And now we end the Universal portion of the month with the next to last Inner Sanctum Mystery. Based on the film the Man Who Reclaimed His Head, how would Lon Chaney handle this version?
We open with chemist Jeff Carter (Chaney) rushing into the home of his old friend Brandon (Wilton Graff) in the middle of the night. Brandon's a lawyer, and Carter is in dire need of one. Brandon, tired and not caring for his friend's manner or the satchel he's waving around, demands a reason for all this. He's very busy and he doubts he'll have room for another client at the moment.
Oh, but he will, Carter implores, as he opens the satchel and pulls out a severed human head...
From there we go into a flashback. The head, when it was attached to something, belonged to Robert Graham (J. Carrol Naish), Carter's former boss. Graham was the head (no pun intended) of Graham Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company making money hand over fist all in thanks to the genius of Graham, or at least that's what the public thinks. In truth Carter is the one making all the headway, but Graham takes all the money and credit. Which suits Carter just fine as he likes to focus on his work. What use has he of fame and fortune?
He spends most of his working hours on a new flu vaccine, one he's sure will work but he needs to perfect it before he can even think of presenting it to the public. Graham really doesn't care about perfection, if the drug at least has a fancy name they can slap on a pill bottle that's good enough for him. Carter finds a spine though, and walks out. Graham blacklists him from every drug company in the area, but Carter simply goes to a work as a local pharmacist and works on the formula in his spare time.
Carter's wife, Mary (Brenda Joyce), on the other hand, is less than pleased at her husband's ethics. A year later, Graham comes crawling back to Carter, since without him no actual work is being done. Carter almost refuses, but he's promised a full lab and total freedom. Graham even invites the Carter to a fancy dinner at his home, but this is mostly a ruse so Graham's lackey Stevens (Milton Stone) can go through Carter's lab. Carter may not feel that the formula is ready for the public, but Graham does, so when Carter tells his boss that he thinks he can finally crack the formula with a newly discovered fungus in South America, Graham has no issue with sending him down there for however long it takes. Besides, Graham figures, Mary is going to be awfully lonely, so why not comfort her as best he can?
So, with Carter in the jungle and Graham in the sheets, things seem more or less fine, until Carter's son takes ill with the flu. Mary, going by the ads Graham's been pushing on the public, gives the sickly boy the newly released Zymurgine...which does nothing save for possibly hastening the boy's death. When word reaches Carter, well, we remember the beginning of the film, right?
Naish is easily the best thing about the film. Graham is both genteel and utterly without morals, but plays him to the hilt. He does his best with the material and the film is all the better for it.
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