Les yeux d'un mort

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 ****

So what's so scary about a corneal transplant. Maybe if they had shown the eyes in a bottle or some of the surgery, there might be a shudder or two. Instead, we get close-ups of Chaney's bleary-eyed squint, which is sort of scary in itself.

This is a tepid Inner Sanctum entry, at best, more of a whodunit than a Chaney horror exercise. The plot is somewhat offbeat—can accidentally blinded artist Dave Stuart (Chaney) see well enough to be a killer, and if not, then who did murder two people. The only suspense is a routine one of finding the culprit. Then too, the damning piece of evidence strikes me as pretty far-fetched. I wish there were a memorable scene or some catchy dialog to recommend here, but there really isn't.

Perhaps the most notable feature is Paul Kelly's (Alan) really authoritative head doctor. He's totally credible. On the other hand, for fans of truly inept acting, there's Acquanetta (Tanya) whose dialog delivery is at times almost painful. Actually, I blame the studio for pushing her into a speaking role she was so clearly unprepared for. All in all, the offbeat premise has more potential than the rather cheap and clumsy treatment it gets here. Too bad.

... 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 (1944)

*** (out of 4)

Third in the Inner Sanctum series has a painter (Lon Chaney, Jr.) accidentally pouring acid into his eyes causing him to go blind. Soon he's suspected of killing his father in law, the man who was going to give him his eyes for a transplant. This is certainly the best of the three film's I've seen in the series due in large part to a pretty good screenplay that has plenty of twists and turns. I picked up on the ending ten minutes before it actually happened but the film still remained a lot of fun. Chaney also delivers a good performance.

Lon Chaney, Jr. plays an artist who is engaged to beautiful Jean Parker and has exotic Acquanetta lusting after him. Sounds like a charmed life. But then this genius goes and accidentally puts acid in his own eyes! Chaney's now blind and must await a donor for a cornea transplant. Parker's father offers his corneas, to be removed after he dies. But someone up and kills the old guy and it looks to everybody like Chaney might have done it to speed things up.

This enjoyable entry in Universal's Inner Sanctum mystery thriller series is directed by Reginald Le Borg. Chaney is great in this series. I'm sure he enjoyed getting a break from the monster movies he was making at this time. He gives his all in every Inner Sanctum movie. A really good cast here to back him up. Jean Parker is lovely as always. Thomas Gomez, Paul Kelly, and Jonathan Hale are all great support. Acquanetta is nice to look at but probably the worst actress Universal had in any of their movies. Her monotone line delivery is dreadful.

This isn't one of the best of the series but it's good. The biggest problem, aside from Acquanetta's poor acting, is that the mystery part is unsurprising. The killer is obvious, despite all of the red herrings they have in place. Still, it's fun and fans of the series and Chaney will enjoy it.