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In this above average offering from Universal, Inner Sanctum series regular Lon Chaney plays a talented painter named Dave Stewart who is in love with a girl he intends to marry (Jean Parker). His beautiful model (CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN's Acquanetta) is jealous of their romance and would rather have Dave all to herself. One day after a grueling painting session, Dave's eyewash gets switched with acid, and the artist is rendered blind when he accidentally douses his tired eyes with it. His fiancé's elderly father generously offers to donate his eyes to Dave upon his death, so when the old man is subsequently murdered, all suspicion points to the blinded painter.

This mild whodunit offers a variety of possibilities as to who the murderer might be -- is it Dave Stewart? His jilted model? Or perhaps one of two other men who harbor a jealousy (one loves Acquanetta, the other desires Dave's woman)...? It's a pity the exotic beauty Acquanetta never learned to act (and if you think she's horrible here, you should see her in 1944's JUNGLE WOMAN!). This entry also features Thomas Gomez as a pushy policeman who keeps on Chaney's trail, much as J. Carrol Naish did (but better) in the first Inner Sanctum Mystery, CALLING DR. DEATH. **1/2 out of ****

... and it really isn't a horror film. It is one of the Inner Sanctum Mysteries series of movies from Universal.

Artist Dave Stuart (Lon Chaney Jr.) is painting a portrait with Tanya (Acquanetta) as a model. Tanya is madly in love with Dave, although he has given her no encouragement and is in love with a woman he has known since childhood, Heather Hayden (Jean Parker). Dave is not the height of organization and keeps bottles of dangerous acid in the same cabinet as his bottle of eyewash. One day he reaches for the bottle of what should be his eyewash and instead puts acid on his eyes. He is blinded and can only have his sight restored by a cornea transplant. His future father in law has his will changed to say that upon his death his eyes will be used for the cornea transplant Dave needs if he has not found a donor and had the operation yet. And then said future father-in-law is found dead in his study, bludgeoned to death with Dave standing over the body and blood on his hands. Complications ensue, not the least of which is Dave's fiancee not feeling the same about Dave after having found her dad's body with Dave nearby and him having everything to gain from her dad's death.

I really enjoyed this atmospheric entry that is much more mystery than horror, but obviously lots of people didn't or they dozed off, with them saying that the model Tanya deliberately blinded Dave. She confesses to moving the bottles but said she was careless rather than trying to blind Dave as a woman scorned. She never recants this story. Just about everybody but the household pet has a motive to have killed Stanley Hayden, so the rest of the film is how that murderer is found out.

Acquanetta gives a lifeless performance as the model Tanya. It's like she is bored out of her mind and just reciting lines. This kind of performance worked for her in "Captive Wild Woman" where she is a woman produced by glandular experiments performed on an ape and was basically wandering around in shock, but here she just looks like the stand-in in a high school play.

Thomas Gomez is the bad cop in the bad cop/good cop routine who forgot to bring along a good cop. He likes to torment Dave Stuart because he believes him to be guilty. Will he ever be mortified if he is wrong.

The people who ran Universal after the Laemmles lost control, Standard Capital, really were up a creek since everybody on the lot who was loyal to the Laemmles - and that was lots of them - left when the Laemmles did. So think of it as though Mitt Romney, with tons of money but not an artistic bone in his body, now has to run a movie studio with no legacy personnel. Things are rough for a few years as you try to build up franchises, but by the 40s you are bringing in new talent and figuring out how to make Universal Horror work for you. This is where Universal was when this movie was made - trying to live off Universal horror as they got their other franchises and post Laemmle stars off the ground. When I look at the film through that lens it's pretty good.

DEAD MAN'S EYES (Universal, 1944), directed by Reginald LeBorg, the third in the "Inner Sanctum" mysteries based on the radio series owned and operated by Simon and Schuster Publishers, stars Lon Chaney, Universal's resident horror star, taking time away from both Wolf Man and Mummy characterizations. Opening in tradition with a man's head inside the crystal ball, addressing the audience by saying, "This is the Inner Sanctum, 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." Here's to another segment: The original screenplay by Dwight V. Babcock revolves around Dave Stuart (Lon Chaney), a struggling young artist nearly completing what might become his greatest painted masterpiece, with Tanya Czoraki (Acquanetta) posing as his model. It so happens that Tanya is secretly in love with Dave, and jealous of his engagement to marry Heather Hayden (Jean Parker), whose father, Stanley Hayden (Edward Fielding), likes Dave enough as if were his own son. This doesn't go well with Nick Phillips (George Meeker), Heather's jealous and former suitor. Alan Bittaker (Paul Kelly), a psychiatrist and Dave's closest friend, has a secret passion for Tanya. After a day's work painting on the canvas, Dave's ends his daily routine by cleansing his tired eyes with eyewash. While conversing with Alan, Tanya unwittingly moves the bottles in his cabinet, which causes Dave to accidentally place acid on his eyes, damaging his cornea and going blind. Because of his handicap and unable to finish his painting, he orders the canvas covered, breaks his engagement to Heather, and turns to self pity by boozing alcohol. The guilt ridden Tanya offers to help and keep Dave company by day, hoping in time he's transfer his affections towards her. However, Dave is given some hope by Doctor Samuel Welles (Jonathan Hale) that he might be able to perform a difficult operation of a cornea transplant that might have him see again. "Dad" Hayden agrees to donate the cornea of his own eyes to Dave, leaving that statement in his will at the time of his death. Because of Hayden's suspicions towards Tanya, he and Dave argue and part company. Wanting to apologize for his actions, Dave visits Hayden at his residence, only to be have Heather walk in and finding him standing over her father's dead body. Accused of his mysterious murder, Doctor Welles does follow through with the operation using dead man's eyes. With the operation unsuccessful, and hounded by Detective Druey (Thomas Gomez), Dave, in total darkness, takes it upon himself to clear his name and solve Hayden's murder and other subsequent murders connected to his supposed crime.

Whether intentional or not, scenes involving artist later blinded, and jealous model, appear to parallel that with Rudyard Kipling's film based story, THE LIGHT THAT FAILED, recently produced by Paramount in 1939, starring Ronald Colman and Ida Lupino. Though not a murder mystery as DEAD MAN'S EYES, THE LIGHT THAT FAILED does involve Lupino's bravura performance as a model who eventually goes mad through endless hours of modeling by destroying the painted canvas. For Acaquanetta, fresh from her recent screen introduction title role as the CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (Universal, 1943), is not a very good actress, and can't compare to Lupino. There are moments where Acaquanetta gives the impression she's reciting her worded lines one by one from cue cards with little or no emotion of expression whatsoever. Jean Parker, looking very much like Jean Arthur in both profile and hair style, comes off better, even through a couple of sudden shrieks. Thomas Gomez, doing a J. Carrol Naish police inspector reprise from CALLING DOCTOR DEATH (1943), adds a little flavor of his own as the hounding police inspector. Lon Chaney does exceptionally well as a tormented blind man, sporting sunglasses, feeling his way around the room with either hands of walking cane, and moments of how to handle himself with the outside world. These moments are briefly motivated in favor of murder mystery, which doesn't hurt the story in the least. Director LeBorg keeps the pace moving for 64 minutes, though abrupt blackouts and middle scene fade-ins are evident.

As with other five features in the "Inner Sanctum" series, DEAD MAN'S EYES slowly faded away from television broadcasts starting by the late 1970s where, due to the Chaney horror film reputation, played part of "Fright Night" or any other Saturday evening horror film nights. Unlike the other five, DEAD MAN'S EYES became the only one to be presented on cable television's American Movie Classics during the 1989-90 season. It did premiere on Turner classic Movies July 13, 2023. Regardless, availability onto home video in 1997 on double bill with PILLOW OF DEATH (1945), and later onto DVD, has assured DEAD MAN'S EYES not completely blind to those curious about this nearly forgotten series of murder mysteries that entertained movie audiences back in the day when films of this nature were quite popular and commonly played. Next "Inner Santrum" episode: THE FROZEN GHOST (1945) Brrr. (**1/2)

The third movie in the theatrical "Inner Sanctum" series is fine entertainment for old time thriller lovers. Lon Chaney Jr. is in fine form as Dave Stuart, a painter. He's engaged to rich girl Heather Hayden (Jean Parker), and this is in fact a union that her father Stanley (Edward Fielding) is eager to see come to fruition. One day Dave mistakes acid for his eyewash and blinds himself, and Stanley promises Dave that he will provide his own eyeballs for a risky cornea operation should the old man die. Well, the old man *does* get murdered, and Dave falls under suspicion. And, as it turns out, there are others who could conceivably benefit from the death.

"Dead Man's Eyes" is not what this viewer would consider a great mystery, but it *is* a solid and engaging diversion for barely over an hour. (All of the "Inner Sanctum" movies have very trim running times.) It does its job at setting up dubious characters and their motives, and having suspicion keep shifting from one to another. The filmmaking (Reginald LeBorg is the director) is efficient and to the point.

The acting is wonderful from much of the cast. Lon Jr. is rather over emphatic at times, but there's no denying the sincerity of his performance. Parker is cute and appealing. Acquanetta, who plays Tanya, the model who is in love with Dave, is a striking beauty but not much of an actress. Paul Kelly is good fun as Alan Bittaker, Daves' chipper psychiatrist friend. Thomas Gomez is likewise a stitch as the smirking detective on the case. Jonathan Hale (as the eye surgeon), Fielding, and George Meeker (as Heathers' pathetic former boyfriend) are all rock solid.

Fans of Lon Jr. would do well to check him out in this sort of atmospheric Universal B picture, where he's not required to put on elaborate makeup or dress in fanciful costume.

Seven out of 10.

1944's "Dead Man's Eyes" was third of the six 'Inner Sanctum' mysteries, later included in Universal's popular SHOCK! package of classic horror films issued to television in the late 50s. Unlike its predecessors, this pretty much ranks as a straight up whodunit, with some macabre touches borrowed from a previous SHOCK! title, "Mystery of the White Room," a 1939 'Crime Club' mystery wherein one character has his sight restored by a corneal transplant from the murder victim. Lon Chaney again is a tortured victim, the (justifiably) starving artist Dave Stuart, whose latest painting is believed to be the masterpiece that will put his career on the path to success. Engaged to wealthy Heather (Jean Parker), Dave is blind to the devotion of his attractive model, Tanya Czoraki (Acquanetta,) who mishandles identical bottles on the artist's top shelf, one containing eye wash, the other acetic acid (surely any man keeping such items side by side gets what he deserves). The unthinkable happens, Dave falling victim to the (intended?) switch, rendered sightless by the acid's corrosive effects. Heather's devoted father (Edward Fielding) wills his eyes to his prospective son-in-law, then winds up murdered in his own home, the blind Dave himself stumbling over the body before his fiancée discovers what happened. Were it not for the endless bickering and/or bellyaching, it might have been the best of the entire series, the too-slow buildup and mostly mediocre acting sinking the whole enterprise. After a horrendous showing in "Jungle Woman," the woeful Acquanetta is once again entrusted with dialogue, displaying all the downtrodden acting prowess of Rondo Hatton in a sadly indifferent display that cannot be considered a performance; rather fittingly, this was her farewell to Universal. Underrated beauty Jean Parker was enjoying her best year in the genre, starring with Lionel Atwill in "Lady in the Death House," Bela Lugosi in "One Body Too Many," and John Carradine in "Bluebeard." As the police inspector, Thomas Gomez, usually cast as villains, doesn't enjoy the kind of juicy dialogue that J. Carrol Naish had in "Calling Dr. Death," but he definitely has more depth than his successors in both "The Frozen Ghost" and "Pillow of Death." The smarmy Paul Kelly is certainly in his element as a psychiatrist mooning over Tanya's questionable qualities, with similar turns in "Star of Midnight," "The Missing Guest," and "The Cat Creeps." Beatrice Roberts, Queen Azura in "Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars," had an almost continuous run of unbilled bits, her beauty always standing out, as it does here, easily catching the eye of police guard Eddie Dunn. As for Chaney, this pity party is just a dreary bore, unfortunately foreshadowing the very next entry, "The Frozen Ghost," which at least boasts a much stronger cast. "Dead Man's Eyes" made three appearances on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater- Mar 23 1968 (following 1962's Mexican "The Bloody Vampire"), July 30 1977 (following 1967's Japanese "King Kong Escapes"), and Feb 26 1983 (solo).