INNER SANCTUM

US, 1948, 62 minutes, Black and white.
Charles Russell, Mary Beth Hughes, Dale Belding, Billy House, Fritz Leiber, Nana Bryant, Lee Patrick.
Directed by Lew Landers.

Inner Sanctum is a small B-budget supporting feature from the late 40s. It is the kind of material that would be on television fairly quickly, and foreshadowing some of the series like Twilight Zone with the sense of the mysterious and the eerie.

A woman listens to a story told to her by a mysterious doctor who is able to tell the time without looking at a watch, is able to say what is going to happen to a train, and tells a story to the woman about a murder. She listens with interest. The film then is mainly a flashback where a young man, played by Charles Russell, murders a young woman at a railway station and dumps her body on the carriage of a train. He is seen by a curious young boy. The river is up, the man cannot get out of the town, is offered a lift by the editor reporter of the local paper. He also recommends a boarding house – where the young boy in fact lives.

The film focuses on the quandaries of the murderer, making himself at home in the house, seeing the boy, trying to befriend him, persuade him that he didn’t see anything, ultimately trying to kill him. There is an attractive blonde in the house who makes a line for him. He plays along – but she guesses what has happened. In the meantime, the mother of the boy is concerned about his continually running away. Everything is presided over by the kind Mrs Mitchell who runs the house, with various boarders (who have an interest in drink).

There are some homely touches, some comic touches.

However, the film focuses on what the man is going to do, his propensity for violence, his pretending to be injured, pursuing the young boy in the dark. Eventually he is exposed – and he and the blonde discuss what he is to do. He says he is tired of running – and decides to wait for the police.

Meanwhile, on the train, the young woman listens to the story with interest. The mysterious doctor tells her not to get off the train. She sees her husband, rushes off the train, and the murder actually happens. And the film ends.

It is an interesting story in itself, the focus on the guilty man and how he handles the situation – plus the added interest of the Twilight Zone sense of prophecy.