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kalbimassey's rating
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kalbimassey's rating
Often compared with 'A Letter to Three Wives', this Robert Wise directorial effort has sufficient clout and substance to be judged on its own merits.
'Three Secrets' offers the double whammy of a perceptive insight into the contrasting fortunes of the three women, who have a claim to being the boy's mother, against a backdrop of the daring, treacherous, hazard strewn rescue attempt of a child who may/may not still be alive.
Only Ruth Roman's history seriously delves into the film noir canon. The rest follows the fractious romantic drama route, as the bite yer fingernails down to the elbows tension of the rescue continues. Happily married Eleanor Parker has sought to move on with her life, but has acutely bitter memories revived as the headline stealing events unfold. Cynical journalist, Patricia Neal finds herself reporting on the case, whilst fellow hack, Edmon Ryan, master of slime and smarm is responsible for blowing the whole legal shebang out into the open.
The driven, feisty Neal can only ruefully reflect on a painful, passionate and ultimately doomed romance with more grounded Frank Lovejoy, whilst struggling to maintain a cool detachment from her personal involvement, through a string of zesty one liners.
An unanticipated final twist....and NO, it's not that an administrative medical records muddle reveals that NONE of the three is the birth mother! Gives 'Three Secrets' a closing shot in the arm on the credibility scale.
'Three Secrets' offers the double whammy of a perceptive insight into the contrasting fortunes of the three women, who have a claim to being the boy's mother, against a backdrop of the daring, treacherous, hazard strewn rescue attempt of a child who may/may not still be alive.
Only Ruth Roman's history seriously delves into the film noir canon. The rest follows the fractious romantic drama route, as the bite yer fingernails down to the elbows tension of the rescue continues. Happily married Eleanor Parker has sought to move on with her life, but has acutely bitter memories revived as the headline stealing events unfold. Cynical journalist, Patricia Neal finds herself reporting on the case, whilst fellow hack, Edmon Ryan, master of slime and smarm is responsible for blowing the whole legal shebang out into the open.
The driven, feisty Neal can only ruefully reflect on a painful, passionate and ultimately doomed romance with more grounded Frank Lovejoy, whilst struggling to maintain a cool detachment from her personal involvement, through a string of zesty one liners.
An unanticipated final twist....and NO, it's not that an administrative medical records muddle reveals that NONE of the three is the birth mother! Gives 'Three Secrets' a closing shot in the arm on the credibility scale.
The title evokes a picture of elderly widows and spinsters playing bridge. Gathering around the piano for cosy musical evenings. In reality there is an altogether more portentous tone to this often compelling goth noir.
Housekeeper and companion to retired actress (Isobel Elsom) prim Ida Lupino receives a disturbing letter concerning the conduct of her two sisters and persuades Elsom to allow them into her home for a 'short' stay.
Elsa Lanchester seems to have been born to play quirky, eccentric types. With her abrupt, tactless manner, propensity for constantly tidying the river bank and shell collecting mania, the exasperated house proud Elsom finds her home littered with brushwood and marred by scratched furniture. Lanchester is more than matched by Edith Barrett's eyeball rolling performance. Inseparable from her late husband's telescope and relating lurid, bizarre tales of coercing unwilling frogs to leap into the marmalade pot, she drags the movie into surreal territory.
At sixes and sevens with the two sisters, Elsom seeks solace at the piano, playing a selection from The Mikado (no doubt hip and cool at the time). A final fleeting foray into what could pass for avant garde jazz.....and she is no more!
A further twist comes in the appearance of dishonest as the day is long nephew, Louis Hayward. Only the sillier sisters are amused by his inane, cocky, gift of the gab humour, whilst Lupino remains staunch and resolute. Though as tensions between the two mount and with each harboring dark secrets an impasse appears to have been reached.
The permanent mist runs out of steam about a metre above ground level. The scenery has a decidedly D. I. Y. Theatrical look to it. Primarily, the action occurs in the austere, shadowy house. Ida Lupino and Evelyn Keyes look very different from the way they did in subsequent film noirs. One of a number of observations to take away from a movie, which whilst a little dated, is certainly unusual and steers an unlikely course, successfully blending the hauntingly atmospheric with the oddly whimsical.
Housekeeper and companion to retired actress (Isobel Elsom) prim Ida Lupino receives a disturbing letter concerning the conduct of her two sisters and persuades Elsom to allow them into her home for a 'short' stay.
Elsa Lanchester seems to have been born to play quirky, eccentric types. With her abrupt, tactless manner, propensity for constantly tidying the river bank and shell collecting mania, the exasperated house proud Elsom finds her home littered with brushwood and marred by scratched furniture. Lanchester is more than matched by Edith Barrett's eyeball rolling performance. Inseparable from her late husband's telescope and relating lurid, bizarre tales of coercing unwilling frogs to leap into the marmalade pot, she drags the movie into surreal territory.
At sixes and sevens with the two sisters, Elsom seeks solace at the piano, playing a selection from The Mikado (no doubt hip and cool at the time). A final fleeting foray into what could pass for avant garde jazz.....and she is no more!
A further twist comes in the appearance of dishonest as the day is long nephew, Louis Hayward. Only the sillier sisters are amused by his inane, cocky, gift of the gab humour, whilst Lupino remains staunch and resolute. Though as tensions between the two mount and with each harboring dark secrets an impasse appears to have been reached.
The permanent mist runs out of steam about a metre above ground level. The scenery has a decidedly D. I. Y. Theatrical look to it. Primarily, the action occurs in the austere, shadowy house. Ida Lupino and Evelyn Keyes look very different from the way they did in subsequent film noirs. One of a number of observations to take away from a movie, which whilst a little dated, is certainly unusual and steers an unlikely course, successfully blending the hauntingly atmospheric with the oddly whimsical.
Ambitious reporter, Lucille Bremer engages the services of rookie private investigator, Richard Carlson, revealing a cunning plan to have him admitted to a private sanitarium, where she believes that corrupt ex judge and wanted felon, Herbert Heyes is in hiding.
Ushered into a spartan three bedder, Carlson encounters one patient who paints a bleak, stark picture of life within the walls and an 'activity' programme which is nothing more than menial, degrading skivvying. A man plagued by horrific night terrors completes the line up. Not until Manster's version of 'Over Under Sideways Down' would screams of such torturous, bloodcurdling intensity be heard again!
Cynical, sinister attendant, Douglas Fowley delights in taunting the residents. His chief target is confined and deranged ex boxer, Tor 'Plan 9' Johnson, upon whom he callously imposes his Pavlov's Dog, at the sound of the bell routine. Armed with the world's biggest bunch of keys, he randomly delivers a painful thwack to anyone who crosses him, being especially brutal towards a juvenile, who commits the heinous crime of tearing paper. Finally, here comes the judge and his puppet, Tom Brown Henry, the spineless quack who runs the joint.
An appreciable cut above the usual Poverty Row, low budget 'B' movie fodder. Almost every scene takes place in darkness, semi-darkness or bathed in shadow. 'Behind Locked Doors' occasionally raises a smile via a few oddball characters and acerbic one liners ''.... Celebrate by carrying you over the threshold?'' ''Oh no. It's such a nice day, I think I'll walk.'' Largely, it portrays a culture of cruelty, oppression and fear, being vented on vulnerable people in desperate need of care and support. As such, it makes the average prison movie look like 'Summer Holiday'. An early directorial triumph for Oscar? ? Boetticher, who hit his stride in the next decade with a number of superior westerns starring Randolph Scott.
Ushered into a spartan three bedder, Carlson encounters one patient who paints a bleak, stark picture of life within the walls and an 'activity' programme which is nothing more than menial, degrading skivvying. A man plagued by horrific night terrors completes the line up. Not until Manster's version of 'Over Under Sideways Down' would screams of such torturous, bloodcurdling intensity be heard again!
Cynical, sinister attendant, Douglas Fowley delights in taunting the residents. His chief target is confined and deranged ex boxer, Tor 'Plan 9' Johnson, upon whom he callously imposes his Pavlov's Dog, at the sound of the bell routine. Armed with the world's biggest bunch of keys, he randomly delivers a painful thwack to anyone who crosses him, being especially brutal towards a juvenile, who commits the heinous crime of tearing paper. Finally, here comes the judge and his puppet, Tom Brown Henry, the spineless quack who runs the joint.
An appreciable cut above the usual Poverty Row, low budget 'B' movie fodder. Almost every scene takes place in darkness, semi-darkness or bathed in shadow. 'Behind Locked Doors' occasionally raises a smile via a few oddball characters and acerbic one liners ''.... Celebrate by carrying you over the threshold?'' ''Oh no. It's such a nice day, I think I'll walk.'' Largely, it portrays a culture of cruelty, oppression and fear, being vented on vulnerable people in desperate need of care and support. As such, it makes the average prison movie look like 'Summer Holiday'. An early directorial triumph for Oscar? ? Boetticher, who hit his stride in the next decade with a number of superior westerns starring Randolph Scott.