Adeel Hail
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Logan
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Dana
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
dougdoepke
The seven deadly doors open off a very pretty open courtyard. Right away I was scared— probably because I could have actually paid money to see this mess. If you can figure out the plot, the physics department may have a place for you. Poverty row PRC really cut more than corners with this one. The sets are few, and dark for more reason than atmosphere. For a supposed mystery, there's about as much suspense as watching a clock tick. But then it is 1944, and wartime audiences need any kind of escape. That's probably why usual sidekick Chick Chandler gets a shot at the lead and shows why he was better as a sidekick. He seems not to be taking anything too seriously. The highpoint may well be half-dressed Rebel Randall's shimmy and shake that unfortunately doesn't come til near the end. Otherwise, there's nothing to recommend in this woeful programmer.
bkoganbing
Only in the cinema could the romantic relationship of a model and a cabbie ever could happen. They don't usually happen even in film unless the cabbie is an exiled prince or something like that. But in Seven Doors To Death cabbie Chick Chandler hooks up with model June Clyde to solve a big mystery with several deaths involving jewels and the ownership of an apartment complex.Chandler's dragged in unwillingly at the point of a gun by Clyde who commandeers him and his cab. She's fleeing a murder scene and Chandler's cab is totaled. After that Chandler declares himself a detective and of course solves the mystery.The courtyard apartment complex looked something like the one in Rear Window where Jimmy Stewart watched the parade of life. Of course Rear Window is a far better film.The cheap and tacky sets and inferior sound mark this PRC release. But most of all I couldn't accept the premise or Chandler as a romantic lead.
MartinHafer
This terrible movie comes from PRC—a tiny independent film studio known for making,…well,…crap. Their budgets were always low, the writing usually pretty bad and their talent usually unknown. When the term 'Poverty Row' was created to describe low-budget film studios that usually rented space in real studios at night to make their films, they must have had PRC in mind. Now this does not mean that all their films were unwatchable—their horror films with the likes of George Zucco were great fun. But you certainly did not expect art from PRC! This mystery film frankly irritated me—much more than usual. That's because the writing was so nonsensical and shabby that I found watching the film a real chore. In fact, after a while I found myself no longer paying attention…it was that bad.The film begins with a lady pointing a gun at a man's head and making him drive. When she instructs him to turn while making her getaway, his car crashes. The man naturally goes to the police…who do locate the lady but don't seem to care that she pointed a gun at a man's head and hijacked his car! And, what's crazier, is that although the man is mad and insists he will sue her for the damage (after all, the police didn't even arrest her!!), she acts like it's all his fault and refuses—saying "you are the one who had the accident"! Then, he smiles and tells her to forget about it!!! What part of a threat to murder a man and destruction of his car didn't he, the police or the writer understand?! Frankly, at this point I was sick of the film and rarely have I ever seen a situation so muddled and stupid in a film. It only seemed to get worse…and I wonder if the film was actually written by a lemur!
wrbtu
"Seven Doors to Death:" sounds intriguing, doesn't it? Quite a catchy title! Very exciting start to this film: a shot rings out, a woman screams & comes running out of a house in a courtyard. She jumps onto the running board of a slow moving car & orders the driver to turn down a dead end street by holding a small flashlight to the side of his head as if it were a gun. The driver speeds down the dead end & crashes; when he recovers, the lady is gone. Sounds great doesn't it? It is great, but this exciting scene lasts for all of about two minutes. After that, it's mostly downhill. The plot becomes muddled as the seven suspects all take turns doing suspicious things, & three or four more murders take place. Chick Chandler is adequate as the male lead, but he's got too many corny lines with too much emphasis on comedy. June Clyde is good as the lady who jumps on the running board. Most of the others are fairly good as well, especially Rebel Randall as a woman who can't seem to get enough attention from the men. The real problem with this film is not in the acting, it's in the script. An interesting premise is talked to death with routine dialog. I rate it 5/10.
