Rent Secret Beyond the Door (1947)

Mood Piece. - Secret Beyond the Door review by Steve

Dark and dreamy Freudian noir from Fritz Lang. There are echoes of Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca and Suspicion but this is more surreal. It is a woman in peril thriller that operates in the subconscious mind of its disturbed hero, full of distorted visual symbolism. 

Michael Redgrave plays an architect who collects historical murder rooms. He believes that the ambience within these environments provoked the mysterious deaths. After he impulsively marries Joan Bennett, she wonders if she has impetuously fallen in love with a psychotic murderer.

So it's far fetched, but fascinating. Lang was disappointed with the contribution of legendary cinematographer Stanley Cortez. But it's the photography that makes this film so rich; the shadows that the newlyweds wander in search of the origins of his mental trauma, which may be hidden in one of the rooms.

Redgrave does well in a difficult, melodramatic role.  Bennett  gives a sympathetic and sincere performance. There's a superb gothic score by Miklós Rózsa. It's a fragmentary, haunting story which winds through an artistic gallery of gorgeous noir imagery.

Recommended.... a great show! - Secret Beyond the Door review by SM

What an interesting movie.......weird and wonderful roles played by actors at the top of their game!