simeon_flake As many astute reviewers have already pointed out, this was the beginning of the "Inner Sanctum" series--a series that gave Lon Chaney Jr. the chance to break from his heavily made up monster roles and stretch his acting skills a bit. "Calling Dr. Death" is a good start--although, if I had to rank the entire series, I would probably have this one down near the bottom with "Pillow of Death"--which is not to say that CDD or POD are bad movies; far from it. It's just that there were better Innner Sanctum Mysteries to come--namely "Dead Man's Eyes" and "Strange Confession."Some points of CDD that I liked--Chaney of course, was very good in his role as was J. Carrol Naish as the tough police inspector--watching this and "Strange Confession" just makes me marvel more at how Naish was able to literally transform himself and become the pitiable hunchback for "House of Frankenstein."Patricia Morison herself was another highlight of the film for me. I was very captivated by her--one of those classic Hollywood beauties and a good actress too.The few minuses of the picture--well, there is Ramsay Ames as the Doctor's wife. Ms. Ames was very talented when it came to filling out her nightgowns in "The Mummy's Ghost", but as far as her acting ability (or lack thereof), maybe the less said the better.And the ending is kind of a downer for me, if only because I wanted to see the 2 principles of the story have a happy ending together, but I won't go into too much detail--trying not to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't seen it.Overall, I rate it a 7 out of 10...

Rainey Dawn Calling Dr. Death (1943) is the first of six Inner Sanctum films starring Lon Chaney, Jr. The film is a dark mystery-thriller about a neurologist named Dr. Mark Steel and his cheating wife Maria. Maria has a lover which has upset Dr. Steel. Dr. Steel and his nurse Stella Madden has developed a closeness but refrains themselves from a romance. Maria goes away for the weekend but has been found murdered. The police are investigating while Dr. Steel feels he may have murdered his own wife... the question is did he (Dr. Steel) kill her or was it someone else? A good watch if you like film-noir, mysteries, and the Universal classic horror films.8/10

utgard14 The first of Universal's fun series of thriller films under the Inner Sanctum banner. Each one starred Lon Chaney, Jr. in different roles. In this one, Chaney plays Dr. Mark Steele, a neurosurgeon and expert hypnotist. Steele's unfaithful wife (Ramsay Ames) is found murdered and he's a prime suspect. But Steele has lost his memory of the last few days and can't remember if he killed her or not! So he gets his nurse (Patricia Morison) to hypnotize him so he can try to remember what happened.Chaney's great in this. I'm sure at the time he welcomed the chance to get out of playing movie monsters. Morison and Ames are lovely to look at and good in their roles. The always-solid J. Carrol Naish plays the hard-nosed police detective investigating the case. Holmes Herbert appears in one of his many butler roles. I really like this series. A little silly at times but it just adds to the entertainment value for me. It has that distinct look and feel Universal movies had at the time. Calling Dr. Death is a very good start to a fun, enjoyable series of mystery thrillers.

dougdoepke Hypnotist's faithless wife is murdered and cops suspect him until a likelier suspect emerges who may or may not be guilty.Old radio fans no doubt recognize the Inner Sanctum origins of this film and the series that followed. Those old radio half-hours emphasized the mysterious and the darkly psychological and were nearly always entertaining. (In fact, I think the origins of post-war noir lie as much in these radio shows as they do in the better-known movie precursors.) Fortunately, this series, like its radio namesake, trades on the offbeat and chilling, and though these programmers fail to reach the memorable level of Columbia's comparable Whistler entries, the Inner Sanctum movies have their own virtues and are worth catching up with.This first entry doesn't really grab until the last 15 minutes or so. Then it takes off with a surprise ending and especially with the surreal dream sequence. There's one got'cha in the sequence that shows real imagination. Yes, the storyline doesn't always make sense and I'm still puzzled by some of the relationships. Then too, looks to me like Chaney's not too interested in his part as the psychologist. Catch that one confrontational scene with faithless wife Maria (Ames) where both deliver their lines like they've been woodenly memorized. Nonetheless, Ames is drop-dead gorgeous in her high-fashion gown circa 1943, while Morison (nurse Stella) has the most fetching over-bite this side of Gene Tierney. All in all, this hour of intrigue is spotty but does show promise for future entries. (In passing—those Chaney voice-overs conveying his private thoughts are a carry- over from radio where they were necessary to prevent "dead air.")