Inner Sanctum

2509. INNER SANCTUM (1948-USA). With MARY BETH HUGHES, LEE PATRICK, ROSCOE ATES. This tense film noir tale focuses on the efforts of a killer to escape his destiny. Strangely, it has no connection with the famous radio thriller of the same name. The guilty party calls himself Harold Dunlap. He has just murdered his wife by stabbing her through the heart with a long, sharp nail file. The scene of this ghastly crime is a small-town train station on a rainy night. There is one witness. He is a mischievous tow-headed adolescent named Mike who likes to hang around and watch the trains. Mike thinks the dead body he sees Harold throw onto the back of a train is just a heavy package. Still, Harold is convinced he will have to kill the boy to insure that nobody will identify him. In the community where the crime takes place, a flood is raging. The roads are washed out and the bridge is down. In spite of the fact that word is out about the murder, Harold is unable to escape. He spends the night at the boarding house where Mike and his mother live. There, Harold meets a beautiful and knowing woman named Jean. She is the kind of woman who always goes for the wrong man and so, despite her misgivings, she falls hard for Harold even though he is a desperate fugitiveÑa murderer who just may kill again. 52 minutes Crime Mystery Suspense