Fritz Lang Unlocks some Well-Photographed Mid-century Freudian Psychobabble
Directed by Fritz Lang
Starring Joan Bennett, Michael Redgrave, Anne Revere
Released December 24th, 1947
Heiress Celia (Joan Bennett) and Architect Mark (Michael Redgrave) have only just met and yet have fallen deeply in love. After a whirlwind romance they are married, perfect strangers content to get to know each other better over the rest of their lives. They move into Mark’s family estate, “Blaze Creek,” a mansion he designed and built, located just outside of New York City. Mark’s sister Carrie (Anne Revere) runs the household at Blaze Creek, with Mark’s assistant Miss Robey (Barbara O’Neill) in tow. Celia is shocked to learn that Mark is a widower and even has a son! The precocious young boy is named David (Mark Dennis) and he does not take a liking to Celia at all, which puts him in the same camp as Miss Robey.
Through the early days of their marriage, Celia finds that Mark is often distant. Being an heiress about to come into a lot of money, Celia worries that Mark’s mind may be on her money. She puts these worries to the side but is further exasperated when she discovers Mark’s strange hobby. In the bedrooms of his sprawling manor, Mark enjoys meticulously recreating rooms in which famous murders have taken place. Cheery!
Mark tells Celia she is free to roam Blaze Creek and make it her own (gee, thanks). That is, except for the seventh bedroom. This room is locked and strictly off limits. Of course she will open the door, of course she will be shocked, and of course there will come a reckoning. It all culminates in a truly ridiculous ending during which characters spout Freudian psychobabble about the evil that men do being traced to childhood trauma, and in Mark’s case, locked doors and lilacs.
Director Fritz Lang’s inventive usage of blocking and shadow is well documented and obviously he is a master filmmaker, but Secret Beyond the Door is not as impressive as some of his other, more celebrated work. In fact, this is one of his least entertaining films. The derivative story (it’s a variation on the Bluebeard tale) is the weakest element of Secret Beyond the Door. It’s hard to raise tension when we’ve seen this sort of thing play out before. The boring script by Silvia Richards (based on a story by Rufus King) isn’t helped by the melodramatic score by Miklos Rozsa or the hazy cinematography by Stanley Cortez.
At least the opening is nifty. Joan Bennett’s whispering voice brings the audience inside Celia’s head through a dreamy narration that equates to a 1947 version of ASMR. Bennett gives a most assured performance, doing her best to elevate the tired material. Secret Beyond the Door is clearly the weakest of the four collaborations between Bennett and Lang, with Man Hunt, The Woman in the Window, and Scarlet Street all being much better. Michael Redgrave plays Mark as a cypher. You are never quite sure what he’s up to, but it’s probably something that will lead to attempted murder.
Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray edition of Secret Beyond the Door sports a High-Definition master from a 4K scan done in 2022 by Paramount Pictures. The resulting picture is perhaps not as crystal clear or as sharp as you may expect, but it certainly looks better than any previous release of this gothic melodrama. There are trailers for eight contemporary thrillers included on the disc, along with an audio commentary by film historian Alan K. Rode, during which we learn the opening animated dream sequence was done by Walt Disney Studios and that the film was received poorly upon release, with audiences laughing in all the wrong places.
