Secret Beyond the Door... (1947)

Second viewing; first: August 19,1994.

A woman marries and notices some strange quirks of her new husband; also, some rumors about his first wife's death make her even more suspicious.

The copy I saw was one which opens with the Republic Pictures logo. At 1 hour 19 minutes into the film, after the line:
(Mark) "Exhibit A. What can I answer when I'm asked if the murder was premeditated?",
it cuts to:
(Maid) "Oh, Mr Mark, you didn't answer."
In between them, the footage containing the following lines, which I got from a subtitles file available on the Web, was cut:
*begin quote*
01:19:59,098 -- 01:20:02,467
Premeditated? I planned it all my life.
01:20:03,311 -- 01:20:07,889
The record shows that you met your wife only this spring in Mexico.
01:20:08,149 -- 01:20:13,689
Yes. I loved her very much and, somehow...
01:20:14,864 -- 01:20:18,862
I felt as though I had been searching for her all my life.
01:20:19,160 -- 01:20:21,651
- To kill her!
- No, I...
01:20:22,080 -- 01:20:24,286
That... came later.
01:20:25,041 -- 01:20:28,873
There is a rumour that you also killed your first wife, Eleanor.
01:20:31,131 -- 01:20:36,291
No. I blamed myself - that's why I built the room.
01:20:37,470 -- 01:20:43,425
She died because I didn't love her - and maybe, unconsciously,
01:20:43,643 -- 01:20:50,476
I wanted her to die, but no man is responsible for his unconscious thoughts.
01:20:51,651 -- 01:20:54,985
If you aren't responsible for your thoughts, who is?
01:20:55,530 -- 01:21:00,489
A man thinks according to the life he's led. All my life I was dominated by women.
01:21:00,786 -- 01:21:05,946
As a child, by my mother. When she left me - when she died -
01:21:06,375 -- 01:21:08,996
by Caroline and by Eleanor...
01:21:09,378 -- 01:21:11,620
I never lived a life of my own
01:21:12,548 -- 01:21:17,755
and I may have thought of... but you can't try a man for his thoughts!
01:21:18,095 -- 01:21:20,052
- But for the consequences of his thoughts.
01:21:20,973 -- 01:21:23,179
I didn't kill Eleanor.
01:21:23,434 -- 01:21:26,269
But you did kill your wife, Celia.
01:21:31,984 -- 01:21:33,395
I tried not to kill!
01:21:44,038 -- 01:21:50,290
The first time, in Mexico, I ran away from her. The impulse to kill faded.
01:21:50,545 -- 01:21:55,456
I thought I'd dreamed it. Then, when she met me at the station
01:21:55,758 -- 01:22:01,678
at Levender Falls, I felt a deep, gentle kind of love.
01:22:02,932 -- 01:22:08,093
Until... I don't know what it was...
01:22:08,355 -- 01:22:11,973
it swept over me like a haze... she became someone else,
01:22:12,317 -- 01:22:14,025
someone I had to kill.
01:22:15,821 -- 01:22:18,775
I fought it down, over and over again.
01:22:20,242 -- 01:22:24,192
There are dark forces in this world. We're, all of us, children of Cain,
01:22:24,329 -- 01:22:26,571
we've - all of us - once thought of murder.
01:22:29,126 -- 01:22:34,998
I can't help myself. I love her but, so help me God,
01:22:35,340 -- 01:22:38,792
if Celia were here, I'd still have to kill her.
*end quote*

God help us with watching old movies on cable... Anyway, I later watched the missing footage on YouTube. The above sequence features Mark on an imaginary trial where he is the defendant being questioned by a prosecutor who is his double. Now regarding the film: it has some striking imagery, and a nightmarish atmosphere, which sort of make up for the somewhat absurd plot. In the right mood, one could enjoy its extravagant notions (in part derived from Bluebeard), I think (I did, to some extent).

Rating: 51 (down from 57)