Secret Beyond the Door

"Some Men Destroy What They Love Most!"

1947 1h 39m EN

👍

6.5

SOLID

🍅

61%

FRESH

⭐

6.6

IMDB

★6.5TMDB · 166🍅61%Rotten Tomatoes★6.6IMDB · 5,908

MysteryThrillerDramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After a whirlwind romance in Mexico, a beautiful heiress marries a man she barely knows with hardly a second thought. She finds his New York home full of his strange relations, and macabre rooms that are replicas of famous murder sites. One locked room contains the secret to her husband's obsession, and the truth about what happened to his first wife.

“Some Men Destroy What They Love Most!”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

Amazon VideoRent

Apple TV StoreRent

Google Play MoviesRent

Google Play MoviesBuy

YouTubeBuy

Fandango At HomeBuy

Cast

Joan Bennett
Celia Lamphere
Michael Redgrave
Mark Lamphere
Anne Revere
Caroline Lamphere
Barbara O'Neil
Miss Robey
Natalie Schafer
Edith Potter
Paul Cavanagh
Rick Barrett
Anabel Shaw
Intellectual Sub-Deb
Rosa Rey
Paquita

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Fritz Lang
Writers: Silvia Richards, Rufus King
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

79 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Fritz Lang, shot by Stanley Cortez. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Miklós Rózsa. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Arthur Hilton shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Joan Bennett and Michael Redgrave and Anne Revere carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Some Men Destroy What They Love Most!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0040766 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Fritz Lang directs. Stanley Cortez behind the camera. Miklós Rózsa scores. Arthur Hilton cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
279 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Directed by Fritz Lang, shot by Stanley Cortez. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Miklós Rózsa. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Arthur Hilton shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Joan Bennett and Michael Redgrave and Anne Revere carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Some Men Destroy What They Love Most!".
8IMDB entry: tt0040766 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 15 themes, including "new york city", "jealousy", "mexico", "post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd)".
10Released under 36 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Stanley Cortez
Original score: Miklós Rózsa
Editing: Arthur Hilton
Production design: Max Parker
Costume design: Travis Banton
Makeup / hair: Bud Westmore
Runtime: 99 min · 1h 39m
Status: Released
Budget: $1,500,000
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Secret Beyond the Door (1947)
Rotten Tomatoes: 61% 🍅 Fresh
IMDB rating: 6.6/10 · 5,908 votes
MPAA: Approved

Also by

Fritz Lang

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-07-07
★ 7/10
I rather enjoyed this film - Fritz Lang leaves much of the intrigue to emanate from own imagination. "Celia" (Joan Bennett) meets and quickly falls in love with Michael Redgrave ("Mark"), an enigmatic gent from a family that has known better days. They decamp to his remote family mansion where she meets his sister, and his teenage son - of whom she was hitherto unaware. Things all start to take a turn for the strange once she arrives; her husband collects "rooms" - he recreates the rooms where historically macabre events have happened. There is a room in their home that he keeps locked - what's inside? Her paranoia, fuelled by some eerily lit scenarios and a good, suspicion-arousing performance from Redgrave gradually builds into quite a tense denouement. It has shades of "Rebecca" (1940) about it - the sister "Caroline" (Anne Revere) assuming the role of the mysteriously obsessive third party and there is enough ambiguity going on to keep it interesting until the end.

Production companies