Fritz on Fridays: Secret Beyond the Door

On the first Friday of every month, this column by critic Joshua Polanski will feature a short review or essay on a film directed by Fritz Lang (1890-1976), the great Austrian “Master of Darkness.” Occasionally (but not too occasionally), Fritz on Fridays will also feature interviews and conversations with relevant critics, scholars and filmmakers about Lang’s influence and filmography. 

I am a sucker for films that are smart about architecture. If the way spaces are designed intentionally shapes the ideology of the films or their characters, I am predisposed to favor the film. And that’s the case with Secret Beyond the Door, Fritz Lang’s 1947 psycho-geographical character study of a potential killer. 

Mourning the death of her wealthy father, Celia Barrett (Joan Bennett) takes a final girls’ trip to Mexico before tying the knot with Bob Dwight (James Seay). There, she’s visibly aroused over two men fighting to the death for a young woman. Unfortunately for Bob, she locks eyes with architect and fellow American tourist Mark Lamphere (Michael Redgrave) and falls in love. 

Those two get hitched, and Celia moves in with Mark, who shares his theory about how the way rooms are designed dictates what happens in them. This theory makes his hobbyist reconstruction of famous murder scenes more than disturbing to his new wife, who begins to fear for her own life. Celia’s wealthy familial roots create questions of their own, too: Is her wealth just Mark’s pass for building more rooms? Does their income disparity unlock a gender insecurity within Mark?

Continue reading at the Midwest Film Journal.