Pillow of Death (1945)

It is a performances centric movie

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Not the most clever, but very watchable this sixth and final episode from Universal's popular "Inner Sanctum" mysteries. Busy, with a creepy old house, spirits, a medium, right atmosphere and plenty of suspects. Wayne Fletcher (Lon Chaney Jr.) is a lawyer in love with his beautiful secretary Donna Kincaid (Brenda Joyce). After working late one night, Fletcher promises to go home and ask his wife for a divorce. When the attorney gets home, he is greeted by Police Captain McCracken (Wilton Graff), who arrests him for the murder of his wife. McCracken goes to the old Kincaid estate to question Donna and her family. Even the dead woman's psychic (J. Edward Bromberg) is under suspicion as well as a neighboring "peeping Tom".Rounding out the cast: George Cleveland, Rosalind Ivan, Bernard Thomas, Clara Bandick and Harry Strang.

This is super good whodunit for those who have not seen it. The film will keep you changing your mind on who you think the murderer is up until the very end. If you like trying to solve a mystery then you might like this film. It has some cute moments and leaves you in suspense for most all of the movie.Someone killed Wayne Fletcher's (Lon Chaney Jr) wife - but who and why? Wayne is in love with Donna Kincaid (Brenda Joyce) she is in love with him. Bruce Malone (Bernard Thomas) is in love with Donna but Donna only likes him as her friend. So you have a strange love triangle going on in the film.Donna comes from a family with money. Her family has hired a medium Julian Julian to find the ghost in their home. Ironically, Wayne's wife was talking to the same medium before her death.Between the money, love triangle and the spirits in the home this sets up a strange but good whodunit story that is quite fun to watch.9/10

The awesomely-titled final entry in Universal's Inner Sanctum series. It's the only entry in the series to not feature the opening of the creepy head in the crystal ball introducing the Inner Sanctum. The plot is relatively simple with Lon Chaney, Jr. playing a married attorney who is having an affair with beautiful Brenda Joyce. Chaney intends to divorce his wife but before he can, she's found dead and he becomes the prime suspect. But this is the Inner Sanctum so it can't be that simple. So add a psychic, visions of the dead wife, and more murder to the plot. As usual with the series, there's a nice supporting cast behind Chaney that includes J. Edward Bromberg, George Cleveland, and Rosalind Ivan. Pretty good close to the series. Shame there wasn't more. By the way, pay attention to the book that Chaney's wife was supposed to be reading before her death. Who would write something like that?!?

Lon Chaney Jr.(who starred in all six of this series) stars as attorney Wayne Fletcher, whose wife is found murdered. She was into the spiritual realm, and friends with a psychic, who decides to hold a séance in the home of a wealthy believer. Wayne was having an affair with his secretary(played by Brenda Joyce) though insists on his innocence, though when the spirit of his deceased wife accuses him of her murder, it starts off a series of new murders in the household. Who can be responsible? Last in this loosely-linked series is also the least, with an all-too-obvious plot that deteriorates into silliness by the end. Title gives away a key plot point too!