The 2nd Mrs. Bluebeard

My wife (whose taste in cinema matters very much to me) doesn't think I should screen this film.

Yes, it's an incredibly stylish and atmospheric noir of the classic period, directed (with a great deal of panache) by the legendary Fritz Lang. 

Yes, it stars Joan Bennett, who lent her talents to some of the juiciest noirs of them all.

And yes, it features a monumental score by Miklos Rozsa, who more or less single-handedly established the sound of noir.

BUT... (and I know my "but" looks big in this)...

It is completely and totally bonkers.

Bonkers or not, Secret Beyond the Door qualifies as one of the most unusual noirs to come out of Hollywood during this era. It lays itself wide open to a number of very valid criticisms, but it also tells its story with a great deal of style and some very genuine suspense.

Besides, this is my film series and I can show whatever I want to show. Just don't tell my wife...

By the time Fritz Lang directed Secret Beyond the Door, he was already well established in the world of "dark cinema". His earlier career had of course produced some of the most iconic films of the German Expressionist period, but that aspect of his life was abruptly cut short after Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels asked him if he wanted to be the head of National Socialist film production.

As Lang tells the story, he left Germany that same evening and (after briefly trying to settle in Paris) eventually found himself in Hollywood.

Psycho-Noir

Of all the films Fritz Lang directed during his American years, Secret Beyond the Door is probably the weirdest.

It tells the story of a young American woman (Joan Bennett) who meets a dark, handsome stranger (Michael Redgrave in one of his very few Hollywood films) while on holiday in Mexico. 

Instantly drawn to each other by their smouldering charisma and intermittent bloodlust (they're both alarmingly aroused by a spontaneous knife fight in the street) they embark on a whirlwind romance full of danger and excitement.

Of course it's only after the wedding that she begins to ask some pertinent questions about her new husband. Like why does he suddenly lapse into strange, homicidal trances at the slightest provocation? And why hadn't he mentioned his first wife? 

And what does he keep behind those seven locked doors?

In case you hadn't figured it out by now, Secret Beyond the Door is nothing less than a modern Expressionist fantasia on the "Bluebeard" story, dressed up in contemporary clothing and some very dubious Hollywood-style Freudian mumbo-jumbo, garnished with generous lashings of Rebecca.

Some husbands might have skeletons in their closets, but Michael Redgrave turns out to have closets in his closets. An architect by trade (what is it with these psychotic architects??) he announces to his new wife that his hobby is collecting "rooms"; specifically historic rooms where violent murders (always of women, oddly enough) have taken place.

These rooms he proudly displays to anyone who professes a passing interest. All except the room behind Door #7, which is kept resolutely locked. 

Now whose room could possibly be behind that door?

As a noir, Secret Beyond the Door has several points of note. 

The cinematography is stunning, and the music is one of Miklos Rozsa's very best scores. And very unusually for a noir, the voice-over narration is conducted by the female character - an honour that more commonly goes to the hard-boiled (male) hero.

Unfortunately, the psycho-pathology at the heart of the story is completely ridiculous, even by the sensationalist standards of Hollywood pseudo-therapy, which went through a brief vogue in the 1940s. 

Ultimately, however, the film manages to transcend all that, thanks in no small part to Fritz Lang and his masterful control over the tools of truly gripping story-telling.

So sit back, enjoy the ride, and don't try to think too much about all the psycho-babble. 

I apologise in advance to any Freudians in the audience!

We will screen Secret Beyond the Door at 7.30 on Thursday, the 20th of March at the Victoria Park Baptist Church.