I have been reading books on silent movies since 1967 and collecting them on home VHS/DVD/Blu-ray since 1990 and during that time I have never come across the name of director Irvin Willat or if I have then I certainly don't recall it. This is even more surprising as one of the many bonus supplements with this new Flicker Alley release is a 30 minute appreciation from the dean of silent film preservationists, Kevin Brownlow whose classic THE PARADE'S GONE BY gave me my first background in silent movies. A quick check of that book's index does show 1 photo and 1 brief mention. I have long been well aware of producer Thomas H. Ince and wish that we could get more of his films available for digital release including his 1916 anti-war allegory CIVILIZATION. It turns out that an uncredited Irvin Willat had a lot to do with that film which makes BEHIND THE DOOR even more interesting to me.
Made at the end of World War I and released just after it ended, DOOR is good old fashioned, heavy-handed, pro-American, anti-German propaganda that needs to be seen to be believed. It also needs to be seen in this edition for they have given this minor though notorious film a first class restoration and presentation. By they I am referring to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, The Library of Congress, and the Gosfilmofond archive of Russia who all collaborated on providing the film material, the funding, and the expertise to bring this movie back to life. Also thanks again to Flicker Alley for making it available to the general public. Although there are some signs of nitrate decomposition, 98% of the film looks great with the original intertitles recreated and beautiful color tinting and toning. Yes Virginia, there was color back in the silent era just not the vivid Technicolor that would come along later. The new music score by Stephen Horne accompanies the film perfectly.
The movie can essentially be broken down into 3 parts. Part 1 is set in a small town in Maine where anti-German feeling is stirred up against a local man of German ancestry (his name is Krug). After an amazing free-for-all that puts later Western fights to shame (and shows American anti-German hysteria), Krug goes off to enlist after secretly marrying the daughter of town's leading citizen. Part 2 shows him at sea where he is commander of a wartime vessel. He is joined by his wife who has stowed away after being thrown out by her father who has learned of the marriage. When the ship is sunk by a U-Boat the two of them are picked up in a lifeboat by the very same submarine who takes the wife and casts the husband adrift. Part 3 has him miraculously in command of another ship when they encounter the same U-Boat which he sinks but not before rescuing the sub's commander. Pretending to be a German spy (he speaks the language) he finds out what happened to his wife (horrific) and then enacts a brutal revenge (even more horrific)..
Although it's all over-the-top, it's made more than worthwhile by the skill with which it was made and by the movie's 3 leading performances. Hobart Bosworth was a long time character player with a theatrical background. His Captain Krug comes across as a hero on amphetamines. Jane Novak, an actress of Czech descent and who appeared in a number of movies with William S. Hart, is the perfect, demure All-American girl which makes her fate all the more disturbing. Wallace Beery is well known for his later sound movies but he was a first class silent film actor whose facial expressions are a joy to behold. In fact the final sequence between him as the U-boat captain and Hobart Bosworth is just simply delicious. Although other reviewers may tell you Beery's fate, I won't. However it has to do with the film's title and that Bosworth's civilian occupation was as a taxidermist. If that doesn't make you want to see it, then I don't know what will. Additional bonuses include the film's Russian print which is slightly different and how BEHIND THE DOOR was restored...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.
