Potently invoking Hitchcock’s REBECCA (1940) and SUSPICION (1941), Fritz Lang’s SECRET BEHIND THE DOOR... shrouds a well-to-do heiress under the unrelieved dread that her husband has an ulterior motive to snuff her (only this time, monetary concern is not a major impetus).

After the death of her brother Rick Barrett (Cavanagh), who bequeaths her a large sum of fortune, Celia (Bennett) is stuck by a coup de foudre while peregrinating in Mexico before her intending marriage with the straight-and-arrow lawyer Bob Dwight (Seay). Told through her voice in her head (a ploy Lang utilizes efficiently to propel the narrative momentum and spell out her inner thoughts), it is interesting to see under what circumstances her eyes meet his for the first time, their attraction shimmers with danger from the very start, ensorcelled by the mystique of Mark Lamphere (Redgrave), the pair hastens to the altar in situ, and Celia becomes Ms. Lamphere, but to her, Mark, the architect is a total stranger, she feels that she has a life-time ahead to get to know a man she truly loves, but even before they set their feet back on the US soil, Mark’s labile behavior during their honeymoon pours cold water on Celia’s marital anticipation and after the initial disquietude, she is bent on finding out the psychological reason behind that, even it means to put herself squarely in the harm’s way.

More and more secrets emerge when Celia moves into Mark’s domicile, his previous marriage which leaves him a son David (Dennis), his spinster sister Caroline (Revere), and a (presumably) disfigured secretary Miss Robey (O’Neil), plus the smothering atmosphere and rumors about his mother and first wife, both pushing up daisies now. Mark is in evidence, under a plethora of petticoat sway, especially the hand that rocks the cradle, which might be significantly accountable for his none-too-sane mindset.

But the most startling revelation is that Mark has a macabre hobby of collecting and recreating “murder rooms”, a quixotical idea but is effectuated with almost risible formality by everybody acting dead serious about it, as if it is a workaday thing. Celia is further intrigued by the seventh room, which Mark claims it is finished but allows no one to see. The secret behind that closed door will confirm Celia’s mortal fear (with Miklós Rózsa’s thrilling, sonorous accompaniment in its crescendo), but also emboldens her to put on the caper of an amateur headshrinker and finally disinter Mark’s psychopathic roots (lilacs and closed doors are two key clues) once and for all, Lang might take liberty with the high concept of psychoanalysis, but as a cinematic mystery, he holds fast to an arresting, alluring tale (starkly Gothic set design and expressive shadow and mist play are right up Fang’s alley) that the couple needs to rescue each other (one mentally and another physically) before forming a salutatory union, in another word, a happy-ever-after trite.

Joan Bennett’s star glamor aside, she really strengthens her spine to telegraph a gritty facade that befits a heroine who will sillily go out on a limb and ready to die for the man she loves, and Michael Redgrave’s suave persona is intermittently disrupted by the demon sizzling under the skin and makes a persuasive plea in his self-trial figment. Both Anne Revere and Barbara O’Neil leave strong impressions playing the friend-or-foe cards with a beguiling ghost of ambiguity. In the event, SECRET BEHIND THE DOOR... is an above-average entry among Lang’s oeuvre, an edge-of-the-seat, albeit derivative startler submersed in his expressionistic conceit and intoxicating syntax.

referential entries: Alfred Hitchcock’s REBECCA (1940, 8.3/10), SUSPICION (1941, 7.6/10); Lang’s MINISTRY OF FEAR (1944, 6.4/10), THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (1944, 7.5/10).

類型中的精神分析范本《蝴蝶夢》-《煤氣燈下》-《門后的秘密》-《愛德華大夫》。對于朗導(dǎo)而言，也是《血紅街道》和《綠窗艷影》沿線上的慣性創(chuàng)作。相比于那兩部作品，回到封閉空間-古堡驚悚類型的朗終于能在光影上完全發(fā)揮其魏瑪時期表現(xiàn)主義的全部效能。幼年雷德克里夫認(rèn)為母親將其反鎖房內(nèi)而對一切深愛的女性產(chǎn)生懷疑和毀滅欲望，實際上操控一切的則是腹黑女仆。

因此毀容的女仆也想通過大火帶走男主人的新歡，不想早已被解開心結(jié)的男主選擇回身相救。毀滅欲望與虛幻的錯覺在走廊烈火中被對象化呈現(xiàn)，而男主與女主互相攙扶逃脫的戲劇動作又相對應(yīng)著宣告這種被無意識占領(lǐng)的情感空缺告破。同樣的手段被科恩用在《巴頓芬克》的最后，只不過那個地方特托羅從潛意識中的猛然醒悟，被科恩塑造成了與元劇本文本結(jié)構(gòu)對應(yīng)一個套層，又因為古德曼和特托羅一體兩面的孿生隱喻，顯得比此片中結(jié)尾更復(fù)雜一些。

電影一直以來都是音像的藝術(shù)，只不過近年來我們對于電影的畫面做了過多的要求，從而忽視了電影本來的基礎(chǔ)特點——聲音。早在二十世紀(jì)四十年代，電影在技法上遠(yuǎn)沒有今天這么豐富的時候，電影的聲音藝術(shù)已經(jīng)被發(fā)展到極致了。創(chuàng)作者們使用不同的聲音來制造不同的效果，從而將不同類型的影片通過豐富的視聽語言展現(xiàn)給觀眾，這就是影視創(chuàng)作者對于電影藝術(shù)最好的尊敬。

今天給大家推薦的這部影片最大的亮點就是對于聲音藝術(shù)的運用上做到了爐火純青。很多時候不需觀眾對于劇情有太多的了解，單憑聲音就能推測出來劇情發(fā)展的走向，這就是上世紀(jì)四五十年代電影的魅力?！堕T后的秘密》屬于一部黑色電影，它所講述的是一個繼承了基金遺產(chǎn)的年輕的女郎，因為一次邂逅認(rèn)識了一個神秘的陌生人，在幾天的接觸中，她與這個陌生人私定了終生。于是，在義無反顧地嫁給了這個陌生人之后，年輕的女郎對于他的逐漸展開的身世產(chǎn)生了懷疑。

冷靜的頭腦總是會在激情時刻過去后才會有的，當(dāng)三天的婚禮結(jié)束，西莉亞逐漸的對于眼前的這個完美的情人產(chǎn)生了懷疑，這個叫做馬克的男人雖然迎合了自己對于另一半的完美想象，但是這種新鮮感過去后，她馬上冷靜了下來，眼前的這個人真的是自己一直在尋找的另一半嗎？

對于西莉亞來說眼前的這個男人完美無瑕，且對于自己有著某種吸引力，尤其是對于西莉亞當(dāng)時的處境來說，找到這樣一個男人對于自己來說是幸運的，也是非常珍貴的。遭遇到了哥哥的離開之后，西莉亞需要一個男人來為自己掌握生活的方向，而這個時候，出現(xiàn)在西莉亞生活中的馬克極好的完成了西莉亞的期待，他俊朗的外表，成熟的魅力每一個外在的特性都深深的迷住了西莉亞。因此，在認(rèn)識不到三天的時間內(nèi)，西莉亞完全的陷進(jìn)去了這場愛情陷阱里。

然而真正的故事才剛剛開始，回過神來的西莉亞發(fā)現(xiàn)了自己的新婚丈夫遠(yuǎn)沒有自己想象的那么簡單，雖然已經(jīng)被愛情沖昏了頭腦，但西莉亞依舊是保持著一種女人的敏感。新婚燕爾之際，丈夫卻要遠(yuǎn)赴紐約，而且關(guān)于丈夫的身世，西莉亞知之甚少。在這樣的巨大的困惑的攪擾下，西莉亞非常不情愿地接受了丈夫的安排，她只身前往丈夫的家，旅程中滿是疑惑。

在來到了丈夫的家中，西莉亞發(fā)現(xiàn)眼前的景象遠(yuǎn)比自己想象的要復(fù)雜。丈夫馬克不僅僅有著一個未曾謀面的姐姐，而且還有著一個前妻留下來的男孩。事情的發(fā)展遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)的超出了西莉亞的想象。然而出于對馬克的愛，西莉亞還是接受了眼前的一切。不過隨著馬克的回家，西莉亞發(fā)現(xiàn)，自己的完美情人似乎有著一個不可告人的秘密，這個秘密直接決定了西莉亞眼中，馬克的真實身份。

于是，經(jīng)過一次次的偵察，西莉亞逐漸的發(fā)現(xiàn)了隱藏在馬克身上的不為人知的事情竟然是他的童年陰影，而這樣因為童年時候的未解之謎困擾著的馬克，最終變成了一個燥郁的偏執(zhí)狂，她在對西莉亞伸出魔爪的時候，西莉亞及時的點醒了他，最終，一切歸于平靜。

對于一部上世紀(jì)四十年代的電影來說，本片所代表的黑色電影的敘事方式自然不會受到當(dāng)代觀眾們的喜歡和贊譽。但對于那個年代的觀眾來說，這部影片同樣是精彩紛呈的。不管是因為本片所設(shè)置的懸念以及故事，而且還有本片不俗的音效設(shè)定。在故事無法有效的推動劇情朝前走的時候，本片的音效展現(xiàn)出來了巨大的推動力，我們作為觀眾，幾乎可以忽視故事的發(fā)展脈絡(luò)，而直接從音效中找到隱藏著的關(guān)鍵信息，比如說困擾馬克的童年陰影以及西莉亞關(guān)鍵時刻的力挽狂瀾等等。

這些優(yōu)秀的音效成功的推動了本片故事的遞進(jìn)，同時也渲染的驚悚的氣氛。對于一部距今已有幾十年的作品來說，這樣對于現(xiàn)有的工具的嫻熟使用實在是值得我們新時代的創(chuàng)作者學(xué)習(xí)的。對于電影的創(chuàng)作者來說，借用現(xiàn)有的創(chuàng)作工具來對于作品進(jìn)行全方位的表達(dá)比什么都重要。新技術(shù)固然可貴，但炫技大可不必，電影創(chuàng)作手段是為了豐富電影本身的表達(dá)的，如果脫離了這個核心，再多的創(chuàng)作手段又有什么用。

《門后的秘密》固然不是一部非常優(yōu)秀的黑色電影，但作為那個時代的作品來說，本片所借用的表達(dá)工具發(fā)揮了巨大的潛力，最終成功的推動了劇情的發(fā)展以及故事的表達(dá)。這是值得我們學(xué)習(xí)的。時至今日，影視發(fā)展到了一個前所未有的豐富程度，創(chuàng)作者們所能借用的創(chuàng)作工具也極為豐富，然而卻少有創(chuàng)作者使用創(chuàng)作工具且發(fā)揮到其應(yīng)有的效用在，這一點值得我們反思。物質(zhì)條件豐富的今天，想要創(chuàng)作出一部優(yōu)秀的作品如果是難上加難的話，那么創(chuàng)作者本身是不是需要反思自己的初心呢？這是一個很好的提問。

……

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