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The Door with Seven Locks is a 1940 British horror film, created and released shortly after the British Board of Film Censors lifted its mid-1930s ban on supernatural-themed and horror genre films. It was based on the 1926 novel The Door with Seven Locks by Edgar Wallace. Released in the United States by Monogram Pictures under the title Chamber of Horrors, it was the second Wallace film adaptation to arrive in the United States, the first being The Dark Eyes of London (called The Human Monster in the US),[1] starring Béla Lugosi, which had been released the year before.

The Door with Seven Locks
Film poster with the US title
Directed by	Norman Lee
Screenplay by	John Argyle Gilbert Gunn Norman Lee
Based on	The Door with Seven Locks by Edgar Wallace
Produced by	John Argyle
Starring	Leslie Banks Lilli Palmer Romilly Lunge Gina Malo
Cinematography	Alex Bryce Ernest Palmer
Edited by	E.G. Richards
Music by	Guy Jones
Production company	John Argyle Productions
Distributed by	Pathé Pictures (UK)
Release dates	12 October 1940 (1940-10-12) (UK) 20 December 1940 (1940-12-20) (US)
Running time	89 minutes (UK) 79 minutes (US)
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Plot synopsis

A wealthy lord dies and is entombed with a valuable deposit of jewels. Seven keys are required to unlock the tomb and get hold of the treasure. A series of mysterious events causes the keys to be scattered, and when trying to unravel the circumstances, the heiress of the fortune and her companion investigators become entangled in a web of fraud, deceit, torture, and murder.

It develops that the family physician Dr.Manetta(Leslie Banks) is not entirely trustworthy.With the family chauffeur(a forger on the run) and the deaf-mute butler(Montgomery) on his team;he murders two servants and the family lawyer Havelock(Horne) while searching for the missing keys.

When Palmer arrives at the estate,the crooked servants lock her in Lord Selford's tomb before she can make her presence known. A pet monkey finds the key and releases her(one of several good deed the animal performs).

SUspicion about Dr.Manetta grows when it is discovered he idolizes Spanish Inquisition mastermind TORQUEMADA,and keeps a secret torture chamber in the basement.While attempting to avoid arrest,Manetta is trapped inside an automatic spiked mummy case. The authorities reluctantly rescue him.

Manetta makes a confession and then commits suicide by poison.He is proud that he killed himself using a goblet once owned by Lucretia Borgia.

The missing keys are found inside the tomb of Lord Selford--the one place Manetta didn't search because he didn't want to call attention to Palmer being held captive there

Cast

• Leslie Banks as Dr. Manetta
• Lilli Palmer as June Lansdowne
• Romilly Lunge as Dick Martin
• Gina Malo as Glenda Baker
• David Horne as Edward Havelock
• Richard Bird as Inspector Sneed
• Cathleen Nesbitt as Ann Cody
• JH Roberts as Luis Silva
• Aubrey Mallalieu as Lord Charles Francis Selford
• Harry Hutchinson as Bevan Cody
• Ross Landon as John Selford
• Phil Ray as Tom Cawler
• Robert Montgomery as Craig the Butler

See also

• The Door with Seven Locks (1962)

References

External links

• The Door with Seven Locks at the British Film Institute
• The Door with Seven Locks at the British Board of Film Classification
• The Door with Seven Locks at IMDb
• The Door with Seven Locks at AllMovie
• The Door with Seven Locks at the TCM Movie Database

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