(1945)
Dir - Lewis Allen
Overall: MEH
Though narratively singular from each other, The Unseen was Paramount's answer to the previous year's supernatural hit The Uninvited, both of which star Gail Russell and were directed by Lewis Allen. This is the lesser known and lesser appreciated out of the two and for good reason, the source material from Ethel Lina White, (the 1942 novel Her Heart in Her Throat), serving as a non-ghostly and less gripping reworking of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. Russell arrives at her new place of employment as the governess to a no-nonsense man, his sweet daughter, and brat son who immediately distrusts Russell due to his attraction and allegiance to a former governess that we find out is up to no good. The plot is difficult to follow at times and goes nowhere for long stretches. Characters act suspiciously, they get irritated, Russell is gaslit because she is a woman, and there is little to no suspense mustered within such a talky formula. At least cinematographer John F. Seitz shot some of the most seminal film noirs from the Golden Age, working his magic here when we venture down dark streets and into a ominous house where a murder was committed.
(1947)
Dir - Fritz Lang
Overall: MEH
Not one of director Fritz Lang's more celebrated Hollywood works, Secret Beyond the Door adapts Rufus King's 1946 novel Museum Piece No. 13 as a melodramatic psychological thriller that is too stagy to buy into. The door in question is one that is kept locked by Michael Redgrave, an architect with the singular hobby of "collecting rooms", particularly recreations of infamous ones where women were murdered. One would think that this unwholesome hobby may concern his new independently wealthy bride Joan Bennett who married him on a whim, and it does to a point, but as more concerning things are discovered about her husband, (him withholding pivotal information from her, behaving erratically, disappearing at random intervals, etc), she miraculously just becomes more hopelessly in love with him. Lang of course was skilled enough as to not let the pacing drag, (plus he stages an interesting sequence where Redgrave puts himself on trial in an attempt to face his murderous impulses), but the story itself is more ridiculous than white-knuckled. Even as the music soars, atmospheric shadows are cast on the walls, and the performances intensify, it just becomes a far-fetched scenario that is played detrimentally straight.
(1948)
Dir - Lew Landers
Overall: MEH
Overall: MEH
Not to be confused with Universal's strand of Inner Sanctum films starring Lon Chaney Jr. which were wrapped up four years earlier, this Inner Sanctums is a stand-alone cheapie from M.R.S. Pictures Inc., doubling as the only movie that the production company ever made. Speaking of Universal, director Lew Landers was also behind the lens on their Béla Lugosi/Boris Karloff pairing The Raven a decade and a half earlier, as well as nearly two hundred other features throughout his career, many of which were independent, hour long time-fillers as was this one. It opens and closes in a vague supernatural fashion as Fritz Leiber, Sr. regales Eve Miller with a tale about a man who murders a woman and goes into hiding, Leiber seemingly possessing acute premonition abilities which come full circle by the finale. This angle is interesting yet it remains unexplored, the bulk of the plot concerning the aforementioned debacle of Charles Russell's killer on the run who, (unfortunately for him), was spotted by a mischievous kid that he ends up boarding with while the bridge out of town is no longer in commission. Russell's character makes several blunders throughout, oversharing and botching some short-sighted ploys to avoid suspicion, though much of his downfall can just be chalked up to rotten luck on his part. In any event, it is a humdrum viewing experience, padded with uninteresting side characters and poor comic relief.
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