The Frozen Ghost

Lon Chaney, Jr. is the leading man here. It is fun watching him get unhinged as he thinks his gift of hypnosis has caused the death of a drunk who comes on stage plastered. What follows is Chaney's amazing overacting. He is beset with whininess and guilt. Soon, the women in his life begin to be problems for him, as is his manager, played by Milburn Stone. When one of those women disappears, the police start sniffing around. This is really a borderline horror movie. Once again, a wax museum takes up much of the action, along with its curator, a strange evil little man with a Peter Lorre accent. It is good fun and doesn't try to be something it is not.

Lon Chaney Jr. stars as Alex Gregor, a stage mentalist who has a terrible mishap occur when he tries to hypnotize a drunken fool in his act. The man dies, and Alex blames himself, even though police claim it was a heart attack, he decides to retire. His manager persuades him to stay with his friend Valerie, who runs a wax museum, where he meets her attractive niece Nina(played by Elena Verdugo) and the jealous and sinister wax worker Rudi(played by Martin Koslek). When Valerie mysteriously disappears, suspicion falls on Alex, but his assistant/fiancée(played by Evelyn Ankers) helps him uncover the real culprit. Entertaining film with a good cast and story, which may be obvious to a point, but film remains fun for a low budgeter.

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 ****

Lon Chaney, Jr. plays mentalist Gregor the Great, who believes he killed a guy with his psychic powers. Distraught over this, he quits and goes to work at a wax museum (naturally). Things are okay for awhile but then Gregor gets into an argument with a friend and, once again, believes he killed someone with his mind.

The fourth movie in Universal's Inner Sanctum series. Like the other movies, it's a fun B mystery thriller with a good cast. A bit silly at times but that adds to the fun if you're in the right frame of mind. The cast includes Universal regular Evelyn Ankers, Milburn Stone, Martin Kosleck, and Douglas Dumbrille. But the star is Lon Chaney, Jr., whose surly demeanor and sometimes overwrought acting are infinitely entertaining to watch. Not to mention his stylish mustache!

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).