Watch The Locked Door For Free

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Copyright 29 October 1929 by Feature Productions. Released through United Artists: 16 November 1929. New York opening at the Rialto: 19 January 1930. 8 reels. 6,844 feet. 76 minutes.SYNOPSIS: When a notorious cad (La Rocque) attempts to seduce the hero's (William Boyd's) young sister (Betty Bronson), the hero's wife (Stanwyck) decides to take matters into her own hands. NOTES: A re-make of the 1921 Norma Talmadge vehicle, The Sign on the Door. Lew Cody played the villain. Herbert Brenon directed. Pollock's play opened at the Republic, Broadway, 19 December 1919, and ran 187 performances. Mary Ryan, Lowell Sherman and Lee Baker starred. COMMENT: In her first talkie (and second movie) feisty Barbara Stanwyck expertly handles the sort of role she would continue to play for the rest of her career. With the exception of ZaSu Pitts (in a small role here), her co-players were not so fortunate. Why? From this evidence they just weren't sufficiently talented. Admittedly, our heroine has the best of the action (the scene in which she wanders distraught around the darkened stage is a knock-out), but with two or three exceptions (George Bunny is particularly effective), the other players are neither competent nor confident. Fitzmaurice's direction relies solidly on the techniques of a photographed play.

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.

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.

Other comments mention some innovative camera work in this film, but what you'll remember first is the stiff, stagy acting. And yet, you'll keep watching right up to the ridiculous deus-ex-machina ending because the movie isn't terrible enough to make you turn it off. And there are some points of interest.One, oddly enough, is the set. Devereaux's bachelor pad has Gothic architectural details worthy of Dracula's castle. Funny that as a playboy with no visible means of support (blackmail, perhaps), he should be able to afford such a magnificent place. Another would be Barbara Stanwyck with a horrendous 1920's hairdo, overacting like she probably never did again. I never believed that she would be so much in love with a husband who looks twice her age and has all the passion and animation of a dead codfish.Another would be the villain of the piece, played by Rod La Roque as the ultimate lounge lizard with the a perfectly sleazy pencil-thin mustache and a leering, mocking manner to match. But I believed all that far more than I believed his change of heart at the end.And finally, standing out like a beacon among the minor players, is Zazu Pitts as the ditsy switchboard operator. Very funny.