Wordiezett So much average

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

writtenbymkm-583-902097 I said in another review that I reserve one star for movies so awful I couldn't finish watching them, but I have to make an exception for Pillow of Death. Spoiler alert, please do not read this review if you have not watched the movie because I am going to describe the ending, so you are warned. This movie sets up the viewer to cheer for Lon Chaney's lawyer character as well as his secretary, after he is accused of murdering his wife. The police in this movie seem obsessed with arresting and charging people with murder for almost no reason at all, and then immediately releasing them for lack of evidence, raising the obvious question of why they were arrested in the first place. Anyway, other murders follow, and the viewer is led to believe that someone is trying to frame Lon Chaney. An especially obnoxious, annoying, stupid jerk of a guy keeps popping up and sneaking around and trying to get Chaney's secretary romantically interested in him, and she constantly tells him to get lost. I thought maybe this jerk was a "red herring," then after a while I thought maybe he was actually the murderer. My prime suspect was the fake medium, who also seemed intensely interested in using his supernatural hocus-pocus to prove Chaney guilty. Near the end of the movie I was sure of three things. One, Chaney was innocent. Two, Chaney and his secretary would wind up happily together. Three, the real murderer would at last be exposed (along with superstition), and justice would prevail. In case you missed my earlier warning, stop reading now unless you have seen the movie, spoiler ahead. I was wrong. In one of the most absurd endings to a "murder mystery" I have ever seen, Chaney turns out to be not only guilty, but also a raving lunatic. That's right, his only motive is that he is insane. And if that were not enough, his secretary, who seemed to love him and believe in him, immediately winds up with the stupid annoying little jerk who has chased her and enraged her. Give me a break. Now I know why that weird guy who was the talking Inner Sanctum head in the first five was absent from this one -- he was embarrassed to be associated with it! One star, but my actual rating would be about minus 100.

Rainey Dawn This is super good whodunit for those who have not seen it. The film will keep you changing your mind on who you think the murderer is up until the very end. If you like trying to solve a mystery then you might like this film. It has some cute moments and leaves you in suspense for most all of the movie.Someone killed Wayne Fletcher's (Lon Chaney Jr) wife - but who and why? Wayne is in love with Donna Kincaid (Brenda Joyce) she is in love with him. Bruce Malone (Bernard Thomas) is in love with Donna but Donna only likes him as her friend. So you have a strange love triangle going on in the film.Donna comes from a family with money. Her family has hired a medium Julian Julian to find the ghost in their home. Ironically, Wayne's wife was talking to the same medium before her death.Between the money, love triangle and the spirits in the home this sets up a strange but good whodunit story that is quite fun to watch.9/10

Michael_Elliott Pillow of Death (1945) * 1/2 (out of 4) Final installment in the Inner Sanctum series has a lawyer (Lon Chaney, Jr.) suspected of murdering his wife. After her death he gets involved with a group of psychics. This film, even at 61-minutes, dragged along and bored the hell out of me from the start. Chaney is very bland here as are the supporting characters. The story really isn't too interesting and all the spiritual stuff comes off silly.This is certainly the worst in the series but you can now view all six films via Universal's DVD collection.

bsmith5552 "Pillow of Death" was the sixth and final film of Universal's "Inner Sanctum" series based on the popular radio series of the day and starring Lon Chaney Jr.Lawyer Wayne Fletcher (Chaney) and his attractive secretary Donna Kincaid (Brenda Joyce) return to Donna's home after working late one night. Fletcher promises her that he is going to talk to his wife that night about a divorce so that he and Donna can be together.Fletcher returns home to learn that his wife has been murdered and is greeted by Police Captain McCracken (Wilton Graff) and his wife's psychic Julian Julian (J. Edward Bromberg). McCracken immediately suspects Fletcher and arrests him. Next he goes to the Kincaid house, a creepy old mansion, to question the family.Among those questioned are Belle Kincaid (Clara Blandick), her brother Sam (George Cleveland), an English relative Amelia Kincaid (Rosiland Ivan) and Donna. McCracken discovers a neighbor, Bruce Malone (Bernard B. Thomas) peeping through a window and brings him in for questioning. Julian arrives and is also under suspicion.Fletcher is released for lack of evidence and he and Donna try to identify the killer. Julian later holds a séance where the voice of Fletcher's wife is apparently heard. Strange noises emanate from the attic of the old house. Secret panels are revealed. Suddenly other murders begin to take place. Finally, the murderer is discovered to be.............. And I'll bet you'll never guess what the murder weapon turns out to be.For Chaney, this film marked the end of his Universal contract. He would appear in two more films for them, "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948) and "The Black Castle" (1952). Over the period 1941-45 Chaney managed to appear as all four of the Universal monsters (Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, The Wolfman and The Mummy) as well as, in several other films and serials. They never really developed the promise he showed in "Of Mice and Men" (1939) and was effectively type cast for the rest of his career.The "Inner Sanctum" series (1943-45) at least gave him a chance to star in his own series, playing a different character in each film. The series, although a low budget "B" series was nonetheless an entertaining six mysteries and served to further display Chaney's talent.Brenda Joyce is probably best remembered as "Jane" in the RKO "Tarzan" films with Johnny Weissmuller produced between 1943-48. Watch for old timer J. Farrell MacDonald as the cemetery Sexton.Arguably the best of the six "Inner Sanctum" mysteries.