Monday, February 24, 2020

Mill Creek Entertainment To Release Inner Sanctum Mysteries: The Complete Film Series On Blu-ray On May 19


DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey
Mill Creek Entertainment goes to the vaults on May 19 for the double-disc, six-film Blu-ray collection titled Inner Sanctum Mysteries: The Complete Film Series.

Throughout the 1930s there were the pulp fiction mystery novels from the publishing company of Simon and Shuster.   So popular was the series that NBC launched a weekly radio program in 1941, which migrated over to CBS once World War II began and stayed there until 1950 … and then continued on at ABC radio stations for two more years.   
A couple of years later, 39 episodes were produced for a full season of Inner Sanctum on NBC television during the 1954 broadcast season.

Universal Pictures took notice of the publishing and radio success and approached Simon and Schuster about a film series based on the concept of the Inner Sanctum series.   The result were six films being produced by the studio between 1943 and 1945, all starring “The Wolf Man” himself, Lon Chaney, Jr. in various roles.   

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey
Mill Creek Entertainment has all six of the films in the series ready for mystery and horror fans to enjoy for the first time on Blu-ray on May 19.

The series launched at Christmas in 1943 with director Reginald LeBorg’s Calling Dr. Death, with Chaney as a psychiatrist who has lost his memory.   But to make matters worse, his two-timing wife, Maria (Ramsay Ames — Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, The Mummy's Ghost, Philo Vance Returns, etc.) has been brutally murdered.   

Did he do it?   Or was it his wife’s lover, Robert (David Bruce — Flying Tigers, The Mad Ghoul)?   Or, perhaps it was Robert’s wife (played by Fay Helm — Captive Wild Woman, Son of Lassie)?   To find out, Chaney has his beautiful assistant, Stella (Patricia Morison — The Fallen Sparrow, The Song of Bernadette, Dressed to Kill), hypnotize him to get at the truth.   

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey
No cheating … you have to watch Calling Dr. Death on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment on May 19 to find out the identity of the killer!!

That is just the first entry in the series.   There are five more “pulp” thrillers.  These are: Weird Woman, released in March of 1944, Chaney falls in love with a mysterious “island orphan” played by Anne Gwynne (House of Frankenstein, Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome), but a jealous woman (Evelyn Ankers — Captive Wild Woman, The Frozen Ghost) does her best to destroy their marriage (best not to mess the supernatural); Dead Man’s Eyes had its theatrical launch in November of 1944 and features Chaney as an artist who is blinded, there is a chance to see again, there’s a murder, another murder and Chaney is the chief suspect; The Frozen Ghost (Chaney as a famed mentalist … Evelyn Ankers returns), Strange Confession (a head in a suitcase has a tale of greed to tell) and Pillow of Death (Chaney cheats on his wife, when she is found dead he becomes the main suspect) all followed in 1945 and that concluded Universal’s deal with Simon and Shuster.

DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, Ralph Tribbey



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