Seven Keys *** (1961, Jeannie Carson, Alan Dobie, Delphi Lawrence, John Carson, Philip Locke, Fabia Drake, Robertson Hare) – Classic Movie Review 13,349

Pat Jackson’s enjoyable 1961 British crime thriller film Seven Keys stars Alan Dobie as a newly released convict who goes looking for his late cellmate’s hidden loot.

Director Pat Jackson’s 1961 British crime thriller film Seven Keys stars Alan Dobie as a newly released convict who goes looking for his late cellmate’s hidden loot.

It also features Jeannie Carson, Delphi Lawrence, and John Carson. It’s not an ‘Edgar Wallace Mystery’ but it somehow ended up added to the series despite having no Edgar Wallace connection.

Alan Dobie plays a convict who is bequeathed a set of seven keys by a fellow prisoner on his recent death. He has to finish the last three months of his sentence, but on his release he discovers the deceased was an embezzler who stole £20,000 that was never recovered and he sets out to find the cash for himself. He must first solve the mystery of which locks the keys fit, and evade both the law and the crooks who are after him and the money. He starts by finding the embezzler’s former secretary (Jeannie Carson) and enlisting her reluctant help.

Yes, summarised nicely like that, it sounds like a very decent, credible noir mystery plot, but it doesn’t play as neatly and tidily as that. Its light tone keeps it entertaining, but frustrates expectations of a grittier, harder, more satisfying thriller. However, good work from an excellent cast, with main star Alan Dobie tremendous, extremely smooth and charismatic, entertainingly papers over the cracks of this rather contrived and unresolved mystery thriller. I was going to say ‘…and somewhat unpersuasive thriller’. It’s the Seven Keys thing that is hard to swallow, and the idiot compass clue the hero finds on their key ring after villainous gangster Norman (John Carson) – another former cellmate – has stolen the keys and told him to keep their key ring as a souvenir. A likely tale indeed!

However the treasure hunt idea inherent in the premise is amusing, and kicks up some entertaining situations. These were the days when you could go the the London Daily Mail offices and ask for a bunch of back number newspapers, and find out all you needed to know about the news on those particular days, as long as you didn’t cut bits out of them and were polite handing them back to the curator!

For all its faults, though, it remains an enjoyable watch, pleasantly easy-going old-style mystery viewing, and a nice time warp. It really is quite a lot of fun.

Fabia Drake and Robertson Hare have an all too brief comedy relief appearance as a terrified elderly couple. Loveable though they are, it doesn’t really have any place in this film, which is already bursting at the seams to stop at 57 minutes. Peter Barkworth also appears in a semi-comedic scene as an estate agent, who shows a snooty couple (Jeremy Lloyd as Freddy, Barbara Evans as Freddy’s wife) around a house while Alan Dobie is already there snooping around with one of the scene keys in hand. It’s a bit silly, with the comedy undermining the suspense, but somehow it still works because it’s amusing. But, again, it doesn’t really have any place in this film. More time wasted on the comedy.

So, yes, the film needs a lot more room to breathe, or the thriller mystery does anyway, a more serious tone, and a lot more running time. A bigger budget might help too, but not really too much. The film is entirely okay just as it is in this humble production, a fairly admirable and appealing early Sixties British second feature.

Several super actors like John Carson, Peter Barkworth, John Horsley, Timothy Bateson and Philip Locke are squandered in brief roles that go nowhere very much. That is frustrating, though the film would be worse without them. Delphi Lawrence vamps alluringly and fairly outrageously as the femme fatale. She’s good value. Jeannie Carson is sweet and cute as the more homely heroine, the former secretary of the dead man, whom Dobie seeks out for help, and then helps himself to her. She falls for him, well he’s charming, though she’s canny and careful, no pushover. She makes an admirable heroine and Dobie makes an admirable hero.

The screenplay is by Jack Davies and Henry Blyth.

Distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (UK).

Release date: February 1961 (UK). It was the support film to Michael Winner’s Billy Fury pop movie Play It Cool in the UK on the ABC circuit in July 1962.

Another film, Crossroads to Crime (1960), was later incorporated into the Edgar Wallace Mysteries series (also distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated) and re-edited with new Edgar Wallace opening titles. But the current print of Seven Keys does not bear the Edgar Wallace opening titles.

Alan Dobie (born 2 June 1932)

Alan Dobie has performed in more than 117 productions during his 50-year plus acting career.

Jeannie Carson (born Jean Shufflebottom; 23 May 1928)

In 1960, Carson married her second husband, actor Biff McGuire.

The cast

The cast are Alan Dobie as Russell, Jeannie Carson as Shirley Steele, Delphi Lawrence as Natalie Worth, John Carson as Norman, John Lee as Jefferson, Anthony Nicholls as prison governor, Robertson Hare as Mr. Piggott, Fabia Drake as Mrs. Piggott, Alan White as prison warder, Colin Gordon as Mr. Barber, Peter Barkworth as estate agent, Jeremy Lloyd as Freddy, Barbara Evans as Freddy’s wife, John Horsley as police Sergeant, Timothy Bateson as bank teller, Victor Brooks as discharging officer, and Philip Locke as Norman’s thug.

Seven Keys is directed by Pat Jackson, runs 57 minutes, is made by Independent Artists, is released by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (UK), is written by Jack Davies (original screenplay) and Henry Blyth (original screenplay), is shot in black and white by Ernest Steward, is produced by Julian Wintle and Leslie Parkyn, is scored by Alan Clare, and is designed by Jack Shampan.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,349

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com