The Locket (1946)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

John Brahm

Writer:

Sheridan Gibney (written by)

Release Date:

20 December 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Film-Noir | Drama

Tagline:

Her Mysterious Secret Wrecked 3 Men's Lives! Not love, not money...but a haunting hunger drove her to lie, cheat, steal. Why? IT'S THE STRANGEST SECRET EVER TOLD! (original poster)

Plot:

Just before a wedding, the bridegroom hears a complex tale painting his lovely bride as devilish and unbalanced.

Plot Keywords:

Painting | Wedding | Subconscious | Gun | Locket

Cast

Laraine Day	...	Nancy Monks Blair Patton
Brian Aherne	...	Dr. Harry Blair
Robert Mitchum	...	Norman Clyde
Gene Raymond	...	John Willis
Sharyn Moffett	...	Nancy: age 10
Ricardo Cortez	...	Andrew 'Drew' Bonner
Henry Stephenson	...	Lord Wyndham
Katherine Emery	...	Mrs. Willis
Reginald Denny	...	Mr. Wendall
Fay Helm	...	Martha Bonner
Helen Thimig	...	Mrs. Monks
Nella Walker	...	Mrs. Wendall
Queenie Leonard	...	Woman Singer
Lillian Fontaine	...	Lady Wyndham (as Lilian Fontaine)
Myrna Dell	...	Thelma

Also Known As:

What Nancy Wanted (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #11578) | Finland:K-16 | Spain:7

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

The set used in this film for the house of Mrs. Willis (Katherine Emery) is the same one used for the house of Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains) in Notorious (1946).

Quotes:

Norman Clyde: I don't take money for nothing. I'm not conducting a class so the parasitic rich can escape boredom. I'm not that hard up.
Nancy Monks Blair Patton: Well, I hope you never will be, Mr Clyde. I admire your principles. I wish I could say the same for your disposition.

Interesting psychological drama told through flashbacks within flashbacks

Laraine Day plays a disturbed young woman in "The Locket," about a childhood trauma that dictates a woman's future. Brian Aherne, a young Robert Mitchum, and Gene Raymond all play men duped by her as she goes from husband to husband.

During and after World War II, the subject of psychiatry became a popular one in films as soldiers and their families sought to deal with the psychological implications of the war experience. "Possessed," "Lady in the Dark," "A Dark Adapted Eye," "Snakepit," were some of those films, to name only a few.

In "The Locket," Brian Aherne visits bridegroom-to-be Gene Raymond to warn him about his future wife, and in Aherne's story, Mitchum has come to visit him - so that soon we have a flashback within a flashback within a flashback, going back to Day's childhood and the trauma she suffered at the hands of her mother's employer, when she is accused of taking a locket that in reality, the employer's daughter had given her. The Day character is a magnificent actress, fooling each man she meets into believing that the problem is with the man in the prior situation.

Laraine Day is lovely and does the wide-eyed innocent beautifully. She has long been a favorite actress of mine. The men are all good. It's great to see young, handsome Mitchum in the role of an artist who becomes involved with Day.

All in all, a fascinating story and well worth seeing.