The Door With Seven Locks

The Door with Seven Locks is a 1940 black-and-white British film, created and released shortly after the British Board of Film Censors lifted its mid-1930s ban on supernatural-themed and horror genre films. It was based on the novel The Door with Seven Locks by Edgar Wallace.

Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was an English writer. As well as journalism, Wallace wrote screen plays, poetry, historical non-fiction, 18 stage plays, 957 short stories and over 170 novels, 12 in 1929 alone. More than 160 films have been made of Wallace's work._x000D_ Excerpt:_x000D_ "He waited suggestively, but Lew Pheeney shook his head. "I'm not telling. The story would give away a man who's not a good fellow, and not one I admire; but I can't let my personal feelings get the better of me, and you'll have to go on guessing. And I'm not lying, I'll tell you how it happened." He gulped down a cup of hot coffee and pushed cup and saucer away from him. "I don't know this fellow who asked me to do the work — not personally. He's been in trouble for something or other, but that's no business of mine. One night he met me, introduced himself, and I went to his house — brr!" he shivered. "Martin, a crook is a pretty clean man — at least, all the crooks I know; and thieving's just a game with two players; me and the police. If they snooker me, good luck to 'em! If I can beat them, good luck to me! But there's some dirt that makes me sick, just makes my stomach turn over. When he told me the job he wanted me for, I thought he was joking..."_x000D_

Dick Martin is leaving Scotland Yard. His final job, investigating a stolen book, takes him to Gallows Cottage. Arriving home, Martin finds Lew Pheeney being followed by a man for whom he worked. 'Doing what?' demands Martin. Lew confesses. 'I was trying to open a dead man's tomb!' The telephone rings.

This eBook edition of "The Door with Seven Locks" has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was an English writer. As well as journalism, Wallace wrote screen plays, poetry, historical non-fiction, 18 stage plays, 957 short stories and over 170 novels, 12 in 1929 alone. More than 160 films have been made of Wallace's work. Excerpt: "He waited suggestively, but Lew Pheeney shook his head. "I'm not telling. The story would give away a man who's not a good fellow, and not one I admire; but I can't let my personal feelings get the better of me, and you'll have to go on guessing. And I'm not lying, I'll tell you how it happened." He gulped down a cup of hot coffee and pushed cup and saucer away from him. "I don't know this fellow who asked me to do the work — not personally. He's been in trouble for something or other, but that's no business of mine. One night he met me, introduced himself, and I went to his house — brr!" he shivered. "Martin, a crook is a pretty clean man — at least, all the crooks I know; and thieving's just a game with two players; me and the police. If they snooker me, good luck to 'em! If I can beat them, good luck to me! But there's some dirt that makes me sick, just makes my stomach turn over. When he told me the job he wanted me for, I thought he was joking…"

They kept Lew in the cells all night whilst inquiries were pursued. Remarkably enough, he had not only stayed at the Royal Arms at Chichester, but had stayed in his own name; and it was true that at a quarter to eleven, before the Hedborough bank robbers had left the premises, he was taking a drink in his room, sixty miles away. So authority released Lew in the morning and Dick went into breakfast with him, because, between the professional thief - taker and the professional burglar there is no real ill - feeling, and Sub - Inspector Richard Martin was almost as popular with the criminal classes as he was at police headquarters.

Dick Martin is leaving Scotland Yard. His final job, investigating a stolen book, takes him via a conversation with the librarian Sybil Lansdown to Gallows Cottage and a meeting with Doctor Stalletti. Tommy Crawler, Bertram Cody's chauffeur, is also there. Arriving home, Martin finds Lew Pheeney being followed by a man for whom he recently worked. "Doing what?" demands Martin. Lew finally confesses. "I was trying to open a dead man's tomb!" The telephone rings. It is Mr. Havelock.

Dick Martin is leaving Scotland Yard. His final job, investigating a stolen book, takes him via a conversation with the librarian Sybil Lansdown to Gallows Cottage and a meeting with Doctor Stalletti. Tommy Crawler, Bertram Cody's chauffeur is also there. Arriving home, Martin finds Lew Pheeney being followed by a man for whom he recently worked.