Secret Beyond the Door (1948)
Directed by Fritz Lang

Drama / Thriller

Film Review

Abstract picture representing Secret Beyond the Door (1948)
Secret Beyond the Door is one of Fritz Lang's better American films - chillingly atmospheric and beautifully shot in the style of the classic film noir directors of the period.  It's very nearly a return to Lang's earlier fantasy horror films of the 1920s and 1930s, with Freudian references, long shadows and a lurking sense of menace.  There's even a sequence where Lang cleverly uses his former expressionistic style to convey the mental derangement of the film's principal male character.  Unfortunately, whilst the film is stylistically brilliant, some stilted dialogue and slightly wooden acting weaken its impact, and the narrative relies too heavily on tedious psychobabble for the ending to be either convincing or satisfying.  These deficiencies aside, it's still possible to appreciate this film for its artistic merits and also to take some pleasure in the teasing Hitchcockian-style suspense.
© James Travers 2006
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.
Next Fritz Lang film:
House by the River (1950)

Film Synopsis

When Celia, a young heiress, meets Mark Lamphere, a successful architect, it is love at first sight.  They are in Mexico at the time and something about the atmosphere of this strange primitive land heightens Celia's romantic feelings and makes her sure that she has found herself the perfect husband.  They marry not long afterwards, and it is only then that Celia begins to have second thoughts.  Her anxieties begin when she finds out that Mark has a son from an earlier marriage and that his first wife died in suspicious circumstances.  There is also something about Mark's secretary, Miss Robey, that deeply troubles Celia.  But what most intrigues her is the locked door in Mark's mansion.  Increasingly, Celia becomes convinced that her husband is concealing something terrible in the room behind the door.  Is it possible that Mark intends killing her, just as he killed his previous wife...?
© James Travers
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.


Film Credits

  • Director: Fritz Lang
  • Script: Silvia Richards, Rufus King (story)
  • Cinematographer: Stanley Cortez
  • Music: Miklós Rózsa
  • Cast: Joan Bennett (Celia Lamphere), Michael Redgrave (Mark Lamphere), Anne Revere (Caroline Lamphere), Barbara O'Neil (Miss Robey), Natalie Schafer (Edith Potter), Paul Cavanagh (Rick Barrett), Anabel Shaw (Intellectual Sub-Deb), Rosa Rey (Paquita), James Seay (Bob Dwight), Mark Dennis (David), Robert Barber (Altar Boy), Virginia Brissac (Sarah), Ralph Brooks (Guest in Home Tour), Tom Chatterton (Judge), David Cota (Small Mexican Knife Fighter), Frank Dae (Country Squire), Harry Denny (College President), Watson Downs (Conductor), Danny Duncan (Ferret-Faced Man), Robert Espinoza (Altar Boy)
  • Country: USA
  • Language: English
  • Support: Black and White
  • Runtime: 99 min

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