Dead Man's Eyes (1944)

Sick Product of a Sick System

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Awesome Movie

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

'Dead Man's Eyes' is an old Lon Chaney Jr Inner Sanctum mystery film that practically reviews it's self. These Inner Sanctum films were really the hokiest of B movie film noirs but anyone who is a fan of Universal can't condemn them. You'll notice I'm reviewing this film in an almost plural fashion and it is because all six or so of these films are all pretty much the same movie. Chaney Jr always starred in an odd murder mystery and is the object of obsession between two B movie starlets in a love triangle. It pretty much never changed and 'Dead Man's Eyes' is no exception. The nuances aren't all that interesting. 'Dead Man's Eyes' has Chaney blinded by an accident and really it doesn't matter. I just love Lon Chaney Jr too much to really trash a movie were he is the lead. And even if they are hokey they are hokey in a consistently entertaining fashion. They are the kind of film noirs that believe and put so much energy in their clichés that you feel you get your money's worth. And really with Chaney Jr in the lead you are getting significantly more than you would from any other boring handsome stock player Universal probably would have casted.

The Inner Sanctum mysteries afforded Lon Chaney the chance to stretch his acting chops, sans heavy monster makeup and "Dead Man's Eyes" may be the best of the lot, along with "Strange Confession".Chaney is a struggling artist who one day accidentally washes his eyes with acid, blinding him & leading to his prospective father-in-law drawing up an agreement that upon his death, his eyes should be used for an operation to restore Chaney's sight. Of course, the old man ends up getting murdered, leading to a pretty involving whodunit as Chaney & the police try to solve the mystery of Dad Hayden's murder.I don't know if the Inner Sanctum mysteries get much respect from critics, but I found most of them to be very engaging & this was definitely one of the better ones. I'm a big fan of Lon Chaney Jr., I think he deserves to be put up there with the all-time greats of horror, Karloff, Lugosi, Price. At barely over an hour, Dead Man's Eyes is an entertaining mystery.

So what's so scary about a corneal transplant. Maybe if they had shown the eyes in a bottle or some of the surgery, there might be a shudder or two. Instead, we get close-ups of Chaney's bleary-eyed squint, which is sort of scary in itself. This is a tepid Inner Sanctum entry, at best, more of a whodunit than a Chaney horror exercise. The plot is somewhat offbeat—can accidentally blinded artist Dave Stuart (Chaney) see well enough to be a killer, and if not, then who did murder two people. The only suspense is a routine one of finding the culprit. Then too, the damning piece of evidence strikes me as pretty far-fetched. I wish there were a memorable scene or some catchy dialog to recommend here, but there really isn't. Perhaps the most notable feature is Paul Kelly's (Alan) really authoritative head doctor. He's totally credible. On the other hand, for fans of truly inept acting, there's Acquanetta (Tanya) whose dialog delivery is at times almost painful. Actually, I blame the studio for pushing her into a speaking role she was so clearly unprepared for. All in all, the offbeat premise has more potential than the rather cheap and clumsy treatment it gets here. Too bad.

While the plot of this third "Inner Sanctum" film is, in itself, intriguing - and certainly provides plenty of possible suspects - the handling is rather stiff, with too much talk and little real suspense!Once again, Chaney is the talented object of desire(!) - a painter - torn between society woman Jean Parker and exotic model Acquanetta; he really loves the former but, when he's rendered blind in an accident, he decides to let her go and accepts the latter's care (she being the unwitting cause of his precarious condition!). Paul Kelly has a good role as Chaney's best friend and secret (but unrequited) admirer of Acquanetta.Parker's elderly father opts to have his eyes transplanted after his death so, when he ends up murdered, police detective Thomas Gomez turns up to root out the guilty party; the denouement, then, is pretty convoluted but not very exciting. While the quality of this series has steadily deteriorated so far from one entry to the next (though the films are never boring and mercifully short), I still look forward to the remaining three installments...