Anne Revere, Barbara O'Neil, Joan Bennett

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70% liked it

413 ratings

Unrated, 1 hr. 39 min.

Directed by: Fritz Lang

Release Date: January 1, 1949

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DVD Release Date: April 22, 2006

Stats: 33 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (33)


  • September 14, 2009
    The Secret Beyond the Door (1948).
    Directed by Fritz Lang.
    Written by Rufus King (story) and Silvia Richards (screenplay).
    With Joan Bennett, Michael Redgrave, and Paul Cavanagh.

    In this unusual twist on the Bluebeard theme, a charming and enigmatic widower marries an at...( read more)tractive widow (Bennett) and moves her from New York to his mansion in Mexico. There's just one little problem. Unbeknown his new wife, he suffers from an uncontrollable compulsion to squeeze the life out her with his bare hands.

    A peculiar fellow, he has made it a hobby to have entire crime scenes transported intact to his estate. The manor has a special wing in which actual interior locales where notorious murders were committed have been imported and installed to comprise a macabre museum.

    All is well until his new wife finds one door in the wing which is always locked. Of course she cannot leave well enough alone. What is behind this door? Why are the circumstances surrounding the death of her husband's first wife obfuscated? What about his precocious, emotionally detached son, and why does the son seem to know more than he reveals?

    When Bennett makes a wax impression of the key and sneaks into the room, she makes a macabre discovery that is nothing she, or the viewer would have expected. What ensues is a convoluted series of surprises as she engages in a contest of wits to survive.






  • June 10, 2009
    Voici un film qui a l'air quand même vachement plus cool quand on se fie au matériel promotionnel. La haute porte tordue à l'apparence expressionniste ne figure toutefois pas dans le film, et le "secret" que recèle son homologue ne frappe pas comme il devrait, suscitant plutôt ch...( read more)ez le spectateur une sorte de "ah, ok."

    Soyons quand même justes, si ce film n'est pas mémorable au niveau du scénario (un émule du "Rebecca" de Hitchcock avec quelques éléments de Barbe-Bleue), Lang s'en tire quand même avec quelques bons moments au niveau de l'ambiance et de la direction photo, et ce surtout dans les scènes finales qui sont d'un esthétisme exemplaire.

    Le film souffre toutefois d'une tare si fréquente dans les films américains de Lang qu'elle est presque devenue ludique: une finale décevante et précipitée. Le spectateur pourra toutefois pardonner le cinéaste qui se fait visiblement imposer des fins joyeuses par les studios. Un film incontournable pour les enthousiastes langiens, mais honnêtement négligeable pour le cinéphile moyen.
  • January 28, 2009
    descubrir con quien se ha casado que extraño pero un buen punto de partida para una buena película
  • May 1, 2008
    Nice creepy noir with a very unique plot.
  • July 19, 2007
    All CLASSICS are GOOD

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