MissSimonetta I knew this film had a reputation as a brutal shocker, but I was stunned by how nasty the violence is in Behind the Door (1919)! Far superior to most WWI-thrillers of the period, which were more interested in conveying propaganda than telling a story, Behind the Door is best described as a revenge tragedy.We see no blood or guts spilled, nor do we see every detail of the awful fate of Oscar Kruger's beloved wife Alice, but what we do see is more than enough to disgust. And the way Oscar takes his revenge will have you thinking of the ending of The Black Cat (1934), only in this film, the vengeance is better presented, with far greater horror and pathos, in my opinion-- and I say this as a major fan of The Black Cat.The best part of the movie is the character of Oscar, brought to life by Hobart Boswarth. While he goes a little overboard at times, he sells the character's arc so well. Oscar starts out as this sweet, loving man who, by greater degrees as the movie progresses, is forced into savagery and violence by the intolerant small-town hotheads who view his German ancestry as akin to treason and by the German U-boat crew who brutalize his wife and leave him for dead.The cinematography is stunning, even gothic at times without steeping too far into expressionism.Not to be missed if you love silent films! Heck, not to be missed if you're still under the delusion that the silent era was some kind of age of innocence.

Superhanz One cannot say there weren't any flaws in either the plot or production - among them, the blatant fact the Bosworth is way too old for his leading role, to be too convincing (he was in between 51 and 52, when this was shot!) - the first time you realize how wrinkly both his face and hands are, I'm sure you'll agree with me! Not that being old is a fault on its own right, it's just that we end up feeling the rather heroic role cries out for a younger thespian, no doubt about it.Also, as I seasoned photographer, I feel the "restored" print (a restoration apparently endorsed by The Library of Congress) could have been, well, more properly restored: on some scenes where the celluloid stuck for many consecutive frames and decay is quite obvious, I feel they missed on the opportunity to simply pick the best frames where some still scenery was not affected by it and simply clone it, just like we photographers do to photographs where there are good and bad ones in a series! When I have the time, I'm going to open some of these frames on Photoshop and intend to prove this theory of mine! But back to the film itself, I found it a touch of genius of how, only in the end we come across the reason for the title (I was starting to wonder if it would ever show up) - very clever indeed - and scary too! Hence my dutifully adding "Thriller" to its genre which, by the time I wrote this, was absent from this IMDb entry.

Richard Chatten Walter Schwieger, the U-boat commander who on 7 May 1915 ordered the torpedoing of the 'Lusitania' could never of dreamt of the bloodlust against his countrymen that his action fuelled in the United States. It certainly kept Wallace Beery in steady employment playing bestial huns as late as Rex Ingram's 'The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse' (1921), when he chomps on a chicken leg while instructing a firing squad; and it's when he makes his first appearance in 'Behind the Door' as a dastardly U-boat commander that this film - which shows hatred of the Hun unabated a full year after Germany's surrender - comes to life.It comes as no surprise that Gouverneur Morris's original 1918 short story was barely two pages long, as most of 'Behind the Door' feels simply like preparation for Hobart Bosworth's vengeance on Beery for what he does to his wife. Bosworth is taxidermist Oscar Krug, who after sampling the hostility welling up in small town America against those like himself of German extraction, shows his patriotism by rolling up his sleeves and commanding a ship to fight the German navy.It would be interesting to know if submarines in wartime actually did make off with shipwrecked female passengers as spoils of war as Beery does with Bosworth's wife, but it's not hard to imagine. Harder to anticipate is the incredible vengeance Bosworth exacts on him when fate bring them together again two months later. Having already failed to recognise Bosworth as the grimacing face pressed against a porthole as his U-boat dived, Beery is then stupid enough to brag in detail over a cup of coffee about what he did to his wife. The first of two visual shocks that follow is the shot of her being tossed through a doorway to Beery's sex-starved crew like a bone to a pack of starving Alsations (when they're through with her she's then fired out of a torpedo tube); the second is a close-up of Bosworth's taxidermy tool kit, which Bosworth had conveniently brought along with him. What he does with this kit is not shown, but we're left in no doubt.Bela Lugosi did the same to Boris Karloff at the conclusion of 'The Black Cat' (1934) fifteen years later, and in 'Intolerance' (1916) a man has his head lopped off on camera. Doubtless equally gruesome moments exists elsewhere in pre-Code cinema, but in those days such moments were all the more effective for being unexpected; unlike the depressing competition modern filmmakers seem to be constantly engaged in of drawing attention to themselves by outdoing each other in pushing the limits in the depiction of ultra-violence on the big screen.

BillBarber04 Saw what may be the last exhibition of this film last Saturday (5-8-04) in Rome, NY. Film has been pieced together from several sources. Quality varies from excellent to barely discernible images, with a few scenes entirely missing (Library of Congress Reconstruction).I was amazed at the intensity of this story. It was very obviously influenced by World War I, the German Submariners are shown to be absolute amoral barbarians, but the film is amazing in its craft and impact.The print which we saw is said to be the only one outside of Russia (see below), and its condition is such that Library of Congress has pulled it from exhibition. The Rome, NY showing was the last booked. I understand that a negative was made from this print, however there are no prints available at the present time.Another complete print of the film is said to exist in Russia, with Russian titles, but no more information was given.I was amazed at how rapidly the story moved. 70 minutes felt like 45!If you have a chance to see this film, DO! You won't forget it.