It was about 2AM in the morning and I was watching late night TV, flicking aimlessly. Then I stumbled across the 1947 mystery/thriller Seven Keys to Baldpate. I was dead tired and expected to lose interest within a minute and doze off, but there was something about the setup to this film that was simply absorbing cinema, waking me up as if it was 2 pm in the afternoon. Granted it loses momentum half way through, tailing off considerably towards the end, perhaps due to not fleshing out the premise, which essentially is seven strangers mysteriously brought together in a dark, creaky old Mansion one stormy night. But the mood it creates in it's first half hour is 30 minutes of mystery/thriller cinema I rank as high as any in the genre. Perhaps it was the films ambiance, the darkness, the balance on interior and exterior, the set, the storm, the random characters appearing from no where, the less is more mentality which is so essential in setting up a mystery/thriller film. All those elements created mood that was so cinematic it took me from the depressing late night channel flicking into the mysterious happenings of the Baldpate mansion. I was mesmerized at one point, moving in close to the TV, hanging off each characters every word, wanting to know why. The why you find out later, and it doesn't live up, but I give the film 6/10, because the feeling of wanting to know more in the first 30 minutes was so engaging, they could've faded to black and never fade back in...still I would give it 6/10.
Review of Seven Keys to Baldpate
