Alex da Silva George Sanders (Jaffrey) is called to the family home – the House of Seven Gables – where his father Gilbert Emery tells him that he has to sell the house. Brother Vincent Price (Clifford) is keen on the idea but Sanders is not. Sanders has read that there is a fortune buried somewhere within the walls but Price is having none of it. There is also a curse that has been placed on the family. Does this curse come true? Which brother gets the upper hand? The film has an interesting title and an interesting beginning with a set-up that raises hopes for a good film. Unfortunately, everything just peters out and there is not much happening in this effort. I was expecting a spooky offering involving a house with some secrets unravelling themselves. It's nothing like that. Basically nothing happens. Vincent Price provides some hilarious over-the-top bad acting at the end of a court case when he breaks into hysterical laughter, deserved of a 60's camp horror film. And Sanders' final scene is equally appalling. Yep – the whole affair is a let-down.

Neil Doyle Despite the fact that this is a compressed and revised version of the Hawthorne novel, THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES manages to overcome its budget limitations (on a B-film scale) to become an interesting, if over-plotted version of the original story.Margaret Lindsay, who usually had second femme leads at Warner Brothers during the '30s, is the central character here and acquits herself admirably. She's so good as the repressed Cousin Hepzibah, a bitter woman who becomes a reclusive owner of the house, that's it's a wonder she didn't have a bigger career. Others in the cast, including George Sanders, Vincent Price, Nan Grey, Dick Foran and Cecil Kellaway, perform admirably too. In fact, the acting is on the strong side and better than the script deserves.But for all its strengths, the story is too complex to be told in 90 minutes and much had to be handled too swiftly to give any of the characters real depth. It's a nice try, and the film itself is worth seeing as a product of its time.

mark.waltz When two of the screen's top villains go up against each other, it is never clear who will win. In "The Black Cat" (1934) and "The Raven" (1935), it was Karloff and Lugosi, and here, it's Sanders and Price. Bela and Boris never played brothers (how could they?), but in "The House of the Seven Gables", George Sanders and Vincent Price do. They are the descendants of a wealthy man in Salem Massachusatts, cursed for stealing another man's land. That ancestor died clutching his throat with blood tricking out of the side of his mouth. After the decent Vincent Price reminds his brother George Sanders of their somewhat evil family history, the same thing happens to their father, who had just disowned Vincent. Thanks to Sanders' cry of "Murderer! Murderer!", Vincent ends up in prison and his foster sister/lady love Margaret Lindsay somehow inherits the property, kicking George to the curb. She becomes a reclusive spinster, lets the house go to pot, eventually takes in borders, and decides to open a small shop. Years later, Price is scheduled to be released (thanks to Ms. Linday's constant visits to the Governor of Massachusatts), and Linday's broke niece, cousin Phoebe (Nan Wynn) comes to stay with her. Price makes Sanders think he is going balmy, searching for buried treasure that never existed, all the while plotting revenge.Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic Gothic tale of life in one of the original thirteen colonies is an entertaining saga of greed, romance, revenge and justice. It features excellent performances by its two stars, outstanding production design, and an Oscar Nominated Score. Price and Sanders would go on to play many roles both evil and heroic (but always colorful). However, unfortunately, this was their only film together. Ms. Lindsay switches appropriately from soft to sour aimlessly, and Dick Foran (as the decedent of the man who placed the original curse) and Nan Wynn are perfect young lovers. If the world is a circle, then it comes fully together for the Pynchon family as a satisfying conclusion occurs. Price would later re-visit this house a decade later as part of "Tales of Terror" in which another part of the family's saga was told.

Red7Eric Being a big fan of the book, I was avoiding this film for a LONG time. The first half hour of the film would lead a fan of Hawthorne to conclude that the screenwriter had never even READ the original novel.However, the screenwriter in this instance simply wanted to spend the first 30 minutes dramatizing the 'back story' that Hawthorne only alludes to in the book. Jaffrey and Clifford are now brothers, not cousins. Clifford and Hepzibah are now lovers, not siblings ... and the details surrounding the murder of Clifford's father (his uncle in the book) are slightly different, but the movie is only 90 minutes long, and the film simplifies the plotline without erasing the POINT.Some of the acting (Margaret Lindsay as Hepzibah, for example) is so brilliant, it makes you want to cry. The scenes that depict Phoebe's arrival to Seven Gables (Chapter 2 in the book, almost halfway through the film) are incredibly well acted. Other moments in the film are so badly and broadly acted, it's laughable. At the scene of the first murder, the camera actually does a quick pan to Margaret Lindsay in the doorway, biting her knuckle. Oy gevalt.As is usual, reading the book is more of a challenge (not everyone enjoys Hawthorne's prose), but ultimately a MUCH richer experience. For a product of its time, however ... the film does itself justice.