Secret Beyond the Door
Following a whirlwind romance in Mexico, a beautiful heiress weds a man she scarcely knows. She soon discovers his New York residence is populated by his peculiar circle of relatives, and features macabre rooms that are faithful replicas of infamous murder sites. A single locked chamber harbors the key to her husband's obsession and reveals the truth behind what happened to his first wife.
Director(s)
Fritz Lang
William Holland
Dorothy Hughes
Cast & Crew
Details
Reviews
CinemaSerf
I rather enjoyed this film - Fritz Lang leaves much of the intrigue to emanate from own imagination. "Celia" (Joan Bennett) meets and quickly falls in love with Michael Redgrave ("Mark"), an enigmatic gent from a family that has known better days. They decamp to his remote family mansion where she meets his sister, and his teenage son - of whom she was hitherto unaware. Things all start to take a turn for the strange once she arrives; her husband collects "rooms" - he recreates the rooms where historically macabre events have happened. There is a room in their home that he keeps locked - what's inside? Her paranoia, fuelled by some eerily lit scenarios and a good, suspicion-arousing performance from Redgrave gradually builds into quite a tense denouement. It has shades of "Rebecca" (1940) about it - the sister "Caroline" (Anne Revere) assuming the role of the mysteriously obsessive third party and there is enough ambiguity going on to keep it interesting until the end.
