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. Betty Bronson is the aforementioned sister-in-law and William Boyd sleepwalks through the film as the upright husband Stanwyck loves. Director George Fitzmaurice, most remembered for glittering exotic romances such as The Son of the Sheik, The Night of Love, and Mata Hari, weathers on pretty well and gives the film great stylistic flourishes every now and then, though there is the usual awkwardness to be expected from a 1929 talkie.
Of course, you're likely watching this for the wonderful Barbara Stanwyck, here in her second film appearance (her first was in a 1927 silent film, though she did not play a major role there). She's saddled with a sad sack heroine, though she does give the character a greater sense of inner strength and intelligence than the script endows. It is by no means a great performance, but it is the best thing in an otherwise mediocre drama. Well, that and Rod La Rocque's hammy performance as the sleazy villain.
Of course, you're likely watching this for the wonderful Barbara Stanwyck, here in her second film appearance (her first was in a 1927 silent film, though she did not play a major role there). She's saddled with a sad sack heroine, though she does give the character a greater sense of inner strength and intelligence than the script endows. It is by no means a great performance, but it is the best thing in an otherwise mediocre drama. Well, that and Rod La Rocque's hammy performance as the sleazy villain.