gridoon2018 I was surprised at how good this 1929 film is: it flows, it's not stagy, the camera moves (there is a nice long tracking shot near the start), the story is clear, and the actors seem comfortable with sound. And it is informative, too - I didn't know about the 12-mile-radius-free-drinking-ship thing! The ending is a little too convenient, and the comic-relief character of the hotel manager could have been cut (Zasu Pitts can stay, I like her). As for Barbara Stanwyck's first film appearance, there is nothing really special about her performance, but certainly nothing bad, either. The one who stands out in the cast is Harry Mestayer as the D.A. - he's a precursor of all those wily officers of the law in the movies who always know when you're lying. **1/2 out of 4.

Richard Chatten Don't be taken in by the rollicking opening sequence full of sweeping pans and tracks and hard-boiled dialogue set in an offshore speakeasy; the remaining hour (with one exception, which I shall come to) is strictly canned theatre. Based on Channing Pollock's 1919 Broadway play 'The Sign on the Door', already filmed with Norma Talmadge under its original title in 1921 (a print of which happily survives in the Library of Congress), there are actually two locked doors in this production, both of them central to the plot.Locked door number one is on board the boat when slimy lounge lizard Frank Devereaux (Rod la Rocque) pockets the key to the door of the cabin he has taken Ann Carter (Barbara Stanwyck) downstairs to for lunch all the better to force his attentions upon her when it's time for desert. Locked door number two prevents Ann from making a discreet exit from the hotel room where she sees Devereaux deservedly shot 18 months later; and it's at this point that the need on her part to improvise a plausible explanation for her presence there alone with Devereaux's body brings the film briefly to life.The settings are handsomely designed by William Cameron Menzies, but after the opening sequence cameraman Ray June's only other opportunity to add a little atmosphere to the proceedings comes with the noirish lighting of the darkened apartment after Devereaux's shooting. And when the lights go back on and the talk resumes, the interest dissipates again.This film is only remembered today as the talkie debut of the great Barbara Stanwyck; but for devotees of silent cinema there is also the bonus of Mack Swain and Zazu Pitts as the manager and telephonist of the hotel where the final leg of the film takes place. Harry Stubbs' amusing turn as the obtrusive waiter on the boat, however, has been surprisingly little remarked upon by previous reviewers, particularly considering the revelation about his character that comes late in the film, which probably worked better on stage than here under director George Fitzmaurice's pedestrian guidance.

st-shot This unintentionally funny drama is an excellent example of how bad early sound films could be. The story is ridiculous, the sound understandably bad, the actors either wooden or overwrought clichés and the morality issues of honor that drive the plot arcane even for the 20's. Afterall it was the Jazz Age.Helen Reagan daughter of wealthy social register hot shot Lawrence Reagan falls for the charms of worldly playboy/gigolo Frank Devereaux. When scandal threatens her honor, Devereaux ex and Reagan current Ann Carter steps in to save her. Carter visits Devereaux at his lair to attempt to dissuade him but fails miserably, facing blackmail herself. Reagan then shows up gets in a struggle with Devereaux and mortally wounds him (though he does hang on beyond films end to exonerate the lot) then covers up by locking the entrance door from the outside and in the process traps Ann, who unknown to Reagan witnesses the murder. The police arrive along with the DA who feels that it is the appropriate time to cross examine suspects and witnesses. This is when the ham starts to get sliced by the pound. The DA goes into courtroom histrionics as he badgers witnesses and when this stalls the cliché cops offer to pummel the uncooperative with "the third degree". In the meantime Devereaux lies dying in the bedroom. No rush or need to get him to a hospital.The Locked Door is so bad it's good. Barbara Stanwyck as Ann makes plenty of rookie mistakes in her first talkie and dissipated William "Stage" Boyd as Reagan looks disturbingly cadaverous in heavy make-up. Rod La Roque as the bon vivant seducer is pure pine but his relationship with his valet (George Bunny) is interesting and in its own way touching. The one performer not to embarrass herself is Zasu Pitts as the telephone operator. As the films only intended comic relief she comes through with flying colors amid this wreck of a picture.

boblipton George Fitzmaurice was one of the great commercial stylists among directors in the 1920s. He suffered an eclipse in the early talkie era but was fighting his way back into the majors when he died in 1940.This means, of course, there are a lot of problems with this movie. The screen actors don't know how to do dialogue and most of the stage actors don't know how to turn down their performances for the intimacy of the movie camera. Barbara Stanwyck, looking very fresh-faced, is very loud in her line readings. She knows how to show her emotions beautifully already, though.But producer Joe Schenck didn't spare any expense behind the camera, and it shows. Avant-garde cameraman Ray June handles the camera impeccably. While other directors were having their cameramen use cuts to change subjects, Fitzmaurice has June move the camera. Notice the long tracking shot at the bar in the opening sequence and the MOS shots used to fill out the sequence.The camera-work is not fluid. It is, frankly, fairly clunky, but it is light years ahead of anyone else in the business in 1929, except possibly Mamoulian's APPLAUSE.So while their are a lot of problems with this movie, the camera-work makes this one very superior for 1929 and Barbara Stanwyck makes it worth looking at.