After a lovely woman and her new husband settle in an ancient mansion on the East coast, she discovers that he may want to kill her.After a lovely woman and her new husband settle in an ancient mansion on the East coast, she discovers that he may want to kill her.After a lovely woman and her new husband settle in an ancient mansion on the East coast, she discovers that he may want to kill her.
- Altar Boy
- (uncredited)
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
- Sarah
- (uncredited)
- Guest in Home Tour
- (uncredited)
- Guest in Home Tour
- (uncredited)
- Judge
- (uncredited)
- Small Mexican Knife Fighter
- (uncredited)
- Country Squire
- (uncredited)
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe grove of trees through which Celia (Joan Bennett) runs when she flees the house is the same grove through which the Wolf Man ran in The Wolf Man (1941), also made by Universal. In particular, the tree, against which she leans, is the same one under which the Wolf Man was beaten.
- GoofsWhen Celia takes an impression of the key in wax, she only takes the impression on one side, which would render the key made from that impression useless without the reverse side.
- Quotes
Mark Lamphere: You were living that fight. You soaked it all in - love, hate, the passion. You've been starved for feelings - any real feelings. I thought: 20th Century Sleeping Beauty. Wealthy American girl who has lived her life wrapped in cotton wool but she wants to wake up. Maybe she can.
Celia Barrett: Is it as hard as all that?
Mark Lamphere: Most people are asleep.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Vampira Returns: Secret Beyond the Door... 1947 (1956)
Joan Bennett plays Celia, a young lady who acquires a large amount of money after her brother's death and decides to take a holiday. It is here that she meets Mark Lamphere (Michael Redgrave), a mysterious and charming gentleman who excites in Celia intense suppressed feelings of rebellion and exhilaration. Following their marriage, a hastily-decided proposition that can only lead to trouble, Celia immediately begins to notice peculiarities in her new husband, and, after her arrival at Mark's extravagant residence, she finds the dwelling haunted by the shadow of his previous wife. Mark, it seems, houses an unhealthy preoccupation with murder, and has made a hobby out of collecting entire rooms in which unspeakable atrocities of passion were committed. But what of the one room that is kept securely locked, never to be opened by anyone? Celia concludes that the secret to unlocking the inner depths of her husband's disturbed mind lies within that single room, beyond the forbidden door. Though Silvia Richards' screenplay, from a story by Rufus King, often seems too incredible to take seriously, Lang's film remains an interesting achievement, and is nothing if not entertaining.
I found the promotional material for 'Secret Beyond the Door' to be grossly misleading. The image of Joan Bennett standing before a significantly-distorted door prompted me to expect a film of extreme German Expressionism, in the same vein as 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).' Fritz Lang, who developed his career in Germany during the 1920s, and having often used elements of the style, would presumably have been very adept at recreating the devilishly-twisted labyrinths of the human mind, but the only scene to even approach my stylistic expectations was the appropriately ambiguous and shadowy dream sequence, in which Michael Redgrave both prosecutes and defends his malevolent tendencies in court {this particular scene may even have influenced Hitchcock's heavily-stylised courtroom trial in 'Dial M for Murder (1954)}. The remainder of the film has the appearance of a typical 1940s film noir, with suitably shadowy cinematography by Stanley Cortez, supplemented by a voice-over by Joan Bennett. Also note the similarity between the character of Miss Robey (Barbara O'Neil) and Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) from 'Rebecca,' most particularly in their respective final actions in each picture.
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- Also known as
- Secret Beyond the Door
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- Budget
- $1,500,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1