Michael O'Keefe One of the better Inner Sanctum Mysteries, THE FROZEN GHOST is directed by Harold Young and stars Lon Chaney Jr. A famous radio hypnotist Alex Gregor (Chaney) is guilt ridden after an audience member dies accidentally during a broadcast. Gregor "The Great" is so despondent he breaks off his engagement to his assistant Maura (Evelyn Ankers) and refuses to perform again. His business manager George Keane (Milburn Stone) gets him a small job with a wax museum. A mentally unstable sculptor Rudi (Martin Kosleck) becomes jealous of Alex and the attention he gets from the museum's owner Valarie Monet (Tala Birell) and her niece Nina (Elena Verdugo). When Mme. Monet disappears, Gregor desperately walks away and Rudi castes suspicion. Miss Maura appears to champion her former love. Douglass Dumbrille rounds out the cast as Inspector Brant.

Rainey Dawn The Frozen Ghost (1945) is the fourth of six Inner Sanctum films starring Lon Chaney, Jr. Alex Gregor 'the Great' is a stage mentalist. He and his stage assistant and fiancée Maura Daniel preformed a hypnotism act on stage. A member of the audience begins to heckle Alex. Alex invites him to be hypnotized to prove that he is not a fake - Alex then hypnotizes him on stage in front of an audience and the man dies. Alex is sure he killed the man with his eyes! The doctor says the man died of natural causes but Alex becomes obsessed with the notion that he possesses the literal power of "looks that kill". Can Alex kill by looking at someone and willing them to die? Or is just believing in hocus pocus nonsense? Pretty good movie if you like films on wax museums, mesmerism, mysteries and the Hollywood classics.7/10

dougdoepke After a promising start with Calling Dr. Death (1943), Universal's Inner Sanctum series hits near bottom with this turkey. Mentalist Gregor (Chaney) uses his hypnotic powers to read minds, which makes for a good stage act until he goes bonkers over a subject's accidental death. From then on events pile up in no particular order or reason. The only requirement appears that whatever the four writers come up with, it has to happen inside the cheesy wax museum where notorious villains of the past slouch around like department store manikins. I guess they're supposed to be scary. But that's hard to tell since director Young appears to have no discernible purpose in what he puts on-screen. The final product plays like it's assembled from 5-dollar odds and ends inside a single tacky set.And that's too bad, because it's a waste of an outstanding supporting cast-- Dumbrille and Kosleck, Ankers and Birell. One thing about this series—it sure has its share of classy dames. However, part of the series' problem is a miscast Chaney. His hulking frame is not exactly the dress-up, lover-boy type. Yet his role in the series has him playing intellectual, irresistible types from one entry to the next. No doubt the studio was hoping to promote the films with his Wolf Man reputation. Also, note that he's not appearing with any body make-up as he does in so many of his other horror features. I wouldn't be surprised he had that written into his contract, maybe in hopes of elevating his career out of the horror genre. As a result, the scariest thing he does here is stare into the camera for bleary-eyed close-ups. Thus, about the only reason to scope out this disappointing 60-minutes is to catch Chaney in a Clark Gable moustache.

JoeKarlosi This was the fourth film in Universal's "Inner Sanctum" series and the first one not to be directed by Reginald LeBorg, which could be only one of the reasons that THE FROZEN GHOST, aside from having a terrific title, scores way down low as the least satisfying of these six modest melodramas. This feature's got a competent cast and a few scattered good ideas, but they're only half-baked and just don't rise in the oven.Lon Chaney plays Alex Gregor, a stage hypnotist who reads people's minds along with the aid of his female assistant and romantic interest, Maura (Evelyn Ankers again). During one of their live clairvoyant acts, "Gregor the Great" (ha!) tries to hypnotize a man from the audience and the subject collapses, stone cold dead. Now Alex thinks he killed the man with his mind and the inner turmoil he feels makes him ripe for a breakdown. There's no better way to relax from your troubles than a nice stay at a friend's wax museum, so Gregor takes up an offer to do just that for awhile. Once he arrives amongst the mannequins, he finds he still retains the power to kill with his eyes, as strange goings-on ensue.That brief description sounds more interesting than it turns out, because this is a wasted opportunity to utilize a wax museum backdrop for the one and only time in a Universal horror film. Nothing really happens for the hour's running length of this thoroughly average snoozer. Chaney goes through his basic motions once again, and with Harold Young now directing there isn't as much suspense or intrigue as the previous installments managed to cook up under LeBorg. Milburn Stone is pretty good as Gregor's business manager, and pretty Elena Verdugo (the gypsy girl from HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN) is on hand as the darling niece of the museum owner. But once again, it's Martin Kosleck who gets a raw deal as an effectively menacing, knife-wielding stalker. It's just another case where poor Kosleck, perhaps the best thing in the whole picture, gets buried inside yet another of Universal's more mediocre movies. ** out of ****