Le signe sur la porte

Other than the fact that this was Barbara Stanwyck's second film and talkie debut, believe me there isn't any other reason to remember The Locked Door. It's a rather turgid melodrama with some stock company heroes and villains. It might very well have been a play on the Cotton Blossom, but for its urban setting.

Barbara Stanwyck showed something in this film though, she wouldn't have had the career she had if she didn't. You can definitely spot the star quality with her.

The film is based on a Broadway play by Channing Pollock that ran 187 performances during the 1919-1920 season. The subject of Prohibition was new at that time, by 1929 it was old hat. In any event it's only part of the story.

Stanwyck and Snidely Whiplash villain Rod LaRocque are on a floating gambling and drinking boat when it's raided. They both jump bail and go their separate ways, Stanwyck thanking the Deity she had no further involvement with LaRocque.

But that's not what fate has in store for her. She marries William Boyd, a widower with daughter Betty Bronson. Guess who Bronson tells dear old Dad and step mom who she's involved with.

When both Stanwyck and Boyd go to confront LaRocque, but separately, that's when the action really starts.

One thing I will say in favor of the film, the camera work reminded me a whole lot of Alfred Hitchcock's famous one set films, Rear Window and Rope, because the story takes place in the last half in LaRocque's apartment. But the hammy acting and melodramatic plot date this film terribly.

Still Barbara Stanwyck's personality certainly stands out.

Stagy but clever murder mystery with Barbara Stanwyck in her talkie debut and the center of attention.

The copy I have has a missing scene but this is still an effective if stagy and slightly hammy film.

Stanwyck is a secretary who goes to a boat party with the boss's son and maybe gets raped (that scene is missing) and raided by the police. She and the son skip bail and disappear. 18 months later we find Stanwyck happily married to a wealthy man (William Boyd) when his sister's new boy friend shows up. Yup it's the sleazy son (Rod LaRocque) with a new name. The sister (Betty Bronson) is gaga over him but Stanwyck is horrified.

Stanwyck overhears their plans to run off to Honolulu so she decides to pay LaRocque a visit. But unbeknown to her, her husband is also planning a visit because he has been warned about the boy friend.

Stanwyck arrives at LaRocque's apartment and starts a fight but is interrupted when the husband arrives. The guys scuffle and a gun goes off. Husband leaves and locks the door, trapping Stanwyck (hiding in a bedroom) in the apartment with the corpse. She thinks fast, rips her dress and calls the operator, pretending to fend off an attacker and firing the gun.

Both Stanwyck and Boyd eventually admit to the killing but then Bronson shows up.....

Supporting cast includes Zasu Pitts as the operator, Mack Swain as the manager, George Bunny as the valet, Purnell Pratt is a police man, and Harry Stubbs is the surprising waiter.

Neat little film apparently lost for decades.

Someone referred to this as "stagy," and was more correct than perhaps he knew: "The Locked Door" was originally a stage play, and this movie was an adaptation, a good one in my opinion.

C. Gardner Sullivan had been writing scenarios and inter-titles since at least 1912, and is honored among aficionados who know his work from those earliest years of motion pictures.

The four top-billed players were also veterans, except for Barbara Stanwyck who has only one previous credit.

Rod La Rocque had been in movies since at least 1914, and put in 12 more years.

Betty Bronson became a huge star with her seventh role, Peter Pan in the movie of that name, and reportedly was chosen for the part by James M. Barrie, the author, himself.

William Boyd, known here at IMDb as "William 'Stage' Boyd," is the primary reason the Screen Actors Guild usually forbids a member having the same name as another, Harrison Ford being the only exception that comes immediately to my mind.

This particular Boyd was busted on something shameful and the picture of "the other" William Boyd, who later became very famous as Hopalong Cassidy, was published in a newspaper, almost destroying his career.

In this cast there are lots of "withs" who help make this a very good movie, including Mack Swain and Zasu Pitts.

The story is not really a mystery, at least not to us, because we see everything that happens, but it is a drama, with conflict and character change.

I'm reminded of the aphorism that people in small towns buy their local paper not to see who did what, because everyone knows, but to see who gets blamed.

That's the premise of this story, and it's well done, plausible by the standards of its time.

There is also a good point for modern society: Laws against consensual acts, such as gambling or ingestion of certain substances, in this case, alcohol, cause more problems than they solve.

"The Locked Door" is good cinema, especially for anyone who wants to watch the evolution of the art.

Barbara Stanwyck stars as Ann Carter, recently married to Lawrence Reagan (William Boyd). Their matrimonial bliss is disturbed by the appearance of Frank Devereaux (Rod La Rocque), a sleazy cad and serial womanizer who shared an embarrassing incident with Ann a year ago. When Ann learns that Devereaux has designs on Lawrence's young sister Helen (Betty Bronson), she decides to meet with Devereaux and try to keep him away from the young girl. This leads to scandal and tragedy.

Stanwyck was only 22 here, and this is her first starring role (she appeared as an uncredited showgirl in 1927's Broadway Nights). She's cute with dark hair and a baby face, and she's already exhibiting her star appeal. The Pre-Code story elements include traveling to an offshore "rum boat" (where a young Paulette Goddard is supposedly among the extras), implied forced sex, and Stanwyck spending a bit of screentime in a torn dress. La Rocque steals the film, though, as the dapper skirt-chaser who stays one step ahead of the cuckolded husbands left in his wake. He's detestable and funny at the same time.

This does show its early talkie roots though, with a dying scene that is so prolonged and talkie I'm surprised those surrounding the dying man don't start looking for a blunt instrument to end things. The overall effort is OK, but then again - Joe Schenck cut Buster Keaton loose to concentrate on films like this??? I guess you had to be there.

BARBARA STANWYCK was never too fond of her first talkie and it's easy to see why. Filmed at a time when stage actors were just getting familiar with sound technique in films, it has a multitude of problems with regard to script, direction and performances.

ROD LaROCQUE is insufferably hammy as the bad guy who tries to seduce Stanwyck aboard an illegal rum boat and turns up some eighteen months later paying court to her sister (BETTY BRONSON). Stanwyck and hubby WILLIAM BOYD decide to stop LaRocque from carrying through with his plans to run off with Bronson and the plot thickens, going from one melodramatic mess to another before the story crawls to an end.

Best aspect of the film is the photography of Ray June, especially the overhead shots looking through the glass ceiling of a dance floor on the riverboat and the panning shot of bar customers ordering drinks.

Everyone sounds like they're reading their lines for a run through rehearsal, but Stanwyck at least shows emotion well in some good close-ups. Bronson and LaRocque are the worst with the new mikes.