The Frozen Ghost (1945)

The Frozen Ghost: Directed by Harold Young. With Lon Chaney Jr., Evelyn Ankers, Milburn Stone, Douglass Dumbrille. A stage mentalist involved in a mysterious death and a discredited plastic surgeon are among the assorted characters involved in mysterious goings-on in an eerie wax museum.

“This was the fourth film in Universalu0026#39;s u0026quot;Inner Sanctumu0026quot; 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 featureu0026#39;s got a competent cast and a few scattered good ideas, but theyu0026#39;re only half-baked and just donu0026#39;t rise in the oven.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLon Chaney plays Alex Gregor, a stage hypnotist who reads peopleu0026#39;s minds along with the aid of his female assistant and romantic interest, Maura (Evelyn Ankers again). During one of their live clairvoyant acts, u0026quot;Gregor the Greatu0026quot; (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. Thereu0026#39;s no better way to relax from your troubles than a nice stay at a friendu0026#39;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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThat 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 houru0026#39;s running length of this thoroughly average snoozer. Chaney goes through his basic motions once again, and with Harold Young now directing there isnu0026#39;t as much suspense or intrigue as the previous installments managed to cook up under LeBorg. Milburn Stone is pretty good as Gregoru0026#39;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, itu0026#39;s Martin Kosleck who gets a raw deal as an effectively menacing, knife-wielding stalker. Itu0026#39;s just another case where poor Kosleck, perhaps the best thing in the whole picture, gets buried inside yet another of Universalu0026#39;s more mediocre movies. ** out of ****”