PILLOW OF DEATH isn't actually a horror movie but it is horrifically bad. The kind of film that's so bad it can put a serious dent in an actor's reputation if they have one to dent. Which is where Chaney was lucky. He'd already made five of these Inner Sanctum cheapies in very quick succession by the time the cameras rolled on this final installment so expectations were pretty low all around.
The studio had clearly run out of enthusiasm and inspiration by this point - they'd even given up on the distorted head in a glass bowl introducing the story - and there's an obvious lack of commitment by everyone involved. The script is beyond ridiculous in its contrived implausibility, and no one in the cast seems able to summon up the energy to even try to give their best.
Chaney moves in slow motion for much of the story, failing to react as any normal human being would to the sight of his murdered wife, or a scream in the night, or the discovery that his dead wife's body is now missing from her coffin. He even has trouble finding the second floor in the big old house when he's on the first floor and standing directly in front of the staircase.Brenda Joyce as his love interest is so cold and unaffectionate that I was amazed to discover she wasn't the murderer, and it's a little sad to see Dorothy's Auntie Em from 'The Wizard of Oz' - veteran actress Clara Blandick - in the thankless role of a harridan aunt whose sole purpose is to be smothered by the titular pillow.
On the plus side, much of the slow moving action takes place in a sumptuously designed and decorated grand old house set obviously built for a more prestigious production recently shot on the Universal lot. It's the only classy element in the entire film.
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