The Locked Door (1929)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

In The Locked Door, Barbara Stanwyck plays a happily married woman who's forced to face her unfortunate past when her former boyfriend/would-be rapist tries seducing her naive sister-in-law. It's a creaky plot even by 1920s standards, complete with tearful sacrifices and cardboard characterizations. Betty Bronson is the aforementioned sister-in-law and William Boyd sleepwalks through the film as the upright husband Stanwyck loves. Director George Fitzmaurice, most remembered for glittering exotic romances such as The Son of the Sheik, The Night of Love, and Mata Hari, weathers on pretty well and gives the film great stylistic flourishes every now and then, though there is the usual awkwardness to be expected from a 1929 talkie.Of course, you're likely watching this for the wonderful Barbara Stanwyck, here in her second film appearance (her first was in a 1927 silent film, though she did not play a major role there). She's saddled with a sad sack heroine, though she does give the character a greater sense of inner strength and intelligence than the script endows. It is by no means a great performance, but it is the best thing in an otherwise mediocre drama. Well, that and Rod La Rocque's hammy performance as the sleazy villain.

Last night I watched The Locked Door from 1929 - Barbara Stanwyck's talkie debut. The acting by the rest of cast is a bit hammy to begin with, but the beautiful Barbara elegantly commands every scene and effervescently steals the camera every time she appears. The story is very slow to draw itself out, starting with some merriment, but slowly and mercilessly coils itself into high tension and drama by the second act. The plot is very simple but highly believable, and all the motives for a great murder are laid out on the table. As fate would have it, the boys in blue find out soon after, and their keenly sensitive detective minds turn a string of lies into an incisive murder hunt.The thing that got me, apart from Barbara's grace, depth and charm, is the way she deals with all the emotions which play out across her face and features; highlighting gestures and silent feelings never written down in the script. Indeed, after the murder the screen goes silent for a whole 10mins as the murderer silently haunts the area, cleaning up, all while the lady watches him secretly from above.I have to say this early talkie got a lot of negative press on IMDb and movie perfectionists were quick to point out it's flaws. Yet it slowly coiled itself around my brain until I was transfixed right up to the very sobering ending. :

The first five minutes need to go viral on YouTube to prove to young people there is nothing new under the sun. It is a brilliant portrait of the bright young things getting s**t-faced on a boat, especially the women (all women the following: "I want a drink. I want a drink!! I want a drink!! I want a drink!!!"; and "I want a high ball. I want a high ball! I want two highballs!!"; and finally "I want two quarts of gin."). It is a priceless portrait of the emancipated flapper misbehaving! For old movie snobs, La Roque is an interesting villain - see why his career when nowhere with the talkies - he does villainous too believably for the audience of that era to ever let him have a mainstream role again. Stanwyck shows her chops, though she has yet to get her full form and is a little stagy.And you might enjoy the lipstick on Willian 'Stage' Boyd, not well done, but Mr Boyd clearly enjoys wearing it - checking out his bio, I am wondering if he was a bad, bad bisexual - the orientation everyone loves to hate? A young death at 46, so it would make sense that he was abandoned by both men and women...

The attraction here is not just Barbara Stanwyck, even though it's her first talkie and she handles her role with a secure professionalism that belies her cinematic inexperience. Born for the camera she was! But an equally impressive performance is delivered by Rod La Rocque as the serial cad who mistreats her and then sets his sights on her younger sister. The trappings are typical 20's soap opera/melodrama, in this case derived from a stage play. But not typical for the era is La Rocque's well-tailored villain who seems to have stepped out of a story from a much later era; in fact, his performance would not be considered one bit dated even by today's standards - highly unusual for a film from 1929. His line readings and body language bespeak a decadent, spoiled rogue without a scintilla of conscience, all of this enhanced by delicately tapered sideburns. He also has a smooth, deep speaking voice. The look and style of the film are standard for the era but include an interesting, lively panoramic dance party sequence on a "drinking boat" (pleasure boats that sailed outside the 12-mile limit of the US coast so the patrons could drink alcohol illegally during the Prohibition era) intercut with an intimate scene between Stanwyck and La Rocque in one of the cabins.