A Masterpiece!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

So many early films of the "Old Dark House" variety are the kind where actors hit their marks, look at each other, and just talk, talk, talk endless pages of dialog and exposition. Not this one! The director knows how to tell the story with a camera, and the movie has a good shot count so there's none of those lock-down shots where two or more actors talk about the situation for an eternity. Quite the contrary: the movie has good pacing, and the actors keep a good rhythm to the delivery of their lines. Lilli Palmer is quite good and beguiling as the female lead, with good support from fellow players. The plot has enough twists to keep things interesting, while the lighting, camera moves, and blocking keep the visuals engaging. For a low budget thriller, it's really one of the better examples!

It's an old dark house tale crossed with a old style whudunnit. It's based on "The Door With Seven Locks" by Edgar Wallace. It's title in the UK was "The Door With Seven Locks". The alternate title was by Monogram Pictures for a U.S. release.When a wealthy lord dies, his last wishes include locking his treasure behind a door with seven locks. Greed, plotting & murder develop in a pursuit for the keys and the truth behind the locked tomb.Lilli Palmer played the leading lady. She looks marvelous in this film. The male co-lead is a detective type (and her love interest).There is also an irritable cop, partially used for comic relief. The leading ladies friend is similarly used.If you like old dark house type films, and old films in general, it's a solid watch.

Chamber of Horrors is a delightfully clever, stylishly-shot and wittily-written mystery-thriller, shot through with touches of comedy, based on an Edgar Wallace novel from 1926 called The Door with Seven Locks (which I can't but think was at least influenced by Earl Derr Bigger's equally wonderful and oft-filmed 1913 novel Seven Keys to Baldpate). It's also a great variation on a classic theme of an heiress arriving at a mansion to find out about a legacy. In this it's reminiscent of the oft-filmed Cat and the Canary or the Jessie Matthews vehicle Candles at Nine.Lilli Palmer is plucky yet vulnerable as June, the heroine from Québec, who spun a coin at age 15 to decide on a life of adventure versus one of domesticity – and adventure won. An actress named Gina Malo plays Glenda, her wisecracking, husband-hunting sidekick from Ontario who keeps the atmosphere lively with a rich stock of risqué remarks, such as this bit, delivered nude from a bathtub, when June shows her one of the keys to the door with seven locks that she has received in the mail: "There's nothing unusual about a guy sending you his latchkey. Did he say he wants you to come up and see his etchings?… I'm an old etching viewer myself, and I know all the tricks. He'll be wearing George Raft pajamas, and the etchings will be in the bedroom."The script for Chamber of Horrors is by a writer named John Argyle, so maybe he deserves credit for this delightful duo of June and Glenda. At any rate, it's quite reminiscent of another pairing he wrote a couple of years later in the Gothic mystery Terror House, a.k.a. The Night Has Eyes, with Joyce Howard and Tucker McGuire teamed as the beautiful heroine and her man-mad friend. Curiously, another thing Chamber of Horrors shares with Terror House is the presence of monkeys as pets: in Terror House villain Wilfrid Lawson carries around a pet capuchin named Cain (as a symbolic marker of his criminality); whereas in Chamber of Horrors evil physician Leslie Banks goes about with his pet monkey Beppo on his back, which could possibly be taken to indicate that the not-so-good doctor has been dipping into the drugs.Banks plays a descendant of Spanish inquisitor Torquemada, collecting as a hobby authentic implements of torture which he displays in the titular chamber of horrors. Thus is Banks able to draw upon the vein of sadism he tapped so well way back when in The Most Dangerous Game. In Chamber of Horrors, he even sports as butler a hulking henchman who is a mute as a result of having lost his tongue due to "rebel atrocities," much like henchman Ivan in the earlier film.It's interesting to remember that this movie was made in Britain in 1940 under the extreme exigencies of World War II. I was reminded of this by several scenes involving actress Lilli Palmer, who appeared to have great sorrowful pouches under her eyes, that came and went in a manner uncoordinated with the action on the screen and which makeup couldn't efface. What the cast and crew went through in order to tell stories that would provide entertainment and escapism to the war-stressed nation would make an interesting movie in its own right.

A wealthy man dies leaving a huge treasure in his personal tomb with seven interlocking doors and keys to be used to get into the tomb after a period of time after his death. Chamber of Horrors tells the story of avarice, murder, and intrigue that happens as a result of this tomb and treasure. This is a fun film with lots of suspense, classic hokey comedy, and some stellar character acting. The evil guy, named Dr. Manetta, needs one more key in order to get the treasure, and one Lili Palmer stands in his way as the real heiress to the fortune and possessor of the last key. Dr. Manetta dresses in capes, has a great aristocratic "foreign" accent, has a trained monkey perch on his shoulder and follow him on a leash, and collects horrific hardware, devices used for torture. He utters great one-liners left and right, saying to his henchmen about the shame in killing the young heiress,"She played Chopin delightfully." The actor playing this role in none other than Leslie Banks, General Zaroff from The Most Dangerous game. He is in just as fine form here and really breathes what life this film has in gale strength. Banks puts on an acting seminar as he waltzes through this role of sadism and wit. The other actors are all capable and seem to have some talent. The torture room is very impressive. A neat little, seldom seen film. Try it as a second feature after The Most Dangerous Game. Every time I watch Banks I wish he had done more films. He is just incredibly good at playing incredibly bad men!