Secret Beyond The Door (1948)

A New York socialite (Joan Bennett) falls in love with and marries a man (Michael Redgrave) in Mexico that she's only known for a few days. But it doesn't take long for her to realize he has some deep rooted psychological problems. This noir-ish Freudian thriller (with ties to the Bluebeard story) benefits greatly from Fritz Lang's stimulating direction and Stanley Cortez's (MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS) atmospheric black and white lensing. Lang maintains an intense, almost claustrophobic mood and with Redgrave's off kilter performance, it's enough to propel the mystery forward. But if Lang doesn't quite cop out at the end like Hitchcock's SUSPICION or Siodmak's STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY, the last fifteen minutes are pretty wobbly and disappointing. This was Bennett's fifth and final film with Lang and as she proved in her prior four films with him, she did her best work for him. If her distressed heroine isn't as good as the sluts she played in Lang's SCARLET STREET or WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, it's just not as interesting a character. Music by Miklos Rozsa. With Anne Revere, Natalie Schafer, Barbara O'Neil and James Seay.