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Tuesday, April 11, 2017

The Door With Seven Locks (aka Chamber Of Horrors) (1940)

A doctor (Leslie Banks) holds the seven keys to a crypt that contains the body of a Lord (Aubrey Mallalieu) who was buried with a fortune in jewels. But when one of the keys turns up missing, the girl (Lilli Palmer) who was given the stolen key by a murdered man (J.H. Roberts) is in terrible danger ..... but from whom? Based on the novel by Edgar Wallace and directed by Norman Lee. Even if you're a die hard fan of mysteries, this one creaks! It has an appealing heroine in the lovely Lilli Palmer and an oily villain in Banks (THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME) but it's saddled with an annoying pair of comedy relief in the form of Palmer's wisecracking Aunt (Gina Malo) in the kind of role Eve Arden excelled in and a sleep deprived policeman (Richard Bird) that aren't remotely amusing. But it does have a marvelous old mansion complete with a torture chamber and a creepy crypt courtesy of J. Charles Gilbert's art direction. The kind of movie that one might enjoy on a cold rainy afternoon. Unfortunately, it wasn't raining when I watched it. With Cathleen Nesbitt and as the romantic interest for Palmer, Romilly Lunge who retired from acting after this film at the age of 36.

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