Lew Landers - perhaps one of the more diversified of early Hollywood's hyper-prolific B-film-factory directors, brought together a cast of relative unknowns and talented aging stars into a stylish, fairly suspenseful, and tightly plotted noir offering. Landers typically directed between 7 and 9 films per year in the 1940s and early 1950s, but in 1948, when Inner Sanctum was released, this was one of only three films from him.
The great Fritz Lieber opens the film by demonstrating his clairvoyance to a rather silly but pretty young woman on a train and then offering her a warning. Lieber then launches into the story and we are guided into the action of this very strangely misnamed film. Inner Sanctum tells the story of a despicable and completely unsympathetic murderer (Charles Russell) whose dirty deed is, in part, witnessed by an energetic youth (Dan Belding). The somewhat energetic young boy isn't quite sure what he has seen, and the killer seems to think he is home free after driving through a flooded country and hitching a ride to a local boarding house. Unfortunately for him, paranoia, the kid, and a smart pretty young lady are waiting for him there.
With the apparent exception of Russell's character the film makes good use of the moral ambiguity of most noir films, and gives the genre a few unique spins. Like most femme fatales, Mary Beth Hughes' character is a lot smarter than her male counterpart, and she certainly dresses and plays the part, but she isn't really a femme fatale in the usual sense. The use of the young Dan Belding (who gives one of the best performances of the film) as the killer's primary nemesis and, very possibly, his next victim, gives the film a fairly unique edge, and the trapped, claustrophobic feeling of the boarding house and the flooded river land around it, which may have been a simple plot device designed to save the production budget, help to sustain the suspense.
No spoilers here, but I will say that the film has a few tricks up its sleeves which are worth sticking around for. Also notable for the unusual casting of the great Lee Patrick in the role of the uncharacteristically typical 30-something mom of Belding's character.
The great Fritz Lieber opens the film by demonstrating his clairvoyance to a rather silly but pretty young woman on a train and then offering her a warning. Lieber then launches into the story and we are guided into the action of this very strangely misnamed film. Inner Sanctum tells the story of a despicable and completely unsympathetic murderer (Charles Russell) whose dirty deed is, in part, witnessed by an energetic youth (Dan Belding). The somewhat energetic young boy isn't quite sure what he has seen, and the killer seems to think he is home free after driving through a flooded country and hitching a ride to a local boarding house. Unfortunately for him, paranoia, the kid, and a smart pretty young lady are waiting for him there.
With the apparent exception of Russell's character the film makes good use of the moral ambiguity of most noir films, and gives the genre a few unique spins. Like most femme fatales, Mary Beth Hughes' character is a lot smarter than her male counterpart, and she certainly dresses and plays the part, but she isn't really a femme fatale in the usual sense. The use of the young Dan Belding (who gives one of the best performances of the film) as the killer's primary nemesis and, very possibly, his next victim, gives the film a fairly unique edge, and the trapped, claustrophobic feeling of the boarding house and the flooded river land around it, which may have been a simple plot device designed to save the production budget, help to sustain the suspense.
No spoilers here, but I will say that the film has a few tricks up its sleeves which are worth sticking around for. Also notable for the unusual casting of the great Lee Patrick in the role of the uncharacteristically typical 30-something mom of Belding's character.