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Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A Disappointing Continuation

Copyright 8 March 1948 by Diana Productions, Inc. Released through Universal-International Pictures Co., Inc. Presented by Walter Wanger. New York opening at the Winter Garden: 15 January 1948. U.S. release: February 1948. U.K. release: December 1948. Australian release: 15 April 1948. Sydney opening at the Victory. 8,869 feet. 98 minutes.It's a funny thing but this film really grows on you after you've seen it a few times. In fact, on a third outing I found it quite disturbing. Admittedly the viewings were separated by some years but the initial response of disappointment and belief that it was not a typical Lang film have now changed with the latest sighting to a conviction that here indeed is the typical Fritz. You see I have now discounted some of the initial feelings about it being just a women's soap opera with Babs O'Neil making a fair fist of a sort of poor woman's Mrs Danvers. The film is very, very lavishly produced (it's not till the third viewing that you work out that the "rooms" would have to be models in order to contain the expense) and very atmospherically photographed and has a stinger of a score by Rozsa. Now that we've got the soap opera elements out of the way we can see details that we missed like the gypsy knife fight and the very idea of collecting rooms and the background of the characters. Admittedly, the denouement is still a bit hard to take - just how nuts is Redgrave, does he really mean to kill B and if so why? Miss B is given the lion's share of the camera with flattering costumes and even an off-screen commentary (the sudden switch at the climax to an off-camera commentary by Redgrave is another element that doesn't work) but she is no Joan Fontaine. Still it's a film that certainly repays re-viewing, its sets, its score, its atmosphere and any film photographed by Cortez is a MUST-SEE anyway.

Joan Bennett is always good and reliable and worth seeing, and so is Michael Redgrave, no matter how weird characters he makes, and this is one of the weirdest. As a pychological thriller it's not quite credible, Joan Bennett showing some astonishing carelessness in now and then going into panic, and Michael Redgrave unable to control himself almost as a somnambulist. The supporting characters are almost more interesting, and the boy seems to be the only clever one. What actually makes this film is the effects, above all Miklos Rosza's always tremendous music, but also Fritz Lang's knack of conjuring some magic, here especially Joan Bennett losing herself in dark corridors - it happens demonstrably frequently in this film. All these effects tend to tower up to some exaggerated theatricalness, while as a psychological thriller it would have been more efficient with less. But it's great cinematic magic, all the way to the end.

This thing is somewhat like Rebecca, in a way. There is an impulsive marriage of a young woman, Celia (Joan Bennett) to a mysterious man, Mark (Michael Redgrave). After the marriage Celia finds out he has been married before, except this time, there is a son by that marriage. And her husband has a personal assistant who is facially deformed and is prone to setting fires. However, Celia is not like Rebecca. She is full of life and not unsure of herself at all.One night, shortly after their marriage, Mark, an architect, talks about how he "collects" rooms as a hobby at a party at their house. Before the guests go look at the rooms, Celia tells the guests how her husband has said in the past that happy occasions are often tied to the rooms in which they occur. However, this tour is not one of happy events, instead all of the rooms are replicas of rooms in which grisly murders have occurred, and the new husband has the murders and the rooms down to the last detail. The look on Celia's face shows that she is suddenly wondering what exactly is going on in the head of that husband of hers.And then one more secret..there is a door where Mark is working away on another replica room where Bennett is not allowed to go. Then one day she manages to get in and finds....I'll let you watch and find out. Let me just say if not for the great visual style of Lang, the fact that Michael Redgrave had a knack for being creepy when he wants to and Joan Bennett could aptly project just about any emotion, and don't forget the score, this thing would have been a total washout, because the ideas are not that original and the ending is just not all that it was built up to be, given all of the wind machines, at least not for me.

In New York, after the death of her beloved brother Rick Barrett (Paul Cavanagh), the heiress Celia (Joan Bennett) has a brief love affair with Rick's friend and administrator of the funds Bob Dwight (James Seay) and they decide to marry each other. However, Celia travels on vacation to Mexico, where she meets the mysterious owner of a minor magazine Mark Lamphere (Michael Redgrave) and she has a crush on him. Mark is an eccentric man that collects rooms in his mansion in Blaze Creek and they immediately get married to each other.Celia travels to Levender Falls and she moves to the mansion. She discovers that Mark's sister Caroline Lamphere (Anne Revere) administrates the manor; his secretary Miss Robey (Barbara O'Neil) also lives there; further, Mark has been previously married with a woman called Eleonor and their rebel and weird son, David (Mark Dennis), also lives in the house. Mark has a strange behavior but a gives a party to their common friends and he show his rooms, all of them related to men that killed their wives. But he does not open the room number 7 that he always keeps locked. Celia is intrigued and a little scared with the contents of the rooms and she decides to find what Mark keeps locked in the mysterious room."Secret Beyond the Door..." is a silly and unbelievable psychological thriller by the great director Fritz Lang, unfortunately with a ridiculous and disappointing conclusion. The story of this Bluebeard is intriguing until the moment that he shows his rooms to his wife and guests. The commercial conclusion with happy end is also terrible. The good thing is the wonderful cinematography in black and white and shadows and the camera work. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "O Segredo da Porta Fechada" ("The Secret of the Closed Door")