Director: Reginald Le Borg
Writer: Dwight V. Babcock
Stars: Lon Chaney Jr., Jean Parker, Paul Kelly
Run Time: 1 Hour, 4 Minutes
Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/2Rne33c
Synopsis
We are once again welcomed to the Inner Sanctum by a mysterious head in a crystal ball, just as we were with “Calling Dr. Death” This is the third film in that series. The head says something creepy that has no real bearing on anything, and we quickly move into the credits.
Lon Chaney is Dave, an artist, and we see him painting a very realistic portrait of Tanya. His girlfriend, Heather will be arriving in a minute. We see him pour some boric acid on little pads and cover his eyes with them. This was a thing that people used to do to provide relief for sore eyes. He then wipes his face and lets Heather in. They’re going to have dinner with her father, who is very rich. Tanya comes in, and she’s clearly jealous of Heather. Still, she’s a good model, and Dave expects this painting will make his career take off.
We see Tanya pulling the bottles out of the cupboard to reach the gloves in the back. She then places the bottles back on the shelf. Alan comes to visit Dan. Meanwhile, Nick comes to visit Heather, and he’s very jealous of Dave. Dan rubs his eyes and then pours the bottle on the pads just like the previous evening, only this time, he uses the acetic acid, which burns his eyes out. He’s blind!
“His mental state will not be good for a while,” says the doctor. Tanya admits she switched the bottles by accident, and Heather’s father is very angry. Alan the psychiatrist is there as well.
The doctor suggests a new procedure called a corneal transplant. There’s a slim chance it could work for Dave. Where do these eyes come from? A dead man. Dave sits alone and laments that his painting career is over. He tries to break it off with Heather by explaining that he’s in love with Tanya. Heather blames Tanya for the accident, but Dave says it was just an accident.
Heather’s father, Dad Hayden, stops by. He’s old, and he says he’s made arrangements with his lawyer to give Dave his eyes when he dies. Dave doesn’t like the idea. Tanya comes in, but Dave isn’t really interested in her. Tonya calls Alan for help. Alan explains that he loves Tanya, but she wants Dave. As long as Dave is blind, he’ll never go back to Heather.
Dave feels bad about how he treated old man Hayden. He tells Alan that he’ll go over there and make up with him tonight. Dave realizes then that if dad Hayden dies, he has a chance of seeing again. Meanwhile, Nick proposes to Heather, but she’s still in love with Dave too.
Heather dumps Nick and heads home. She finds Dave there, and he says he found dad Hayden’s body. Heather thinks Dave did it, and he’s arrested for murder.
They still plan to go ahead with the operation, since Dave hasn’t been convicted yet. Alan doesn’t believe Dave is guilty. The doctor is picking up the eyes at the morgue, and Tanya steals them out of his car. Alan confronts her, and she gives the eyes back. Will the “Dead Man’s Eyes” restore Dave’s vision?
It’s all very dramatic as the doctor cuts the bandages off of Dave’s eyes. He still can’t see, but the doctor tells him to give it some time. It turns out the police have arrested Nick for the murder, so there’s some doubt about Dave’s guilt.
He finds a nail in his pocket that he remembers picking up from the floor near the body. Detective Drury comes by asking about Tanya. Dad Hayden didn’t like Tanya much, could she have killed him? He thinks Tanya likes that Dave is dependent on her. He knows Tanya briefly stole the eyes.
Dave now suspects Tanya of something. He knows she’s been spying on him. He shows her the nail. She gets upset and storms out. Nick catches Alan and Tanya having dinner together. Tanya calls Heather on the phone to tell who killed her father. She almost explains it all, but she’s killed before she can reveal it.
Drury explains what happened to Dave, and he notices something funny about the painting of Tanya. Drury thinks Dave can see.
Alan confronts Nick, accusing him, but Nick denies it all. Dave goes to see Heather and ends up fighting with Nick in the dark. Nick swears Dave can see. He caught Dave going through old man Hayden’s cane rack.
Dave, on the other hand, accuses Alan of murder. Dave shows him the nail, which was missing from the head of Alan’s walking stick. Alan beat Hayden to death with that stick. Alan wanted Tonya, but Tonya was obsessed with Dave. Unless Dave could see, Alan would never get Tonya. Alan admits it all, and attacks Dave, who reveals that he can see now. Drury comes in and arrests him. Dave and Heather live happily ever after.
Commentary
I didn’t really notice it for “Calling Dr. Death,” but both these movies feel a lot like a made-for-TV movie. Just a handful of sets and no outdoor scenes.
The basic plot structure was surprisingly similar to Doctor Death, just with a few alterations. It had several of the exact same story beats and twists, just with a blind painter instead of a hypnotized doctor. Both films were done by the same director, albeit they did have different writers.
There were no real hints or foreshadowing so that we could know who did it other than process by elimination. It wasn’t much of a whodunit either, it was just a matter of watching the story unfold.