Pillow of Death (1945)

According to cranky old goat George Cleveland, the Kincaid house is filled with ghosts, some of whom he obviously thinks are still alive. That includes his imperious sister, Clara Blandick, who acts like she runs the county and would like to see Lon Chaney Jr. to the sheriff's and make sure he's destroyed. The victim is the wife of Chaney, who has been dating Brenda Joyce (Cleveland and Blandick's niece) behind his wife's back. Having wanted a divorce, he's spared from that thanks to the wife's timely demise. All of these characters (plus a few more) become suspects, and thanks to an amusing script, this final "Inner Sanctum" film is a treat.The set of the Kincaid home is very familiar from many other Universal films, including some of their classic horror films. Of the "Inner Sanctum" films, this is the closest to a horror film, with the ghostly element bringing along a spooky pacing, complete with strange laughter, the crackle of moving chains in the attic, and insinuations of the family's shady past. Blandick is delightfully imperious, a far cry from her strict but loving Auntie Em in "The Wizard of Oz". It's also her last extremely large part in a film, and she chews it up delightfully. Cleveland is a lovable delight, arguing with his sister as if they were still teenagers.A reunion for Chaney and Joyce after "Strange illusion", this is one film where I didn't find Chaney ridiculously miscast as a romantic character. He's just part of the ensemble here, given as much as everybody else, and strictly part of the ensemble. J. Edward Bromberg plays an expert on matters of the spirits of the dead, while Rosalind Ivan is coldly polite but less outspoken as a distant Kincaid relative obviously mooching off the family. There's also an eerie seance, complete with ghostly voice. The "Inner Sanctum" series may not be filled wiry masterpieces but at least it ended with a fairly enjoyable finale.

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.

The cheapness of the production and the fact that for some reason some very good players seem to be sleepwalking through their roles prevents me from rating Pillow Of Death higher. It was the end of Universal's Inner Sanctum series and maybe they just wanted to get it over with.A whole family named Kincaid is being systematically murdered. As they are a rich bunch it looks like someone is trying to collect a big inheritance. The cast is dotted with players who do villainous roles so it could be any one of them.Of course this film quite obviously borrows from the classic Agatha Christie mystery Ten Little Indians. Only they're not on an isolated island and law enforcement is trying to figure it out before all the Kincaids end up in the morgue.The most interesting member of the cast is the soon to be blacklisted J. Edward Bromberg playing a psychic hired by one of the family members to contact the deceased Kincaids so they can find out who's behind all these killings. They're all smothered to death with a pillow, hence the title.I think it was obvious who it was myself.

"Pillow of Death" is such a ridiculous title that one figures it must be good, and for the first two-thirds it more or less is so. Jerome Ash's cinematography is outstanding, Frank Skinner's music is appropriately dramatic; the sets -- left over from something else -- are fabulous and the performances are at least adequate in most cases to suit Babcock and Bricker's rather prosaic tale. However, a sense of routine starts to set in as the storyline advances -- each turn of the plot is accompanied by a shot of a screaming headline; characters begin to behave in a potted way and don't have very much dimension. Even given that, one can still have fun trying to figure out whodunit in this whodunit, but my crystal ball tells me very few will find the solution of this riddle particularly satisfactory. Ultimately, some may find the time spent watching "Pillow of Death" spent better in the company of one's own pillow, catching one hour's sleep rather than patiently enduring this title.