Hollywood Ten screenwriter and San Francisco resident Lester Cole adapted Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel for the screen in this rarely revived Universal production, directed by German emigrant Joe May. According to Leonard Maltin in “TV Movies,” House of the Seven Gables deserves three stars, and this notice: “Fine acting in adaptation of Hawthorne story of a jealous brother sending sister's fiancé to prison; intriguing drama set in 17th-century New England.”