Post by rmichaelpyle on Dec 29, 2011 13:47:06 GMT -6
Fritz Lang was known for his magnificent films with a twist or with chills and thrills, films such as "M" (made in Germany in 1931), all of the "Mabuse" films, both in Germany and America, and finally, nearing the last third of his career, American films such as "The Woman in the Window" (1944) and "Scarlett Street" (1945), both of which had Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea. Well, he'd teamed up with Joan Bennett before in 1941 for two other films, and he decided to team up once more in 1947 (along with Bennett's husband, Walter Wanger, as producer) for the film I watched last night, "Secret Beyond the Door..." (1947).
"Secret Beyond the Door..." is nothing more than a Freudian knock-off of "Rebecca", the grand Grand Guignol of all Hitchcockian films. Similar plot motifs and leitmotifs render themselves thoughout the film and make the viewer wonder if Daphne du Maurier may have had a hand (she didn't!). The film reeks of potential, but unfortunately the potential never materializes, and the ending is such a let down that it seems (at least it seemed to me) to have been written by a very naive, idealistic and romantic teenaged novelist who writes a great thriller, only to end by having swallowed the thrill in a gooey kiss that came out of another novel! Had it been shortened a great deal, and re-written to end with the tragedy and realism it began with, then the film might have been a memorable one. Well, hindsight is always easy, so they say...
Great atmosphere for many scenes. Wonderful acting on the part of Michael Redgrave and Joan Bennett. The rooms in the fabulous house were wonderfully appointed. The tension builds and builds, but it just never goes anywhere until... Then when the denoument occurs, it is fashioned by a "Z" movie writer, and the finale itself tagged on like a, "Take this, sucker, and like it!!"
It coulda' been a contender. It certainly contends for 7 and a half rounds, then folds. It was 3½ stars out of four, but ended up being 1½ out of four, although I'll give it 2 just for being interesting enough up to the end. Frankly, Joan Bennett from the side at chest level in a couple of shots in the film could make me add an extra ½ star, but I'd be arrested for depraved lechery.
Print's pretty, though.
"Secret Beyond the Door..." is nothing more than a Freudian knock-off of "Rebecca", the grand Grand Guignol of all Hitchcockian films. Similar plot motifs and leitmotifs render themselves thoughout the film and make the viewer wonder if Daphne du Maurier may have had a hand (she didn't!). The film reeks of potential, but unfortunately the potential never materializes, and the ending is such a let down that it seems (at least it seemed to me) to have been written by a very naive, idealistic and romantic teenaged novelist who writes a great thriller, only to end by having swallowed the thrill in a gooey kiss that came out of another novel! Had it been shortened a great deal, and re-written to end with the tragedy and realism it began with, then the film might have been a memorable one. Well, hindsight is always easy, so they say...
Great atmosphere for many scenes. Wonderful acting on the part of Michael Redgrave and Joan Bennett. The rooms in the fabulous house were wonderfully appointed. The tension builds and builds, but it just never goes anywhere until... Then when the denoument occurs, it is fashioned by a "Z" movie writer, and the finale itself tagged on like a, "Take this, sucker, and like it!!"
It coulda' been a contender. It certainly contends for 7 and a half rounds, then folds. It was 3½ stars out of four, but ended up being 1½ out of four, although I'll give it 2 just for being interesting enough up to the end. Frankly, Joan Bennett from the side at chest level in a couple of shots in the film could make me add an extra ½ star, but I'd be arrested for depraved lechery.
Print's pretty, though.
doesn't appeal to me in the slightest, so I'll probably skip Secret Beyond the Door, R. Michael, but thanks for the review. We movie fans tend to idealize the classic movie era but films like that bring us back to the reality that a lot of the product Hollywood cranked out like sausages in those days was derivative or just plain mediocre. Because so many of those films haven't survived, we think the classic era was better than it was. Also, there were often a lot more writers involved in the script than are credited on the screen. The script for this one could still being written while they were shooting it, or perhaps it was patched together by committee, who knows?