Bored and restless on a lengthy train trip, a young woman listens to a mysterious passenger tell a tale of a murderer forced to hide out in the town where he committed the crime in this low budget film noir entry. The film features an alluring femme fatale, some great hard-boiled dialogue ("you're very pretty when your lips aren't moving") and some excellent tracking shots throughout various gardens at night. The movie has, however, attained a mixed reputation over the years and it is easy to see why. The tone is inconsistent with several borderline comedic scenes that subtract from the desperation and paranoia of a murderer on the run. Dale Belding is also awful as the sole witness to the murder: a teenager who lives at the bed and breakfast place where the murderer is forced to hide out. Between his silly trusting of strangers, shrill high pitched voice and constant yapping on about his overprotective mother, it actually reaches the point where one hopes that the protagonist succeeds in his plan to permanently silence the boy! Belding aside though, this is a fairly decent watch. The initially incongruous prologue actually fits in very well and the film concludes with surprising food for thought.
Review of Inner Sanctum
