Pillow of Death

When Vivian Fletcher is found murdered, her husband, attorney Wayne Fletcher (Lon Chaney Jr.), is the prime suspect: the man has romantic feelings for his pretty secretary Donna Kincaid (Brenda Joyce) and his wife's death is all too convenient. Other murders follow, and Fletcher desperately tries to prove his innocence despite the mounting evidence against him.

Pillow of Death is another one of those hokey Inner Sanctum murder mysteries starring an already past-his-prime Lon Chaney Jr. (not that he was all that great when he was in his prime). It's packed with tired cliches (a creepy old house, ghostly voices, a seance, a secret passageway) and, for the most part, is a wholly unremarkable affair. However, just as I was about to write the entire thing off as another dull and predictable gothic B-movie thriller, it delivers a final act that was not what I was expecting to see, but was exactly what I had been hoping for. See it and you'll understand.

4/10, bumped up to 6 for that ending.