The Locket (1946)
Directed by
John Brahm
Writing credits
Sheridan Gibney (written by)
Genre: Film-Noir / Drama
Plot Outline: Just before a wedding, the bridegroom hears a complex tale painting his lovely bride as devilish and unbalanced.
User Rating: 7.2/10 (214 votes)
Cast overview, first billed only:
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 .... 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
Sound Mix: Mono (RCA Sound System)
Certification: Finland:K-16 / Spain:7 / USA:Approved (PCA #11578, General Audience)
Brahm's intricately constructed film is based on the obvious conceit of a locket: in psychoanalytical terms, it symbolises repressed memory and of the 'opening up' of hidden psychosis. In a filmic sense of course, The Locket itself is a cinematic 'locket', the flashbacks within flashback structure reflecting the secret enclosure typical of such a piece of jewellery.
In fact I can't think of another film that takes this much commented narrative technique to such extremes. Mitchum of course was well used to playing heros faced with abnormal feminine psychology. He faces similar femme fatales in Preminger's 'Angel Face' for instance and in Farrow's 'Where Danger Lives' - all made at around the same time (end 40's, start of 50's). This may reflect something of the obsession that Hollywood had with cod Freudianism just as much as noir convention, but there is no doubting that Mitchum's peculiar manner as an actor, his doe-eyed sleep-walking acting style, made his starring excursions into the dangers of the subconscious peculiarly effective.
Brahm, one of Hollywoods most neglected directors at least for the work that he did at this time in his career, makes the somewhat over- stretched structure of the film work, pun intended, like a dream. Nancy's final walk to the altar, immediately before her mental and psychic collapse, although necessarily melodramatic, is very effective version of a personal calvary and she seems stunned and trance like. In retrospect, of course, it is easy to see how the whole of the preceding film has been leading up to this sequence, (just as how the flashback structure of the film reminds one in passing of 'Citizen Kane') but the sound and vision montage is still powerful.
By setting the bulk of the film in flashback, Brahm places it in the past - or, more precisely, in the imaginatively reconstructed past, and it is this dream-sense that retains a powerful grip on the viewer as events unfold. This almost hallucinatory sense, together with a feeling of 'drifting with fate', marks out some of the greatest noirs and B-mysteries made at this time and is what makes this film still very watchable today.
A 'Locket' well worth looking into.
Datos tecnicos:
[Película]
Válido : Sí [MPEG]
Duración : 01:25:13
Película completa : Sí
[Vídeo]
Resolución : 352x240
Códec : MPEG 1
FPS : 29,97
BitRate : 1123 Kbps
Factor de Calidad : 0,45 b/px
Tamaño de Archivo : 851 Mb.
[Audio]
Códec : MPEG 1 Layer 2
Nº de canales : 2
Ratio de Muestra : 44100 Hz
BitRate : 128 Kbps
Robert Mitchum - The Locket - Laraine Day, Brian Ahern 1946.mpg 
saludos
