Tragedy befalls a brilliant chemist, Jeff Carter (Lon Chaney Jr), when his employer, a crafty pharmaceutical marketer, Roger Graham (J. Carrol Naish), steals the scientist's imperfect formula and begins to market the drug before it is fully tested and proved through experimentation. The "strange confession" of the title is the backstory presented by Carter to a renowned district attorney Jeff knew from school, wanting to provide reasons why he has a certain something in a doctor's bag. Carter had worked for Graham, knew his boss was always quick to rush product to the market despite the proper protocols needed to make sure drugs were safe, resigning from the job out of discomfort for his mistreatment. Graham, out of pure meanness, uses his clout to keep Carter from getting work elsewhere, soon returning to the chemist when other scientists he hired failed to deliver results. Because he had to resort to working as a pharmacist in a drug store, Jeff's family live in a cheap boardinghouse, with a small laboratory in the corner of a tiny bathroom. Under pressure from wife Mary (Brenda Joyce) to accept Graham's offer to return to work for him under better conditions, Jeff's status, financially, changes but there are repercussions he couldn't possibly foresee.
Naish is spot-on as the treacherous scoundrel after Chaney's lovely wife, so despicable in how he uses another man's genius to profit substantially, even stealing the scientist's notes so he can quickly market a drug that isn't ready for distribution. Graham's shipping off Jeff to South America to find a particular mold needed as the final ingredient important in successfully creating a "miracle drug" just so he can get chummy with Mary while the hubby is far away, Naish is developed as the perfectly conniving heel, more concerned with financial rewards (and phony public praise for a drug he takes credit for) than having a viable cure for diseases. The tragic consequences, based solely on greed and lust, which affect the Carter family set up Chaney's chemist as quite the sympathetic victim. You'd be hard-pressed not to want Jeff to skin Graham's hide due to the boss' underhanded antics. While Chaney is considered the star of "Strange Confession", this is really Naish's film. The opening is wonderfully puzzling and the shocking conclusion, when Carter gets his revenge, adds a potency that caps off this quality entry in the Inner Sanctum Mysteries series. One of the few films which actually features Chaney as a "Leave It to Beaver" family man, only for this bliss to be shattered by a no-good sonofabitch.
Interesting how the missus is actually the true source for the Carter family's downward slide, mainly because she expresses her dismay with living under less-than-desirable conditions, urging her husband to return to work with a proved crook/charlatan so that she could have the "finer things". A young Lloyd Bridges is Carter's assistant, Dave Curtis, quite charming and handsome. This, I'd have to say, is the most different from the other films in the series.
Naish is spot-on as the treacherous scoundrel after Chaney's lovely wife, so despicable in how he uses another man's genius to profit substantially, even stealing the scientist's notes so he can quickly market a drug that isn't ready for distribution. Graham's shipping off Jeff to South America to find a particular mold needed as the final ingredient important in successfully creating a "miracle drug" just so he can get chummy with Mary while the hubby is far away, Naish is developed as the perfectly conniving heel, more concerned with financial rewards (and phony public praise for a drug he takes credit for) than having a viable cure for diseases. The tragic consequences, based solely on greed and lust, which affect the Carter family set up Chaney's chemist as quite the sympathetic victim. You'd be hard-pressed not to want Jeff to skin Graham's hide due to the boss' underhanded antics. While Chaney is considered the star of "Strange Confession", this is really Naish's film. The opening is wonderfully puzzling and the shocking conclusion, when Carter gets his revenge, adds a potency that caps off this quality entry in the Inner Sanctum Mysteries series. One of the few films which actually features Chaney as a "Leave It to Beaver" family man, only for this bliss to be shattered by a no-good sonofabitch.
Interesting how the missus is actually the true source for the Carter family's downward slide, mainly because she expresses her dismay with living under less-than-desirable conditions, urging her husband to return to work with a proved crook/charlatan so that she could have the "finer things". A young Lloyd Bridges is Carter's assistant, Dave Curtis, quite charming and handsome. This, I'd have to say, is the most different from the other films in the series.