At first, when I started watching it, I had shut it off after 27 minutes or so because it looked as if I have seen this before, not “seen” seen. The plot looked rather familiar. So I didn’t want to continue watching it, it felt like a waste of time, but I pushed myself to finish it and I’m glad I did. I certainly changed my mind and just because a plot looks unvarying, doesn’t mean it’s just the same; do not judge a book by its cover. Even though I try to watch as many movies as possible, time is not a helpful companion and after a long day, you wouldn’t want to waste your time watching something that you felt worthless. Then again, I have never been known to drop a movie in the middle and never finish it; so after Thursday night, the night I usually start to watch movies, I left it hanging and when I woke up on Friday, I had half a mind but went with it, anyway. There’s an idea swarming in my head which I’ll eventually get on with soon, but first this I have to do.
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Secret Beyond the Door (1947) is a psychological thriller and film noir directed by Fritz Lang; even though “first wife’s mysterious death” may look awfully similar in the movies from 1940 to 50s or around that period, but this one differs slightly from the rest. The film is not Lang’s best work and if you search in wikipedia; even they assumed there’s nothing much to say about this movie; I have more than enough words to say about it. The leading stars of the movie are Joan Bennett and Michael Redgrave, with Anne Revere and Barbara O’Neil as supporting actresses. Yes, the idea swarms around how the husband is responsible for the death of the first wife, and in other movies such as Rebecca (1940) and Dragonwyck (1946) where the husbands killed the first wife for various reasons but here in Secret Beyond the Door (1947)is not the same case. You’ll see how two opposite characters change and try to smooth things out together to last their relationship; “till death do us part” is taken quite seriously.
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An impulsive Celia (Joan Bennett) went to Mexico for a vacation and met mysterious Mark (Michael Redgrave) and married him in a matter of days without knowing much about him. Prior to her marriage, Celia had broken up quite a few relationships and always had a “one foot out the door” attitude but after the wedding, her behavior changed. But then she saw Mark changing as well and turning into something unrecognizable which was eating her away. At first, Celia had no clue about his first wife or his son; she found out after she came to live with his family in Levender Falls. The overall dysfunctional relationship between the family members bothered Celia a lot, and it put her in a confusion about what she could do to make things better and the only person who she thought was without facade was Carrie, Mark’s sister; Mark’s son blaming his father for the death of his mother, Eleanor, wasn’t easy to deal with. He also had a secretary, Miss Robey, whose face had burnt while trying to save Mark from fire and she had been in love with him for the longest time. Mark is an architect and as a hobby, he collected rooms, murder rooms; he called them felicitous rooms, and Celia misunderstood what the word meant in his dictionary. When Celia saw those rooms along with the guests in her house, appalled would be an understated expression; almost as if the earth beneath her feet had vanished. They were murder rooms, historical, the famous murder committed; the death of the female figures, and how these guys killed them; but what caught her attention more was the locked door. Yes, you guessed it, another murder room but it wasn’t for anyone to see. What was beyond that murder room number 7? The accounts of Eleanor’s death? Or is it something else?
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Mark wasn’t being a mysterious chap, he was going through a psychological disorder or say personality disorder; one minute he’s a loving husband, and the next minute he’s the murderer of his first wife. For most of his life, he lived under the influence of women in his family, either nurtured by his mother or controlled by Carrie or guided by his wife; Mark never had the feeling that he himself was living his life. Whether or not he killed Eleanor, I’ll let you find out that yourself and the rest of the movie too; I will disclose nothing further about the plot. This I would say, I’m glad I didn’t leave it unfinished; it may have given me an all too familiar feeling, but the others I mentioned were humans having guilt or greed or beliefs that they thought were profound; none of them were troubled, unbalanced minds. The movie ended with a happy note, folks, and don’t we all love a happy ending; it’s not Mark’s version of “felicitous” kind of happy ending. It was worth watching and no regrets whatsoever so screw the negative criticism; a movie eater I am.
