News

Chamber of Horrors

Blu-ray

Kino Lorber

1940 / B&W / 1:33 / Street Date March 21, 2017

Starring: Lilli Palmer, Leslie Banks.

Cinematography: Alex Bryce, Ernest Palmer

Film Editor: Ted Richards

Written by Gilbert Gunn, Norman Lee

Produced by John Argyle

Directed by Norman Lee

Near the turn of the century a struggling war correspondent named Edgar Wallace began churning out detective stories for British monthlies like Detective Story Magazine to help make the rent. Creative to a fault, his preposterously prolific output (exacerbated by ongoing gambling debts) soon earned him a legion of fans along with a pointedly ambiguous sobriquet, “The Man Who Wrote Too Much.”

A reader new to Wallace’s work could be excused for thinking the busy writer was making it up as he went along… because that’s pretty much what he did. He dictated his narratives, unedited, into a dictaphone for transcription by his secretary where they would then...

Acquiring the late Lord Selford's fortune proves to be a deadly and nerve-shredding task in Chamber of Horrors, aka The Door with Seven Locks, a 1940 horror mystery movie coming out on Blu-ray and DVD from Kino Lorber.

A release date and special features for the Chamber of Horrors Blu-ray / DVD have not been revealed yet, but we'll keep Daily Dead readers updated on further details. In the meantime, we have the official announcement from Kino Lorber, as well as the movie's synopsis and poster artwork.

From Kino Lorber: "Coming Soon to DVD and Blu-ray!

Chamber of Horrors (1940) Starring Lilli Palmer, Leslie Banks, Romilly Lunge, Gina Malo and Robert Montgomery - Screenplay by Norman Lee (The Monkey's Paw) and Gilbert Gunn (The Cosmic Monster) - Based on the Novel "The Door with Seven Locks" by Edgar Wallace - Directed by Norman Lee."

Synopsis (via Blu-ray.com): "When the wealthy Lord Selford dies,...

Humankind’s collision with otherworldly life forms can make for unforgettable cinema.

This article will highlight the best of live-action human vs. alien films. The creatures may be from other planets or may be non-demonic entities from other dimensions.

Excluded from consideration were giant monster films as the diakaiju genre would make a great subject for separate articles.

Readers looking for “friendly alien” films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), It Came from Outer Space (1953) and the comically overrated Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) are advised to keep watching the skies because they won’t find them here.

Film writing being the game of knowledge filtered through personal taste that it is, some readers’ subgenre favorites might not have made the list such as War of the Worlds (1953) and 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957).

Now let’s take a chronological look at the cinema’s best battles between Us and Them.

★★★☆☆ Rereleased on DVD this week alongside Gilbert Gunn's 1953 effort Valley of Song, The Last Days of Dolwyn (1949) is a refreshingly regional British drama from directors Russell Lloyd and Emlyn Williams. Set amidst the titular mid-Welsh community of Dolwyn in the days leading up to a cataclysmic flood that submerges the village, the film revolves around an ongoing dispute over land ownership. With significant similarities to later working class dramas, including Bill Forsyth's north-of-the-border tale Local Hero (1983), Lloyd and Williams' near-forgotten work has undoubtedly played a part in shaping non-English national identity on-screen.

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★★★☆☆ Beginning as a train hurtles down a track, accompanied by a deep, baritone Welsh choir booming out over the opening the credits, Gilbert Gunn's 1953 film Valley of Song (rereleased by StudioCanal) successfully brings Cliff Gordon's celebrated play Choir Practice to life in the form of a light-hearted comedy. Returning to the idyllic village of Cwmpant after years spent working in London, we watch on as cheery protagonist Geraint Llewellyn (Clifford Evans) is greeted by one and all as a returning hero. Soon re-established in his aged auntie's cottage, he is elected as the choirmaster to a flock of seemingly jovial songbirds of the local parish.

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