Seven Keys to Baldpate

The seventh lensed version of the Earl Derr Biggers/George M. Cohan comedy-scarer is a very pleasant affair under the direction of Lew Landers. We're alerted to its comedy as soon as lead Phillip Terry shows up in glasses and wearing a bow tie, and the fine cast of supporting actors lets us know we're in for a good time.

Terry is a writer who has bet Jason Robards Sr. That he can write a novel in 24 hours at a closed hotel. Robards send his secretary, Jacqueline White, to gum up the works, but she and Terry are distracted by the assortment of thieves and madmen who come wandering through the doors.

The handling of the subject runs more clearly towards laughs than earlier versions, and it looks to me like the pacing and camera work by Jack MacKenzie was influenced by Frank Capra's version of ARSENIC AND OLD LACE. If you get a chance to see the beautiful copy that Turner Classic Movies ran this morning, take it.

If you enjoy creepy old house movies, you'll like this one.

Yes this is the fourth version of the film and I am quite sure that the theatrical live play version of this mystery/story would have been quite entertaining as well. Having watched this 1947 film for the first time some seventy six (76) years subsequent to its initial release date I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this quirky mystery/crime/romance/comedy film.

Of course the on screen chemistry between two of the main characters author Kenneth Magee (Phillip Terry) and office secretary Mary Jordan (Jacqueline White) was very natural and amusing. The hectic pace between the other five (5) key holders residing at Baldplate only added to the mystery and comedy of the film. I only wish I could have seen them play their respective roles in a live theatre version performance of Seven keys To Baldplate. I am very fond of Ms. White's natural atlent in all of her films as well as with her natural beauty. An added bonus is Ms. White's acting career was fulfilled without any on screen or off screen scandals, not so typical of todays social media crazies.

I enjoyed the film considerably and as such I have rated it a deserving 7 out of 10 IMDb rating.

It was about 2AM in the morning and I was watching late night TV, flicking aimlessly. Then I stumbled across the 1947 mystery/thriller Seven Keys to Baldpate. I was dead tired and expected to lose interest within a minute and doze off, but there was something about the setup to this film that was simply absorbing cinema, waking me up as if it was 2 pm in the afternoon. Granted it loses momentum half way through, tailing off considerably towards the end, perhaps due to not fleshing out the premise, which essentially is seven strangers mysteriously brought together in a dark, creaky old Mansion one stormy night. But the mood it creates in it's first half hour is 30 minutes of mystery/thriller cinema I rank as high as any in the genre. Perhaps it was the films ambiance, the darkness, the balance on interior and exterior, the set, the storm, the random characters appearing from no where, the less is more mentality which is so essential in setting up a mystery/thriller film. All those elements created mood that was so cinematic it took me from the depressing late night channel flicking into the mysterious happenings of the Baldpate mansion. I was mesmerized at one point, moving in close to the TV, hanging off each characters every word, wanting to know why. The why you find out later, and it doesn't live up, but I give the film 6/10, because the feeling of wanting to know more in the first 30 minutes was so engaging, they could've faded to black and never fade back in...still I would give it 6/10.

Another perennial "classic" of crime from the brain of Earl Derr Biggers, who gave birth to the aphoristic sleuth Charlie Chan, Seven Keys to Baldpate endures in multiple screen versions. The 1947 model was an odd programmer to come out of RKO at a time when it was busy churning out film noir, because Seven Keys to Baldpate harks back to an older style, a cozy, old-fashioned Mystery of no great originality or complexity.

One dark and stormy night mystery writer Phillip Terry arrives at a supposedly deserted-for-the-season lodge called Baldpate somewhere in the Catskills or Adirondacks. He's there to win a big bet that he can complete a story within 24 hours only to find that he's not, as expected, alone since he was assured he possesses the only key. There's a creepy `caretaker' (Eduardo Ciannelli) installed, and as the night passes a succession of other suspicious key-holders gain access to the lodge: Jacqueline White, Jason Robards Sr., Margaret Lindsay et al. Seems there's nasty business afoot concerning a jewel theft, a payoff, and Heaven knows what else.

Despite a promisingly spooky start (sliding panels to secret passages, a black cat, a howling storm), the movie can't sustain its thread of suspense and opts for an `antic' mood, always the Kiss of Death. Unfortunately Terry, barely acceptable playing it straight, fails abominably at the light comedy required of him. And so the strong beginning degenerates into the mechanical fire-drill typical of the Charlie Chan vehicles – lights go out, shots ring out, a body hits the floor. Not having been privy to any of the earlier incarnations of this story (the first appeared in 1917), I can't account for its longevity. But if its last half lived up to its first, it wouldn't be a bad little movie.