Seven Doors to Death (1944)

By CinemaSerf

There is definitely something of the stage play to this lightly amusing whodunit. Poor old architect "Jimmy" (Chick Chandler) finds himself embroiled in a murder - but whose. He finds one body, the police find another... Both he and "Mary" (June Clyde) are suspected and so to prove their innocence, they decide to join forces and track down the culprit - and that involves cellars, spooky passages and lots of spider's webs. It's but an hour long, this, but there's a distinct lack of weight to both the story and the cast. Indeed it's not just chemistry that's lacking, it's the actual ability to deliver the plentiful lines in anything like a convincing or scary fashion. I'm guessing there was little-to-no budget, the production is static and the sound effects used just a bit too often to help create a slight sense of menace as they almost stumble onto their quarry. It's not terrible, it's actually quite passable - just aim low.