It stars George Sanders, Margaret Lindsay, and Vincent Price, and tells the story of a family consumed by greed in which one brother frames another for murder.

In the late 17th century, Colonel Jaffrey Pyncheon falsely accused a poor carpenter, Matthew Maule, of witchcraft.

His elder brother, Clifford (Vincent Price), lives at home with their father, Gerald Pyncheon (Gilbert Emery).

He wants to marry his cousin, Hepzibah Pyncheon (Margaret Lindsay), sell the house, and move to New York City.

"Holgrave" spreads rumors about town that Clifford has been poring over old documents, has found a secret stairway in the house, and is tearing up the Pyncheon home in search of the long-lost treasure.

Deacon Arnold Foster (Miles Mander), who loaned Jaffrey the investment funds, arrives and demands the money back.

Pre-production for the film was secretive, as the studio feared that other companies with more financial resources might rush a House of Seven Gables into production before Universal could finish its version.

[7][a] Screenwriter Lester Cole says it was unclear why Universal chose to make the film, although it may have been because the book was in the public domain.

Cole substantially cut much of the beginning of the novel, and altered a good deal of the plot—remaining faithful to the spirit of the novel if not its actual narrative.

He turned the character of Matthew Maule/"Holgrave" into an abolitionist, and depicted capitalists like Jaffrey Pyncheon and Arnold Foster as illegal slave-traders.

[17] Film historian Lawrence Raw has argued that Cole, and to a lesser extent Greene, also wanted the story to attack authoritarianism.

[6] Film historian and literary critic Thomas S. Hischak has argued that the final script ended up less about the novel and more about "variations on a theme by Hawthorne".

[18] Nevertheless, production designer Jack Otterson went to Salem, Massachusetts, to take photographs and measurements of the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion (the inspiration for the House of the Seven Gables in Hawthorne's novel).

A facade of the House of the Seven Gables was constructed on the Colonial Street backlot at Universal Studios[19] (it remained standing into the 21st century).

[22][c] Robert Cummings was originally cast as Clifford Pyncheon about December 28,[24] but he fell ill the following day and was forced to leave the production.

[5] The production was already three days behind schedule on January 5 due to problems with the period costumes, lighting, and the time-consuming aging makeup,[5] and rain had delayed exterior shooting at the Seven Gables House.

Alan Napier, who had forged a deep friendship with Joe May on The Invisible Man Returns as well, was cast as the postman, Fuller.

[35] Hiring for the major roles was not resolved until January 12, 1940, when the studio announced the casting of Cecil Kellaway and Charles Trowbridge.

[36] The following day, Universal announced that a song, "The Color of Your Eyes" (music and lyrics by Ralph Freed and Frank Skinner), had been added to the picture, and would be sung by Vincent Price.

[37] Additional delays occurred when airplanes flying over the set disrupted more exterior filming in mid January.

Alan Napier[41] and Vincent Price[28] both said that May had a heavy German accent, and had difficulty making himself understood in English.

[21] This hampered May's ability to direct his actors, and the studio ordered screenwriter Lester Cole to act as dialogue director.

This is a visual doppelgänger, indicating that the character has two aspects which will be revealed in the film (the happy, youthful girl and the bitter, repressed spinster).

[45] Price and Sanders, both relative unknowns at the time, delivered good performances which boosted their careers significantly.

During the Second Red Scare of 1947 to 1957, Universal Studio executives criticized the film because, they said, Kelly and Cole had injected radical politics into the script and the directing.

Vincent Price biographer Denis Meikle has called the film "overly sentimental", and criticized the aging make-up as not very good.

[26] The novel The House of the Seven Gables served as the basis of one of three stories in the 1963 anthology horror film Twice-Told Tales.

The story, which departs significantly from both the book and the 1940 film, has Vincent Price portraying "Gerald Pyncheon" (a composite character)—a murderer who meets a supernatural end.