Calling Dr. Death (1943)

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Calling Dr. Death is a 1943 mystery film, and the first installment in The Inner Sanctum Mysteries anthological film series, which was based on the popular radio series of the same name, the film stars Chaney Jr. and Patricia Morison, and was directed by Reginald LeBorg. Chaney Jr. plays a neurologist, Dr. Mark Steele, who loses memory of the past few days after learning that his wife has been brutally murdered. Aware of his wife's infidelity and believing he could be the killer, Steele asks his office nurse Stella Madden to help him recover his lost memories.

Production

Calling Dr. Death was the first film in the "Inner Sanctum Mystery" series. In June 1943, Universal purchased the screen rights to the series from Simon and Schuster, Inc. who were publishers of the popular mystery novels and radio shows. Simon and Schuster were using the title Inner Sanctum for their series of mystery novels they had published starting in the 1930s.

Lon Chaney Jr. was hopeful for the series, craving diversity in his roles after Universal had placed him in various monster roles in their horror films. Pivar planned to produce two Inner Sanctum mystery films a year with each film featuring Chaney and Gale Sondergaard in the lead roles.

Just before filming was set to begin, Sondergaard was dropped from the cast and her role was rewritten and given to Patricia Morison. LeBorg speculated that Sondergaard was dropped from the film as "she was a leftist and she and her husband [Herbert J. Biberman] were shooting their mouths off quite often." Calling Dr. Death went into production on October 25, 1943, and was finished filming in 20 days.

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