THE DOOR WITH SEVEN LOCKS/Chamber of Horrors (1940)

THE DOOR WITH SEVEN LOCKS is a film I've waited to see for about forty-five years. Loosely based on the novel of the same name by Edgar Wallace and starring Leslie Banks it seems, at first glance, to have a lot going for it. Sadly, it is a disappointment. It moves at a snail's pace and although made in 1940 it could easily have been made ten years earlier. England really didn't have any decent directors working down among the low-budgets. Despite the American title the film makes absolutely nothing of its torture chamber - which is a merely a collection of torture instruments which we are not really shown beyond a rather unconvincing Iron Maiden and a couple of poisoned chalices. The film's one redeeming feature is the presence of Banks who, as Dr.Manetta, recreates his classic performance of 1932 as Count Zaroff. He deserves a much better vehicle than this tired old melodrama. Rating *