gridoon2018 "Strange Confession" may be a part of the "Inner Sanctum Mysteries" series, but it's really more of a tragedy than a mystery. It's well-made and polished, but also very slow and "civilized" and low-key; for most of its length any mystery or suspense elements are downplayed to the point of non-existence. And it's not that hard to guess what's inside the bag that Lon Chaney carries in the beginning which shocks the first man who sees it so much. Chaney continues to show his versatility in this series, by playing an entirely different character in each entry, much like Richard Dix in the concurrent "Whistler" series. As for Brenda Joyce, her role appears to be thankless for much of the running time, but she also has some powerful moments near the end. "Strange Confession" is worth seeing - but be forewarned about the genre it belongs to. **1/2 out of 4.

binapiraeus In the middle of the night, an obviously injured man enters the house of a well-known lawyer, explaining to him that he's his former schoolmate, chemist Jeff Carter, and showing him the contents of his large bag - which quite obviously HORRIFY the attorney. But he sits down and listens to Jeff's story, which he begins telling in a LONG flashback: Jeff, who's always been an altruist and wanting to do good to mankind with his work, is - as his colleagues as well as his wife tell him - the ideal 'object' for exploitation by his ruthless boss Graham, the head of a big pharmaceutics company. Graham takes Jeff's formulas, rushes them on to the market in order to make huge profits, and pays him peanuts for it - until one day, he wants to market Jeff's new 'miracle drug' for all kinds of diseases, although Jeff insists that it's not perfected yet and it would be irresponsible and dangerous to sell it as it is; Graham insists, and Jeff resigns.He gets work as an assistant at a drugstore; but that doesn't seem to please his pretty young wife Mary very much, because there his salary is even smaller than when he worked for reckless exploiter Graham - and then, one New Year's Eve, Graham comes to see Jeff in order to beg him to come back to the company; and meets Mary for the first time... Immediately, the scoundrel has got a scheme ready: he sends Jeff, who consents to work for him again, and his assistant Dave to South America, where, according to Jeff, the only missing ingredient for the 'miracle drug' can be found - and so he's got him out of the way for making love to Mary, and for copying his incomplete formula and marketing it in a big way. But THEN, just as Jeff and Dave have found the right formula, a big influenza epidemic breaks out back home, and people, including Jeff's little son Tommy, are being treated with Graham's useless 'medicine'...This is undoubtedly the heaviest, most dramatic and most cruel of the six "Inner Sanctum" movies - for it deals with one of the most cruel crimes: mass murder by false medication (a similar case as in "The Third Man"). And it shows the reckless capitalism and greed of those who 'play' with human lives in this way most drastically in the shape of Graham - we have to take our hats off to J. Carroll Naish for playing that skunk in such a convincing way that we actually HATE him to the core... And at the same time, the movie 'commits' a clear violation of the Production Code: 'The sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of the crime...' But see and judge for yourself...

MARIO GAUCI This is possibly the best of the "Inner Sanctums", though it's also not a typical one - being based on Jean Bart's impressive anti-war drama "The Man Who Reclaimed His Head" (already filmed by Universal in 1934 with Claude Rains; in retrospect, it's amusing to note that the remake starred the actor who had played Rains' son in THE WOLF MAN [1941]!). Still, even if the setting is effectively updated - the original had a pre-WWI backdrop - its dealing with the crooked marketing of an untried drug is not quite the same thing as the philosophical war-themed discussions which distinguished the play (and earlier film)! Again, we're supposed to believe Lon Chaney Jr. is something of a genius in his field - in this case, medical research - but he allows himself to be exploited by his unscrupulous boss J. Carrol Naish (who even has designs on his wife!). Chaney is typically flustered but Naish is an ideal villainous substitute for Lionel Atwill; Brenda Joyce, then, fills in for Joan Bennett as the heroine yearning for a fuller life but, ultimately, unwilling to sacrifice her domestic harmony to satisfy her own selfish ends.The pace is necessarily slow - there are no murders or detectives this time around - with Chaney recounting his tragic tale to a childhood friend, and the resolution rather skimps on the hero's particular 'crime' (which was certainly more explicit in the 1934 version, even if STRANGE CONFESSION itself was also known as THE MISSING HEAD!) - but, as I said, it's the most satisfying entry in the series (which, ironically enough, was the one to go unseen for decades due to a copyright dispute!).

preppy-3 Idealistic chemist Jeff Carter (Lon Chaney Jr.) has all his boss Roger Graham (J. Carrol Naish) take credit for all his discoveries. He doesn't care about the credit--he just wants to help humanity. But when Graham releases a drug that Carter discovered without Carter's approval tragedy results.Easily one of the best "Inner Sanctum" films. It's basically a remake of a 1934 Claude Rains' film called "The Man Who Reclaimed His Head". The original is better but this isn't bad. It's interesting to see Chaney playing a sympathetic, cheerful guy for once and doing a pretty good job. Naish is (as always) very good playing the evil boss. And Brenda Joyce has her moments as Chaney's wife. And it's fun to see Lloyd Bridges in an early role.This film really doesn't belong with the "Inner Sanctum" series--it's more of a drama until the very end. The film was low budget but looks just great--I assume they were shooting on sets of other movies. This was unavailable from the late 1940s to the early 1990s because of legal rights---but now it's out there and worth seeing. I give it a 6.No great shakes but not bad at all.