Secret Beyond the Door... (1948)
Average Rating: 5.5/10
Reviews Counted: 13
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 6
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 1
liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 590
My Rating
Movie Info
Even star Joan Bennett and director Fritz Lang regarded The Secret Beyond the Door as the weakest of their collaborative efforts. Bennett plays spoiled socialite Celia, who falls recklessly in love with the handsome but emotionally complex Mark Lamphere (Michael Redgrave, in his first American film). After their wedding, Celia becomes uncomfortably aware that Mark's mild distrust of women is actually a deep-set, and potentially dangerous, hatred. Even when facing the possibility that she'll be
Jan 1, 1949 Limited
Apr 22, 2006
Universal Pictures
Cast
-
Joan Bennett
Celia Lamphere -
Michael Redgrave
Mark Lamphere -
Anne Revere
Caroline Lamphere -
Barbara O'Neil
Miss Robey -
Natalie Schafer
Edith Potter -
Anabel Shaw
Intellectual Sub-Deb -
Rosa Rey
Paquita -
James Seay
Bob Dwight -
Mark Dennis
David -
Virginia Brissac
Sarah -
Paul Cavanagh
Rick Barrett -
Tom Chatterton
Judge -
David Cota
Knife Fighter -
Frank Dae
Country Squire -
Danny Duncan
Ferret-Faced Man -
Virginia Farmer
Lavender Falls Couple -
Paul Fierro
Fighter -
Jesse Graves
Porter -
Donald Kerr
Ticket Man -
Nolan Leary
Station Agent -
Donna Martell
Young Mexican Girl -
Kay Morley
Sub-Debs -
Pedro Regas
Waiter -
Julian Rivero
Proprietor -
Paul Scardon
Owl Eyes -
-
Lucio Villegas
Priest -
Eddy Waller
Lem -
-
-
Ralph Littlefield
Gothic Man -
Harry Denny
College President -
Watson Downs
Conductor -
-
Peggy Remington
Dean of Women -
Wayne Treadway
Beefy Man
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All Critics (13) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (7) | Rotten (7) | DVD (1)
Probably the most psychoanalytically oriented of his features, and because it's Lang, the murkiness is mainly a strength.
Top CriticMr. Lang is still a director who knows how to turn the obvious, such as locked doors and silent chambers and roving spotlights, into strangely tingling stuff.
Mental complexities of the principals makes it sometimes hard to sort out the various motivations used to spin the tale.
[Lang's] direction is masterly, imposing meanings and tensions through images that are spare, resonant and astonishingly beautiful. A remarkable film.
The result is heavy going and pretentious.
The most successful aspect of the production is the cinematography, which creates a shadowy world of false appearances, hidden meanings, and elusive truths.
Borrowing a plot from the Bluebeard legend, and chucking in a load of sub-Freudian hokum, Fritz Lang nonetheless makes a class act of this Gothic psycho-thriller.
Sloppy effort from Lang late in his career.
Suspicion this is not.
Secret Beyond the Door ventures into some astounding arenas (even for Lang, who was an expert in paranoia), both of the mind and otherwise.
Insofar as every Lang film you haven't seen is an undiscovered country, Secret Beyond the Door flies high over its seemingly anonymous place in the master's 1940s phase.
Poetry of architecture, rejection of Freud
Strange, weirdly inventive thriller
Even Lang himself thought this was a poor film.
Audience Reviews for Secret Beyond the Door...
Super Reviewer
Some great visuals and a very interesting (if not overly complex) premise.
Part of both it's charm and short coming is the horribly dated dialog, but the potential is there for a great film.
Super Reviewer
Discussion Forum
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Foreign Titles
- Secret Beyond the Door (DE)
- Secret Beyond the Door (UK)
