for the climax, which also allowed Evelyn Ankers a chance for redemption.

This was the fourth film in Universal's "Inner Sanctum" series and the first one not to be directed by Reginald LeBorg, which could be only one of the reasons that THE FROZEN GHOST, aside from having a terrific title, scores way down low as the least satisfying of these six modest melodramas. This feature's got a competent cast and a few scattered good ideas, but they're only half-baked and just don't rise in the oven.

Lon Chaney plays Alex Gregor, a stage hypnotist who reads people's minds along with the aid of his female assistant and romantic interest, Maura (Evelyn Ankers again). During one of their live clairvoyant acts, "Gregor the Great" (ha!) tries to hypnotize a man from the audience and the subject collapses, stone cold dead. Now Alex thinks he killed the man with his mind and the inner turmoil he feels makes him ripe for a breakdown. There's no better way to relax from your troubles than a nice stay at a friend's wax museum, so Gregor takes up an offer to do just that for awhile. Once he arrives amongst the mannequins, he finds he still retains the power to kill with his eyes, as strange goings-on ensue.

That brief description sounds more interesting than it turns out, because this is a wasted opportunity to utilize a wax museum backdrop for the one and only time in a Universal horror film. Nothing really happens for the hour's running length of this thoroughly average snoozer. Chaney goes through his basic motions once again, and with Harold Young now directing there isn't as much suspense or intrigue as the previous installments managed to cook up under LeBorg. Milburn Stone is pretty good as Gregor's business manager, and pretty Elena Verdugo (the gypsy girl from HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN) is on hand as the darling niece of the museum owner. But once again, it's Martin Kosleck who gets a raw deal as an effectively menacing, knife-wielding stalker. It's just another case where poor Kosleck, perhaps the best thing in the whole picture, gets buried inside yet another of Universal's more mediocre movies. ** out of ****

In spite of its meaningless title, this is one of the better "Inner Sanctums" - though still not exactly a good film. Lon Chaney Jr. is at his most Larry Talbot-like here as a hypnotist constantly bemoaning his fate (thinking he may have killed a drunken and skeptical member of the audience by sheer will-power!). In fact, the opening hypnotism sequence features some unusually odd angles - which is then ruined by the stereotypical (and unfunny) intrusion of Arthur Hoyt as the drunk!!

The plot then contrives to incorporate the well-worn wax museum theme, which results in the establishment of an adequate atmosphere throughout the film (not to mention utilizing its furnace for the effective climax). Besides, it's aided immensely by the presence of Martin Kosleck as the unhinged museum 'curator' (with a secret medical past) and Douglass Dumbrille as the wily investigating detective with a fondness for quoting Shakespeare (there's a section of wax figures devoted to characters from the Bard's work). Once again, the star finds himself in a tug-of-war between three females - Evelyn Ankers (playing the good girl this time, as Chaney's assistant/fiancée), Tala Birell (as the jealous and ageing museum owner) and Elena Verdugo (as Birell's ingénue niece, also desired by Kosleck).

THE FROZEN GHOST (Universal, 1945), directed by Harold Young, the fourth in the "Inner Sanctum" mysteries by arrangement with Simon and Schuster Publishers, Inc., returns Lon Chaney Jr. in another one of his non-monster roles. Following his pattern of movie titles of "The Ghost of Frankenstein" (1942) and "The Mummy's Ghost" (1944), this latest installment of misleading "Ghost" titles doesn't deal with a scientific expedition in the Arctic Circle discovering a dead man inside a block of ice whose ghost haunts them by night. Instead, it's another tale of mystery and supernatural. In the tradition of its previous three "Inner Sanctum" mysteries ("Calling Doctor Death," "Weird Woman" and "Dead Man's Eyes"), there's that opening of a disembodied head of the Inner Sanctum (David Hoffman) seemingly floating back and forth inside a crystal ball addressing the movie audience once more with this statement: "This is the Inner Sanctum, the strange fantastic world controlled by mass of living, cult seeking flesh. The mind, it destroys, distorts, creates monsters. Yes, even YOU without knowing can commit murder." As the opening credits roll, the story scripted by Luci Ward and Bernard Shubert comes to life, sans any frozen ghost seeking seclusion in a warm haunted house.

The prologue starts off on a radio show (with good use of slanted camera angles) introducing a mentalist named Alex Gregor (Lon Chaney), professionally known as Gregor the Great, along with his assistant and fiancée, Maura Daniel (Evelyn Ankers), as his hypnotic subject reading inner thoughts from those selected from the studio audience. The show goes well until a drunken skeptic (Arthur Hohl) calls Gregor a fake, claiming his act is done with mirrors. Upset of being ridiculed and saying in an angry state of mind, "I could kill him," Gregor invites the drunk on the platform to prove him wrong. As Gregor puts the him under his hypnotic spell, the skeptic immediately dies. Although the coroner rules death from a heart attack, which prevents him from being arrested by Inspector Brandt (Douglass Dumbrille) from the Homicide Bureau, Gregor still insists that he's a murderer. Breaking off his engagement with Maura and canceling all future engagements, it's George Keene (Milburn Stone), Gregor's business manager and closest friend, who suggests Gregor go away for a mental relaxation, arranging a stay with Valerie Monet (Tala Birell) at her owned establishment of Madame Monet's Wax Museum who designs the costumes, accompanied by her young niece Nina Goldreau (Elena Verdugo), and Rudi Poldar (Martin Kosleck), who resents Gregor's presence at the museum. Gregor's stay is anything but restful when coping with expert dagger thrower Rudi and his jealous tendencies towards him and Nina; Nina finding her life in danger after discovering interesting facts about the wax figures; Gregor's argument with Valerie that causes to her mysterious disappearance; and the arrival of Inspector Brandt placing all suspicions on Gregor, who, by this time, is slowly going insane.

For the seventh and final of the Chaney and Ankers teaming, THE FROZEN GHOST belongs mostly to Chaney. What's interesting other than the use of hypnosis as the answer to the mystery and occasional use of voice over train of thought from Chaney's point of view, is how moments of the Wax Museum portions comes as a reminder to Lionel Atwill's MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (Warner Brothers, 1933), when watching Rudi Poldar, formerly Doctor Feldon, a plastic surgeon whose career was professionally ruined, conversing with his created wax figures of Napoleon, Cleopatra or Marie Antoinette as though they were living beings. The final moments involving the fire burning furnace looks as if this idea for a climax were lifted from the little known poverty row movie mystery, A SHREIK IN THE NIGHT (Allied, 1933) starring Ginger Rogers. Other than that, THE FROZEN GHOST, once shown frequently on commercial television before being phased out of circulation by the late 1970s, is a not-bad one hour quickie made agreeable for fans of this type of entertainment.

Formerly presented on home video in the 1997 as a companion piece with WEIRD WOMAN (1944), THE FROZEN GHOST can be found on DVD on a triple bill with its fellow Inner Sanctum mysteries of "Strange Confession" and "Pillow of Death" all featuring the mustached/guilt-ridden Lon Chaney. Next installment: the rarely seen STRANGE CONFESSION (1945) (**)