| Strange Confession | |
| Director: | John Hoffman |
| Producer: | Ben Pivar |
| Story: | Jean Bart |
| Screenplay: | M. Coates Webster |
| Cinematography: | Maury Gertsman |
| Music: | Frank Skinner |
| Editing: | Russell F. Schoengarth |
| Studio: | Universal Pictures |
| Distributor: | Universal Pictures |
| Runtime: | 62 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Strange Confession is a 1945 noir-mystery horror film, and is the fifth installment in The Inner Sanctum Mysteries anthological film series, which was based on the popular radio series of the same name. Released by Universal Pictures and starring Lon Chaney Jr., J. Carrol Naish and Brenda Joyce; the movie was directed by John Hoffman and was later rereleased under the title The Missing Head.
Jeff Carter (Lon Chaney Jr.) is testing a vaccine for influenza. He is working for tycoon, Roger Graham (J. Carrol Naish), who takes the credit and the profit for Jeff's discovery. Roger cares more about profits than safety. Jeff resigns and is blacklisted by his boss.
Jeff heads to South America to perfect the formula. Graham has used this opportunity to release the drug and romance Jeff's attractive wife, Mary (Brenda Joyce). When Jeff hears that his son has died, he takes revenge.
Describing the film in TV Guide as "One of the stronger entries in Universal's Inner Sanctum series," critic Craig Butler wrote that it was "tidily entertaining" and "a solidly entertaining way to kill an hour."[1] Writing in DVD Talk, critic David Cornelius described the film as "twenty minutes of pretty good movie mixed with ten minutes of a pretty good movie of an entirely other kind, then spread across thirty more minutes of drabness."[2] Reviewer David Kalat wrote for Turner Classic Movies that unlike most B-movies, the film "tried to dramatize the problems of pharmaceutical companies rushing untested drugs to market - fewer still have dialogue like, 'He had my brain in his head and I had to get my brain back.'"[3]