Director:
Norman Lee
Year: 1940
Rating: 5.5
Year: 1940
Rating: 5.5
Aka - The Door with Seven Locks
This is based on an Edgar Wallace novel that he also produced as well. It doesn't have much spark to it as the pacing is at times very slow and a few of the side characters are a bit dimwitted and irritating. But it is saved by the good chemistry between the two main characters and a fine collection of villains. How much sense it makes is questionable. Lord Selford is on his death bed surrounded by his servants and his lawyer. He tells them all that when he falls asleep tonight it will be his last. He is an old man and his time his come. He is 55. What the hell. I wish I was 55 again. He has left everything to his ten year old son and tells his lawyer that he knows his son will be in good hands and that his staff can be trusted. Ha! Little does he know. He also has the family jewels put into his burial vault and the seven keys needed to open it given to each of them.
Ten years later one of them nearing death wants to come clean and sends a letter to June who has been living in Canada and who is next in line if the boy dies. In one of those slick moves, she comes to see him in a nursing home but before he can tell her much he is shot from a secret opening, she rushes out to tell the head nurse and when they come back the body is gone. June is played by Lilli Palmer and I never would have recognized her in years. Blonde hair and much younger than I am used to seeing her. She had left Germany a few years earlier to escape Hitler as she was Jewish.
She goes to Scotland Yard and Dick Martin who has just resigned decides to get involved. No need to guess why. Lilli looks great. He is played by Romilly Lunge who I have never heard of but he is excellent in that low-key British heroic way. They have to go to the home of the late Lord, with all the same crew of servants still there. It is a creepy old house with a torture room, weird servants (one looking like Lurch), a few more killings, a mystery, seven keys and a touch of romance. Just not much sizzle and certainly no horror. The Germans would have done a much better job with this during the Krimi years.
This is based on an Edgar Wallace novel that he also produced as well. It doesn't have much spark to it as the pacing is at times very slow and a few of the side characters are a bit dimwitted and irritating. But it is saved by the good chemistry between the two main characters and a fine collection of villains. How much sense it makes is questionable. Lord Selford is on his death bed surrounded by his servants and his lawyer. He tells them all that when he falls asleep tonight it will be his last. He is an old man and his time his come. He is 55. What the hell. I wish I was 55 again. He has left everything to his ten year old son and tells his lawyer that he knows his son will be in good hands and that his staff can be trusted. Ha! Little does he know. He also has the family jewels put into his burial vault and the seven keys needed to open it given to each of them.
Ten years later one of them nearing death wants to come clean and sends a letter to June who has been living in Canada and who is next in line if the boy dies. In one of those slick moves, she comes to see him in a nursing home but before he can tell her much he is shot from a secret opening, she rushes out to tell the head nurse and when they come back the body is gone. June is played by Lilli Palmer and I never would have recognized her in years. Blonde hair and much younger than I am used to seeing her. She had left Germany a few years earlier to escape Hitler as she was Jewish.
She goes to Scotland Yard and Dick Martin who has just resigned decides to get involved. No need to guess why. Lilli looks great. He is played by Romilly Lunge who I have never heard of but he is excellent in that low-key British heroic way. They have to go to the home of the late Lord, with all the same crew of servants still there. It is a creepy old house with a torture room, weird servants (one looking like Lurch), a few more killings, a mystery, seven keys and a touch of romance. Just not much sizzle and certainly no horror. The Germans would have done a much better job with this during the Krimi years.