The Locked Door
About The Locked Door
Ann Carter accepts dinner with her employer's son, Frank Devereaux, aboard a rum boat past the twelve-mile limit. He locks the cabin, tears her dress, and is stopped by a police raid; he buys the photograph of their arrest. Eighteen months later Ann is married to Lawrence Reagan, and Frank is courting Lawrence's sister Helen. Ann hides in Frank's apartment while the two men struggle and Frank is shot. She reenacts a shooting over the telephone to shield her husband, and the dying Frank clears them both.
Cast & crew
More about The Locked Door
Joseph M. Schenck and Joseph P. Kennedy produced it for United Artists, with a screenplay by C. Gardner Sullivan. It is Barbara Stanwyck's first starring role and her first talking film. The source is Channing Pollock's 1919 play The Sign on the Door, already filmed in 1921 with Norma Talmadge.
Themes
Look
Ray June photographed the early-sound production, including the rum-boat raid and the apartment struggle.
Notes
- William 'Stage' Boyd plays Lawrence Reagan, and Betty Bronson plays Helen.
- ZaSu Pitts is the telephone girl Ann uses for the fake shooting, and Harry Mestayer is the district attorney.
- Mack Swain plays the hotel proprietor. Harry Stubbs is the waiter.
- George Scarborough and Earle Browne are also credited on the writing.
- Hal Kern edited. The picture is a pre-Code drama.
Scenes
- Frank locks the cabin door on the rum boat and tears Ann's dress.
- Ann hides while Lawrence and Frank fight over a gun.
- Frank, dying, tells the police what happened.
Influenced by
- Channing Pollock's play The Sign on the Door (1919)
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheLockedDoor1929)
