Seven Doors to Death (1944)

After a woman (Clyde) flees from an apartment following a series of shots, she car-jacks a passing motorist (Chandler) in order to escape and the two eventually become embroiled in a murder mystery (and a budding romance) they must solve to avoid suspicion.Throughout their enquiries a number of potential leads emerge, Gaye plays a quirky crime-scene photographer who collects ghoulish photographs of real-life murderers and serial killers, while Casey MacGregor looks a likely suspect as the brawny, silent gardener infatuated by Rebel Randall's vivacious vixen, a high society gal with champagne tastes on a beer budget (and who bears a striking resemblance to Paulette Goddard or Hedy Lamarr).Predictably, the sleuths manage to out-pace the clueless detective (Raffetto), closing the case in record time (61 minutes, in fact, Chandler solves the mystery in 50 minutes), and not a moment too soon as far as I was concerned. Lightweight and lacking suspense, it's not a howler, just an average B-picture mystery displaying little originality or excitement.

So let's see, there were the photographer, the furrier, the deranged knife dealer, and the perfume shop lady. I don't know if gardener Tim actually qualified to be a store owner, so that leaves the story a few people short on the 'Seven Doors' theme. I guess you could make a case for Mary Rawling, but then again, she was in line to inherit the entire Hamilton mini-mall where those store fronts were, and not an actual business person. So chalk up the title to a bit of poetic license, the more doors to death the merrier I guess.Boy, you really have to pay attention to what's going on here, and even with that, it's a hard story to follow. There's some business about an Egyptian hope chest and missing jewelry thrown in, and I'm not sure how it all ties together with the body in the basement. Oh yeah, and they went to a lot of trouble to have the actual murderer remove the victim's thumb prints by peeling off the skin from his fingers. This was more elaborate than Charlie Chan ever had to deal with, but I'm sure he would have solved the crime as well. Actually, he had a fingerprint mystery too, but it was a lot easier to follow (1946 - "Dark Alibi").Catch this one for the odd dance routine in the middle of the story by the perfume lady, Mable De Rose. I had never heard of the performer portraying the character, an actress by the name of Rebel Randall. A quick check of her IMDb credits shows that she's still alive and approaching ninety! Goes to show you how tough you had to be to make this flick!

Unfortunately a boring flick, and obviously the only way to see it is the butchered bootleg Public Domain version, which is so blurry and dark that at times you have hard time making out where the screen is. The leading actors are a nuisance. The man spends most of his screen time trying to appear nonchalant, charming and sexy, forgetting totally what the film is about and that he is a murder suspect because of some dame who played him for a goose to start with. The dame herself merely walks through the flick, being dignified if she's not busy appearing cute. It's a rather badly written stuff, never interesting or witty. No good camera work, no memorable soundtrack, no glamorous actresses or atmospheric sets. It only scratches the surface of the genre, and nothing happens if you miss this totally missable flick.

As the movie starts there's a scream, a gun shot and the sound of a body falling. The film shifts locations as a man in a car is hijacked by a woman on the run. In following her directions he ends up crashing his car and the woman runs away. He tries to follow the woman into an area with a small group of stores, only to end up discovering a dead body. The man notifies the police, who then find a body then the one he reported. From there its complication after complication, most of which are a bit clever but really have nothing to do with the plot and seem to be out of another movie. The conclusion when it comes seems to be tacked on and out of left field.This a PRC programmer that is a perfect example of what a by the numbers low low budget second feature is like. The plot is set up in such away to keep you interested no matter where the plot goes. Its structured to run no more than the alloted time. It has a minimum of sets and just enough people to keep to make it look as though this might, possibly, be a real place (if you've never lived in the real world). Its also completely forgettable.The plot has the group of stores being searched and researched again and again to find what ever the latest clue has revealed. Most of the time this is done in the dark so we really can't see where we are. Everyone is a suspect until the very end when the killer is revealed by broad leap of logic. If it wasn't for some rather weird asides, a dance number, a bit about making toast, and a few others, this movie could easily have run half its length. This isn't to say its a dull or bad movie, its not. Things are pleasantly confused for at least the first 15 minutes during which time you'll desperately be trying to figure out what you're watching. By then you'll be hooked since you'll want to know where this very messy movie is going.This is a good movie, especially when viewed at 3am while curled up in bed. Its not high art nor is it something that you'll find becoming your favorite film of all time. Its an okay time passer which is what it was designed to be. What you'll take away is the odd sense that know one knew what these people were up to since some of the characters are off the wall (a body snatching embalmer who's an okay guy, for example) and some exposition that is ripe with sexual tension and implied situations the Hays office would never approve of.On its own terms 7 out of 10.