hrkepler 'Secret Beyond the Door' is far from Fritz Lang's greatest (American)films, but that should be enough for real film-noir fans. The film supposed to be Lang's version of (much much better) 'Rebecca' - a psychological film-noir. There are some similarities between the two film, but 'Secret Beyond the Door' might seem too melodramatic and camp to capture the exact eerie feel like Hitchcock does with 'Rebecca'. These two films have been compared so much, I think I don't need to fall into deeper with my analyses between them two.'Secret Beyond the Door' still manages to be captivating and entertaining enough. Joan Bennett's trance like narration about closed door in herself, gives the film kind off dream like vibe. As one of the main character is running a magazine about architecture, then it is even more enjoyable to look how Lang have used architecture and how important role it plays in the film.Melodramatic, but murky psycho thriller.

anthonymcdonald150 With Fritz Lang. Michael Redgrave, Joan Bennett and the supporting cast this movie starts off great. Miss Bennett is so gorgeous, the leading ladies of today must be so jealous while the casting directors must wonder where did all the beauty go, Redgrave is as good as ever I have seen. I know the script can get a bit long toothed but that's just because current films don't rely on story driven movies. Natalie Schafer is such a scene steal-er. I loved this movie. Could not recommend it enough if you have a cold March evening and there is nothing ON TV, just go and bring yourself back to the mid 40's, the fashions, the set dressing will do it and enjoy the masters at movie making doing what they do best.. LOVED IT...

Spikeopath Secret Beyond the Door is directed by Fritz Lang and adapted to screenplay by Silvia Richards from a story by Rufus King. It stars Joan Bennett, Michael Redgrave, Anne Revere, Barbara O'Neil and Natalie Schafer. Music is by Miklós Rózsa and cinematography by Stanley Cortez. After a whirlwind romance, Celia Barrett (Bennett) marries Mark Lamphere (Redgrave) but finds once the honeymoon is over his behaviour becomes quite odd... A troubled production and troubling reactions to it by the critics and Lang himself! Secret Beyond the Door is very much in the divisive half of Lang's filmic output. Taking its lead from classic era Hollywood's keen interest with all things Freudian, and doffing its cap towards a number of "women in peril at home" films of the 1940s, it's a picture that's hardly original. Yet in spite of some weaknesses in the screenplay that revolve around the psychological troubles of Mark Lamphere, this is still a fascinating and suspenseful picture. I married a stranger. Draped in Gothic overtones and astonishingly beautiful into the bargain, it's unmistakably a Lang film. His ire towards the cast and studio, where he was usurped in the cutting room and with choice of cinematographer, led Lang to be very dismissive towards the piece. However, it contains all that's good about the great director. Scenes such as the opening involving a paper boat on ripples of water, or a sequence that sees Mark dream he is in a courtroom full of faceless jurors, these are indelible images. Then there's the lighting techniques used around the moody Lamphere mansion that are simply stunning, with Cortez (The Night of the Hunter) photographing with atmospheric clarity. Blades Creek, Levender Falls. Elsewhere the characterisations are intriguing. Mark is troubled by something and we learn it's about women in his life, while his "hobby" of reconstructing famous murder scenes in the rooms of the mansion, is macabre and really puts a kinky distortion in the narrative. Celia marries in haste but is surprisingly strong, her character arc given heft by the fact we think she may well be prepared to die for love. Then there's the house secretary, Miss Robey (O'Neil), a shifty woman with a headscarf covering an unsightly scar on one side of her face, and Mark's young son David (Mark Dennis) who is cold and detached and has some disturbing theories on his father's means and motivations. Lilacs and locked doors. Cast performances are not all top grade, and even though Redgrave doesn't push himself to required darker territories, the performances are involving and worthy of the viewer's undivided attention. Rózsa's musical score is a cracker, deftly switching from the romantic swirls that accompany Mark and Celia during their love courting, to being a stalking menace around the Lamphere house and misty grounds when danger and psychological distortion is near by. Technically it's a remarkable movie, where even allowing for some daftness involving the psychobabble, it's a picture that Lang fans can easily love. There are those who detest it, very much so, but if it does hit your spot it will get inside you and stay there for some time afterwards. 8/10

Claudio Carvalho In New York, after the death of her beloved brother Rick Barrett (Paul Cavanagh), the heiress Celia (Joan Bennett) has a brief love affair with Rick's friend and administrator of the funds Bob Dwight (James Seay) and they decide to marry each other. However, Celia travels on vacation to Mexico, where she meets the mysterious owner of a minor magazine Mark Lamphere (Michael Redgrave) and she has a crush on him. Mark is an eccentric man that collects rooms in his mansion in Blaze Creek and they immediately get married to each other.Celia travels to Levender Falls and she moves to the mansion. She discovers that Mark's sister Caroline Lamphere (Anne Revere) administrates the manor; his secretary Miss Robey (Barbara O'Neil) also lives there; further, Mark has been previously married with a woman called Eleonor and their rebel and weird son, David (Mark Dennis), also lives in the house. Mark has a strange behavior but a gives a party to their common friends and he show his rooms, all of them related to men that killed their wives. But he does not open the room number 7 that he always keeps locked. Celia is intrigued and a little scared with the contents of the rooms and she decides to find what Mark keeps locked in the mysterious room."Secret Beyond the Door..." is a silly and unbelievable psychological thriller by the great director Fritz Lang, unfortunately with a ridiculous and disappointing conclusion. The story of this Bluebeard is intriguing until the moment that he shows his rooms to his wife and guests. The commercial conclusion with happy end is also terrible. The good thing is the wonderful cinematography in black and white and shadows and the camera work. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "O Segredo da Porta Fechada" ("The Secret of the Closed Door")