Joan Bennett is determined to discover the “Secret Beyond the Door”

Secret Beyond the Door (1947) is an American psychological thriller directed by Fritz Lang and starring Joan Bennett and Michael Redgrave. The strong supporting cast includes Anne Revere, Barbara O’Neil, Natalie Schafer, and Paul Cavanagh. The cinematography was by Stanley Cortez (The Magnificent Ambersons, The Night of the Hunter, and The Three Faces of Eve. The music was by Miklos Rozsa (Double Indemnity, Spellbound, Ben-Hur).

Celia (Bennett), a rich, young heiress meets a mysterious man, architect Mark Lamphere (Redgrave) on vacation in Mexico. The two fall in love instantly and are married. The honeymoon is happy but trouble is on the horizon when in a playful mood, Celia locks her husband out of their hotel room.

When they return to Mark’s home, Celia discovers that Mark was married before and has a teenage son David (Mark Dennis)—things Mark never told Celia. She also discovers that Mark’s sister Caroline (Revere) and Mark’s assistant Miss Robey(O’Neil) also reside in her home with Mark.

David tells Celia that Mark killed his mother. Shocked, Celia now worries that Mark may be planning to kill her as well. And then there are Mark’s rooms that recreate famous murders of women! What does it all mean and is Celia’s life in serious danger? 

Joan Bennett

Fritz Lang (1890 – 1976) was an Austrian-German-American director. Lang is the director of the silent film classic Metropolis (1927). After serving in World War I, Lang worked for a time as an actor in the theater and then worked as a writer at Decla Film in Berlin. Lang’s first talking picture was M (1931) a story about a child murderer. Due to his growing renown, Joseph Goebbels offered him the position of head of the German film studio UFA in 1933. Lang emigrated to Paris and then to the United States in 1936. Lang worked for all the major studios, making twenty-three feature films in the United States. Some of Lang’s films include Scarlet Street (1945), The Big Heat (1953), and While the City Sleeps (1956).

Joan Bennett (1910–1990) began her film career during the early sound era. A natural blonde, Bennett dyed her hair as a plot device in the film Trade Winds (1938). As a brunette, Bennett projected a sultry persona that had her compared to the brunette beauty, Hedy Lamarr. During this period she starred in two costume epics. She played Princess Maria Theresa in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) and Grand Duchess Zona of Lichtenburg in The Son of Monte Cristo (1940). Bennett was one of two finalists for the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), along with Paulette Goddard. She had a very successful collaboration with the director Fritz Lang. With Lang, she starred in the classics Man Hunt (1940), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Scarlet Street (1945). Bennett acted on stage and on television where she became a pop culture icon playing Elizabeth Collins Stoddard in the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows (1966-1971).

Michael Redgrave (1909 – 1985) was an English stage and film actor and director. He worked primarily on the British stage but had some significant film roles. He made his American film debut in Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) co-starring Rosalind Russell—he made Secret Beyond the Door first but Electra was released first. For his performance, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Other notable film roles include The Stars Look Down (1940), Dead of Night (1945), and The Browning Version (1951). He is the father of actresses Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave.

Secret Beyond the Door trivia

• This was the fourth film that Bennett made with director Fritz Lang.
• The grove of trees that Bennett runs through fleeing the house is the same grove used in the Universal horror film The Wolf Man (1941).
• Lang thought this film would be his Rebecca (1940). Lang felt he was being eclipsed by directors like Alfred Hitchcock and was desperate to stay relevant.
• This was Michael Redgrave’s first American film.
• Bennett requested the services of cinematographer Stanley Cortez. Cortez and Lang didn’t get along on set.
• Bennett and Redgrave did some very dangerous stunt work at the insistence of Lang. This didn’t sit well with the two stars.

To watch the film on YouTube, click on the link below.

Discussion questions

1. Some critics consider this movie a film noir. Would you put it in that category? Why or why not?
2. This film has been compared to earlier Alfred Hitchcock films, especially Rebecca and Spellbound. Do you see the reason for those comparisons? Does Secret Beyond the Door remind you of any other pictures?
3. What do you think was Bennett’s motivation to marry Redgrave so quickly?
4. What was Redgrave’s motivation?
5. This film could fall into the damsel in distress genre. Was Bennett a convincing damsel?
6. Was Michael Redgrave believable as the conflicted Mr. Lamphere?
7. Did you have a favorite character or scene?

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Michael Redgrave