Secret Beyond the Door

While traveling in Mexico, the wealthy Celia meets a magazine publisher with a passion for architecture—a man she marries within a matter of days. Upon returning home, she discovers that her husband is a widower with a rather morbid penchant: he has decorated the rooms of his estate to evoke famous murder cases. There is, however, one locked door that remains strictly off-limits to Celia… This final collaboration between Fritz Lang, producer Walter Wanger, and the latter’s wife—the film’s lead actress, Joan Bennett—was marked by conflict; it is frequently mentioned in the same breath as Hitchcock’s "Rebecca". What begins as a classic mystery gradually evolves into a labyrinthine tale, in which a different reality lurks beneath the visible order: "The way a place is built determines what happens in it." (Florian Widegger)