Secret Beyond the Door - Fritz Lang

[MissGoddess]

Tomorrow evening at 6:00 p.m. EST, TCM is airing the rarely seen Secret Beyond the Door (1948),
one of those films noir Joan Bennett did when she and husband Walter Wanger were in
partnership with director Fritz Lang. It is supposedly based on the "Bluebeard" legend,
which should be an interesting twist. I've never seen it and look forward to it, as I've
really become a fan of Joan's in her more serious films.

[JackFavell]

Oh, thanks for noting the showing of Secret Beyond the Door, Goddess!Thank goodness you did, or I would have missed it. I am looking forward to seeing this one for the first time.

I just added Woman in the Window to my dvd queue at Netflix yesterday.

[JackFavell]

I have it listed as 5:00 pm ET tomorrow - September 20th - on my schedule.

[MissGoddess]

Better double check that, Jackie...TCM usually airs movies in the 6 to 8 p.m. slot, EST. The reminder TCM sent
me says 6.

They should do a triple feature of Scarlet Street, Woman in the Window and Secret Beyond the Door.

[MissGoddess]

Of course, this means I'm going to miss "Have Gun Will Travel" on Encore!

[moira finnie]

I got carried away when writing about this movie here. Stanley Cortez's brilliant cinematography, Fritz Lang, Joan Bennett, Michael Redgrave and an off-the-wall story. What's not to love? Well, quite a bit, if you believe most of the critics when this movie came out.



It's still very compelling--though you might not want to analyze it using linear thinking. I'm beginning to think that TCM needs to feature Joan Bennett as Star of the Month---soon.

[MissGoddess]

Wonderful, Moira! I haven't read the article yet because I want to see the movie, first,
but thank you for the link! It's smashing to see your work in the main TCM website!

I'm very excited to see Secret Beyond the Door, even if it didn't get noticed by critics. What do they
know, anyway, ha. I also think it would be great if they featured Joan as star of the month. She really
covered a lot of territory in her career and it's remarkable she was able to play rather girlish types,
not just early in her career but even as late as Man Hunt, as well as housewives and true blue Scarlet
Street femme fatales.

[JackFavell]

Ah! I'm sorry. I must have accidentally changed my settings when I copied this month's schedule. I have had this happen twice now. Thanks so much! Now I am really beholden to you... think of all the movies I could have missed!

And Joan would make a GREAT SOTM.

[Mr. Arkadin]

The Secret Beyond the Door finally gets airplay on TCM! Can a proper DVD release be far behind?

Here's something I posted about the Lang/Bennett films a few years ago:

Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, and The Secret Beyond the Door constitute a trilogy between Bennett and Lang who formed their own production company to make these films (Robinson also owned a share).

The films flow from light to dark. Woman in the Window, although dealing with a serious subject, has many comedic elements and is played very much tongue in cheek. The Secret Beyond the Door has a very serious tone and there is never any levity in the film. Scarlet Street is more balanced than these two bookends. It has humor and lots of underlying jokes and jabs, but it also has a deadly serious element as well.

If there is an overlying theme that runs through all three works, it is a nightmarish quality or dreamlike existence. In Woman in the Window, Robinson and Bennett's meeting is dreamlike and we find out why later on in the film (I don't want to spoil it for others). Scarlet Street is about a man who never achieved his dreams as a young man. When they are fulfilled they become nightmares. The Secret Beyond the Door is the most beautifully shot of the three and the cinematography actually looks very dreamlike. Bennett marries a mysterious stranger and like the Bluebeard fairy tale she is fascinated by a locked room that he will not allow her to enter. As with the protagonists in the previous two movies, her character begins to live in a world of her own imagination.

While we all have favorites, artistically, I can't place one of these films above another. They are three chapters in a book written by Bennett and Lang and should be viewed as such.

[srowley75]

I own a very old VHS, but I will probably record it just to see what the print quality is like.

Those who enjoyed Hitchcock's Rebecca should also check out this film - the plot's very similar in certain ways.

[ChiO]

Spot on, Mr. Ark. They do play as a trilogy. But I will go out on the limb -- after SCARLET STREET, SECRET BEYOND THE DOOR is my favorite Hollywood Lang movie. It must not be missed...and I'll be recording because TCM's print has to be better than the one I have.

[moira finnie]

I own a very old VHS, but I will probably record it just to see what the print quality is like.

I think you will be very pleased with the restored print from UCLA. It is exceptionally beautiful and far better than I remember seeing it 20 years ago.

The Secret Beyond the Door has a very serious tone and there is never any levity in the film. Scarlet Street is more balanced than these two bookends. It has humor and lots of underlying jokes and jabs, but it also has a deadly serious element as well.

I have to disagree a little about the levity in Secret Beyond the Door. While the tone is somber and dream-like, and all the actors approached their roles with seriousness, some of the characters, particularly Barbara O'Neil's Miss Robey, who is a fairly outrageous figure, a smart aleck college girl (Marie Harmon) touring the rooms, and the socialite character portrayed by Natalie Schaefer have some pretty amusing moments. The latter two both make remarks that could be facetiously interpreted and are an interesting commentary on the Freudian underpinnings of the plot--which might indicate Lang's lingering skepticism about psychology's ability to solve or even comprehend the puzzle of human behavior.

The Secret Beyond the Door finally gets airplay on TCM! Can a proper DVD release be far behind?

I believe that a DVD may be in the future, especially since The Treasures from the UCLA Film and Television Archive just finished touring the country showing this movie, along with others, with considerable success at various venues. As usual,legalities and economics are bound to complicate this eventuality. The press release about all the films that TCM is showing this month courtesy of their relationship with UCLA Film and Television Archive is here.

I was so mad at myself when I discovered that I could have seen Secret... on the big screen at nearby Cornell in Ithaca in August!! I gotta start checking their site more often for the next tour.

While we all have favorites, artistically, I can't place one of these films above another. They are three chapters in a book written by Bennett and Lang and should be viewed as such.

I know I'm dreaming (as Joan B. says in one scene, "Calling Dr. Freud!") but I would love to see Man Hunt, Scarlet Street, Woman in the Window and Secret Beyond the Door broadcast together on TCM as a primetime event with the archivists from UCLA and perhaps Brian Kellow (Joan's biographer, along with her family in The Bennetts) and Patrick McGilligan (Lang's biographer in Fritz Lang: Nature of the Beast) involved in a round table discussion of these movies. Oh, and while we're fantasizing, how about a focus for a night (or a month?) on the cinematographer Stanley Cortez?

I can't wait for you guys to see this movie. It's far from a masterpiece, but I found it fascinating.

[MissGoddess]

The latter two both make remarks that could be facetiously interpreted and are an interesting commentary on the Freudian underpinnings of the plot--which might indicate Lang's lingering skepticism about psychology's ability to solve or even comprehend the puzzle of human behavior.

That raises my level of interest even more.

Now just let me not forget to watch and record when I get home...I am SUCH a creature of
habit that I'm likely to go home and automatically turn to my western shows on Encore at
that time, and totally forget about Secret Beyond the Door.

[MissGoddess]

I recorded it but only had it on in the background, so I caught just a few snippets. It's a gorgeous print, that's for sure.
I hope to watch it sometime this week. Frankly, it's going to be tough to beat The Prowler, though. Wow, that
one was excellent.

[ken123]

Joan was gorgeous and did a top rate job, as did Barbara O' Neil and Ann Revere, Redgrave less so IMHO.