Not a Horror Film

 

 (amazon.com)

CHAMBER OF HORRORS (aka THE DOOR WITH 7 LOCKS)-1940-Miss June Lansdowne (Lilli Palmer) receives a key with a mysterious note telling her to go to a nursing home to meet Mr. Silva. She goes and meets him. He appears to be in ill health and talks like he's being held prisoner. He wants to tell her about the door with seven locks and who besides herself possesses the keys to them. But before he can, he's shot dead. She tells a nurse who plays ignorant, and the body disappears. She runs away and gets help from a just resigned police officer (Romilly Lunge). They, along with her annoying friend Glenda (Gina Malo) try solving the mystery of the door of which she has one of the keys to. The trio and lawyer Havelock (David Horne) go the estate of Dr. Minette (Leslie Banks), a guy with a pet monkey and a collection of torture devices. The door with 7 locks is in a tomb on his place. He's actually in league with some others to get the seventh key. 

Old style mystery melodrama directed by Norman Lee, advertised as a horror movie which it isn't. Star Leslie Banks had starred in THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932) and was the lead in the first version of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934).

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Back To Silents

SOULS FOR SALE-1923-"Moving picture" about a young woman Mem (Eleanor Boardman) who escapes her unhappy marriage to a murderous con-man by jumping off a train. She wanders around aimlessly but is rescued by an actor named Kolby (Frank Mayo) dressed as a sheikh when she passes out on a movie shoot. He takes a shine to her but a famous director Frank Claymore (Richard Dix) takes Mem under his wing and uses her in his epic circus tale when his famous star is injured. Mem is plagued by uncertainty about her talent to replace a big star but succeeds despite religiously bent parents who hate Hollywood and the return of her no good husband. The climax features hubby trying to kill the director with a giant wind machine while a fire rages on the circus set. 

SOULS FOR SALE is a kind of standard poor girl makes good love story drama with a guessable twist and good acting and production but what makes it a standout is the 'film within a film" setting where many silent screen stars and directors appear as themselves including Erich Von Stroheim directing a scene from GREED! Mae Busch, Snitz Edwards and William Haines are also in it. Star Boardman was very popular at the time (she made her last film in 1935) and starred in King Vidor's THE CROWD and TELL IT TO THE MARINES with Lon Chaney. 

Director/screen adapter Rupert Hughes was the uncle of Howard Hughes...

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The Cheat

THE CHEAT-1921-Cecil B. DeMile directed this silent drama that was a big hit in its time.

It tells the story of a society woman Edith Hardy (Fannie Ward) who's high living is interrupted by her husband's financial investing. When a friend tells her of a sure fire stock she embezzles 10 thousand dollars (from a Red Cross fund of which she was the treasurer) to invest in it but the stock goes blooey and she loses everything.

A Burmese businessman Hara Arakau (Sessue Hayakawa) agrees to lend her the money on the condition that they become lovers. When the her husband Richard (Jack Dean) strikes it rich with his investments he gives Edith  $10,000 (she says she lost it playing bridge!) and wants to renege on her deal with Arakau but he'll have none of it. They have an intense struggle which ends with Arakau branding Edith (he does this with all of his "property"). She then shoots Arakau in the shoulder and flees. However Richard had followed and learns of his wife's deception. He winds up taking the rap for Edith. It all ends in a courtroom where Richard is found guilty of the shooting but Edith throws herself at the mercy of the judge, admitting she actually did the shooting and shows the brand on her back. A near riot ensues as angry spectators try to get their hands on Arakau. The judge sets aside the verdict and all charges are dropped and the couple leave happily.

In the original 1915 release Hayakawa's character was a Japanese ivory merchant which brought about protests from Japanese Americans who objected to the cruel lead. A 1918 re-release changed him to a Burmese. Hayakawa was the first Asian star in American films and was popular and successful until the advent of sound. He returned to Japan (after making a remake of THE CHEAT in France). He was nominated for a best supporting Oscar in 1957 for THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI.

THE CHEAT also features another Japanese actor Yutaka Abe who made several appearances in Hollywood films and later became a successful director in his native country.

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