The Locked Door

Is there a rottener rotter than louche Rod la Rocque? Not if you judge him on his performance in this surprisingly agile early talkie from producer/director George Fitzmaurice.

The first, starring movie vehicle of a very young Barbara Stanwyck, "The Locked Door" isn't a good film, but still worth seeing for the magnetic aura that already surrounds its leading lady. This early "talkies" movie comes from the era when stage actors and silent film stars were just beginning to make the transition to sound and -- to tell the truth -- many of them hadn't yet found their "sea legs" on the sound stages of Hollywood.

I was fortunate enough to find this movie thanks to YouTube. It was nice to see an early twenty-something Barbara Stanwyck in not only her first talkie but her first leading role in a film.

In 1921, Norma Shearer starred in her first film, "Sign on the Door". It wasn't a very good film then and when they remade it in 1929 as a sound picture, it wasn't much better.

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.

George Fitzmaurice was one of the great commercial stylists among directors in the 1920s. He suffered an eclipse in the early talkie era but was fighting his way back into the majors when he died in 1940.

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.

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.

This unintentionally funny drama is an excellent example of how bad early sound films could be. The story is ridiculous, the sound understandably bad, the actors either wooden or overwrought clichés and the morality issues of honor that drive the plot arcane even for the 20's.