The 7th Commandment (1961) User Reviews

The best masochistic potboiler Hugo Haas never made

[melvelvit-1 · 7/10 · 16 September 2015]

In the Bible, THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT is "Thou shalt not commit adultery" (I think) and if it weren't broken, there'd be no movie but I certainly wasn't expecting anything like this. College grad Ted Matthews is out on a date with slinky Terry James when he crashes the car and kills her. He gets amnesia and becomes a soul-saving preacher who can heal crippled kids but his world implodes when he finds out Terry didn't die and she's out get him any way she can. Revenge, sexual obsession, moral degradation, alcoholism, and murder follow in the best masochistic potboiler Hugo Haas never made but could have. Ted & Terry even look like Hugo and his muse, Cleo Moore, and there's an ironic, twist-laden ending Haas would have been proud of. And it's all wrapped in religion, to boot. Yikes.

This is the most "noir" in SWV's "Weird Noir" DVD six-pack with its dark and dirty hotel rooms lit only by neon lights flashing outside with a bottle of whiskey on the nightstand -not to mention a femme fatale (hard-bitten Lyn Statten, a psychotronic's dream) who sashays into a room to the strains of "St. Louis Woman" and delights in having sex with a man who's not the groom on their wedding night. When she's not knocking back the booze or loving the bitch-slapping her pimp daddy gives her, that is. There's quite a bit of SCARLET STREET to the story as well and it's ably helmed by director Irvin Berwick whose previous effort was THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS. The "Weird Noir" set is definitely worth the price of admission for this humdinger alone.

This is truly a weird noir!

[XhcnoirX · 7/10 · 2 March 2016]

Jonathan Kidd and Lyn Statten are a bit too frisky while driving and cause a head-on collision. When Kidd comes to he finds the driver of the other car dead, and he has a mental breakdown, resulting in amnesia. He walks away from the accident scene and is taken in by preacher Frank Arvidson. Fast forward a few years and he's a successful preacher himself, with healing powers even. Money is pouring in, he's building a children's hospital, life is peachy. Statten however is constantly broke, married to no-good drunk John Harmon. When she sees a photo of Kidd, she decides to confront him, and blackmail him...

I don't think I'd ever heard of Kidd or Statten before this movie (or of most of the actors/crew) but they are both great in their respective roles. The moment you see Statten, you know she's a femme fatale of the sleaziest kind, and she is great at it. Kidd really is a far better actor than this (drive-in) movie suggests, he is believable throughout. The rest of the cast is also remarkably solid, really helping the plot which is a weird mix between noir and more religious themes (both real and fake ones), and has a few twists as well.

Oh, and this is noir, really noir. The story is noir enough as-is with a downbeat ending for pretty much everyone, but the movie also looks noir from start to finish. This was DoP Robert C. Jessup's first time behind the camera, but he does great things here, there are some beautiful noir shots here, as well as the ubiquitous flashing neon lights outside of dingy, cramped hotel rooms, and deep, long shadows. Director/writer/producer Irvin Berwick knows how to craft a movie using some pocket change!

This movie is available in the 'Weird Noir' DVD set, and it truly lives up to that title. This is a winner, and quite a unique noir even tho it also has plenty of common noir tropes. Definitely worthy of a recommendation! 7/10

"Think Before You Sin"

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 29 May 2022]

Talking Pictures excels itself by unearthing this bleak little quickie so obscure it didn't even make it into 'The Psychotronic Encyclopaedia of Film'. Hugo Haas has already been invoked on these boards, and - possibly inspired by 'Elmer Gantry' and the recent remake of 'The Blue Angel' - this might have been the result had he ever worked for Billy Graham.

She's a walking social disease.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 22 March 2016]

When Lynn Staten raises her big hatted head in the congregation of evangelistic preacher Jonathan Kidd, sin rears its ugly head as well. She's no good, and long suppressed memories of seven years before are risen along with the memories of his blood temperature during the days of their friendship. Kidd, having had an obvious fling with her years before, abandoned her at the scene of a car accident, walking away with a convenient case of amnesia. Staten, down on her luck, blackmails him, and ultimately, her price becomes a bit too high.

This sleazy melodrama is in of those guilty pleasures, a piece of trash so delicious that it ends up more fun than you could ever expect. Surpringly pretty well acted and filled with raw dialog that main stream Hollywood could never hope to rattle off, it is pretty daring stuff. Staten really goes all out especially in a scene where he prays for her as she mocks him. John Harmon is equally disgusting as the sleaze-ball who takes her in after the accident and becomes increasingly jealous as she gets deeper involved with Kidd.

As exploitation films go, this is at the too of its game, promoting every sort of sleazy behavior that there is. Staten is no great shakes as an actress, just another dime a dozen B girl, no better than others such as Barbara Payton or Beverly Michaels, and I find her fun to watch, if only moderately attractive. There are some definite elements of shock, making it obvious that this didn't get anywhere neat the Catholic legion of decency. Hollywood wouldn't dare present sin as being as gloriously fun as this, leading thy audience into irredeemable temptation. The last five minutes of the film are quite intense, pulling out all the stops of seeing all the characters descending to their different places in hell, and oh boy, it really becomes delicious fun then.

serious religious drama wrapped in blackmail melodrama

[django-1 · 9/10 · 28 January 2003]

Director Irvin Berwick (Monster of Piedras Blancas, Hitchhike to Hell, Malibu High) is not a name that would come to mind when I think of thought-provoking religious dramas. So imagine my surprise when I see such a film wrapped up within a hard-boiled blackmail melodrama! While it could be argued that the evangelical setting of about half the movie is a mere plot element, Berwick takes it too seriously, spends too much time on it, and ends the film in such a way that it's clear the resolution of the religious drama is far more important to him than the resolution of the crime drama. This is actually a study of the nature of faith and salvation, put into a marketable crime melodrama package. Was Mr. Berwick ever interviewed about this film? It obviously must have meant a lot to him. Now I'm anxious to see the films he made after this in the mid-60s: Strange Compulsion and The Street Is My Beat. Although not as over-the-top as The World's Greatest Sinner or Wise Blood, and not as slick as Elmer Gantry, the Seventh Commandment really belongs on the same shelf as those classics. I don't want to give away much of the plot, as the element of surprise is important. However, if the combination of a gritty b&w low-budget blackmail melodrama mixed with serious religious issues of faith and salvation sounds intriguing, track this film down. I've never really seen anything like it!

"Why So Formal, Teddy Baby?!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 4 May 2021]

THE 7TH COMMANDMENT is about Ted Matthews (Jonathan Kidd), his girlfriend, Terry (Lyn Statten), and their fateful car accident. Suffering from amnesia, Ted wanders away from the scene, believing Terry to be a goner.

Miraculously, Ted is helped by a stranger who happens to be a preacher. Soon, Ted, now known as "Tad Morgan", is a fire and brimstone man of the cloth performing faith healings! As his reputation spreads, the collection plate fills to overflowing!

Meanwhile, Terry, having made a full recovery, finds out about Ted's new gig and she's not very happy! Enlisting the aid of her new, derelict boyfriend, Terry sets out to take care of old Ted. Blackmail's her game, and when that's not enough to keep her in booze, she comes up with something even more diabolical.

While not a great movie, it is quite watchable, and the religious angle is odd, set against the noir plot. Kidd's character is a convincing "man with a secret", and Ms. Statten is an above average " wicked woman with a grudge".

There are some tasty twists in this movie, and it's certainly more fun than church!...

Black and white indie drama of the era

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 30 November 2017]

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT is an entirely cheap little black and white independent drama about a man who is involved in a car accident and subsequently suffers from amnesia. To this end, he randomly becomes an evangelist, which means that the rest of the running time is padded out with long and boring religious sermons which I couldn't care less about. The interesting part of the story concerns the man's ex girlfriend and her new lover, who plan to blackmail our protagonist with unexpected consequences. There's the odd decent directorial flourish but generally this is long-winded and tedious.

There's an agreeably grungy, Bukowskian taint to 'The Seventh Commandment'.

[Weirdling_Wolf · 8/10 · 2 June 2022]

Verily, it would be a grievously unpardonable B-Movie sin to miss out on this enjoyably scummy, Noir-ish 60s potboiler about the skeevey blackmail machinations of pulchritudinous, killer-heeled platinum skeezer Terry James (Lyn Statten) and her victim, the not-so godly reverend Ted Morgan (Jonathan Kidd) with whom she shares a sinful secret! The director Berwick would go on to direct cult grindhouse classic 'Hitch Hike to Hell' (1971) and sound mixer S. F Brownrigg would later helm the immortal 70s shocker 'Don't Look in The Basement' (1973).

Berwick's pleasingly garish text greedily exploits all the amnesia, bible bashing, skid-row shenanigans, aggressive comic book carnality and blithe domestic violence an exploitation freak could ever hope for! Plus there's an agreeably grungy, Bukowskian taint to our boozy blackmailers crepuscular dive, whereby the sour miasma of sex, day-old hooch, stale cigarette smoke, and mildewed laundry is quite palpable. An uplifting hymnal to the godless,'The Seventh Commandment' is yet another glistering exploitation jewel from independent exploitation mavens Crown International Pictures, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if schlock-impresario John Waters shared my appreciation for the luxuriously upholstered Lyn Statten's arch theatricality! It was interesting to discover that co-writer Jack Kevan also created the bodacious special FX for 50s psychotronic classic 'The Monster of Piedras Blancas'. 'The Seventh Commandment' is part of the 6-Film Something Weird - 'Weird-Noir' collection, so that might suggest just how righteous this title is!

Brilliant film noir

[sharonjudithlee · 10/10 · 22 October 2022]

I wasn't going to watch this film until encouraged by a previous reviewer, who said that this crime story was really all about religion. I am very glad I did, because it was a brilliant study of religious hypocrisy. It was also tense and exciting and unpredictable. I am new to American film noir as I usually watch British films of this era on a channel called 'Talking Pictures'. I recommend this channel particularly, as many of the films have subtitles, which is helpful for the hard of hearing. I watched this film on that channel, as they also show some US films of this era. So those of you who like old films, check out this British channel.