Now the big revelation of the 3 movies I watched was the silent film,
Behind the Door (1919), made my the Thomas Ince studio and distributed by Paramount under their Artcraft label. It was directed by an auteur of the right-wing persuasion, Irvin Willat, who was a proud Georgia boy and resembled Adolf Hitler in his later years.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginIt starred Hobart Bosworth as Oscar Krug, a 4th generation German American; Hungarian beauty Jane Novak as his wife, Alice: and young Wallace Beery as the German U-Boat commander who is the chief villain of the piece.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginJust prior to WWI, ex sea captain, Otto works as a taxidermist and runs a general store in the little town he lives in. He becomes ostracized by the rest of the town because they are prejudiced against Germans. At the same time, Alice, daughter of the richest merchant in town, and Otto fall in love with each other. One day, Otto is attacked by a mob and ably defending himself, he insists that he is a loyal American. To prove it, he is going to join the Navy. Before that happens, he elopes with Alice and they become man and wife. Otto, now a Navy sea captain, gets ready to leave for war when his wife comes to him and says that she has been disowned by her family. He tries to get her to stay with a friend but she smuggles herself aboard among the nurses and after a week at sea, reveals herself to her husband. It is much too late for the ship to turn around so she stays on the ship.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
login Shortly thereafter, the ship is attacked by a German U-boat and sunk. The captain and his wife survive on a lifeboat and is shortly discovered by the same U-boat. The U-boat's captain takes Otto's wife on board the sub and leaves Otto to die. Otto is rescued and after a month or two is given another ship not knowing whether his wife is dead or alive.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
login One day, they spot a submarine and proceed to attack. The U-boat is sunk but not before the captain of the sub escapes and surrenders himself to the American's. Otto, recognizing the man, treats his prisoner with kid gloves and invites him to his room for dinner and some drinks. The U-boat commander does not recognize Otto. He loosens the U-boat commander's tongue with drink and finds out that his wife, after resisting Beery's advances, was given to the crew to be raped and killed. Her body was soon jettisoned into the sea by means of the torpedo tube. He ties up the drunk Beery and proceeds to skin him alive.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
login This is very lurid stuff and I imagine this drove the film censors crazy. There is nudity (an exposed female breast) and a bit of rough talk (damn is used). While the fully-skinned body is never shown, the suggestion of such was quite gritty for the times. At 70 minutes, it moves fast and it is never boring. Some of the acting is overwrought (particularly by Bosworth) but not unrealistically so given the situations described in the film.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginSome, including silent film expert Kevin Brownlow, have called this the most lurid silent film of the era. I would not argue the point. This is a must-see classic.
4.25 stars.
On blu-ray from Flicker Alley.