La chambre aux supplices

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!

With a story as interesting as "The Door with Seven Locks", it's shocking that the resulting film is as dull as this British movie is. Too often, the film is cerebral when it should feature action and the lack of much incidental music doesn't help either. After all, this IS a murder mystery film...and you'd think it would be more exciting.

A woman receives a letter from a dying man in the hospital. She arrives and he tells her about seven keys and how they open a crypt that actually contains evidence of some beastly crime. He gives her one key...and then some hidden person kills the man. When the woman fetches a nurse, they return and the dead man is gone...and the nurse accuses the woman of being mentall ill. But she DOES have the letter....yet the nurse is a hostile jerk...which is odd.

The woman seeks out folks to help unravel the mystery. Soon after, a masked man breaks in and attacks the man helping her...yet the other woman supposedly helping prevents her from intervening. This part of the film never made sense. What follows is a strange meeting with a sicko that has a torture chamber in his mansion....and you can only assume he plans on using it! What's next? See the film.

The basic story is excellent. But too often the film is talky, low energy and dull....when it never should have been given the story. I think playing it out with more emotion and zip would have elevated this story significantly.

A murder is found to be connected to a false heir and a secret underground torture chamber.

So many of these movies were made in the 30s and early 40s.

Prior to the Film noir of the next decade.

Some are better than others. This one is a bit above the average.

There's a funny scene with the girl in the bath and when she gets out, another woman wraps her in a plaid towel. When she pulls it around her you can see she' wearing bloomers.

The sets are opulent as was the case back then and there's lots of fun intrigue.

Give it a shot on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Chamber of Horrors is an entertaining British horror/mystery from 1940. I have the VCI edition of this on video which I had ordered from the US.

A series of murders at a creepy mansion are connected to the secret of a door which has seven keys to it and nobody has opened for a while. A young woman tries to solve this mystery and all is revealed towards the end when the door is opened... Includes a mute butler and a mad doctor who collects items used for torture. Also a thunderstorm.

Though not a lot of action in this movie, it is quite creepy and atmospheric at times.

The cast includes Leslie Banks (The Most Dangerous Game, The Tunnel) and Lilli Palmer.

Chamber of Horrors is worth a look if you get the chance. A good old mystery.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

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!