All great stars had to start somewhere, and for Barbara Stanwyck, it was on Broadway. The play "Burlesque" made her famous and brought her to the attention of film producers. It would take a man named Frank Capra to get ahold of her and teach her to love the camera and teach the camera to love her. But between "Burlesque" on Broadway and "Ladies of Leisure", Stanwyck made several films in which she did her best to find her niche' on screen. "The Locked Door" and "Mexicali Rose" are the two I've seen, and in each, I have to admit that my favorite actress of the 30's and 40's just hadn't found her place yet. It doesn't help that the films are stagy, filmed like old theatre melodramas, and are stiff and rigid.
Stanwyck has presence; She just needed the right Svengali to come along and show her the way. "The Locked Door" is certainly better than "Mexicali Rose" (the Brooklyn gal as a Latina?), but not much better. Rod La Rocque is the slimy villain she fights off then defends her sister-in-law from; He is an exile of the silent movies, a character that has thankfully faded from view in films, TV and theatre except for parody (most memorably in the Broadway musical "The Drowsy Chaperone"). No one else in the cast really is worth mentioning except for Zasu Pitts as the chatty operator who adds on some much needed laughs. Thankfully this has been rescued from obscurity by recent TCM airings, one of the last Stanwyck films I needed to see to complete my viewing of all her work. As Stanwyck herself proclaimed, "They never should have opened the damned door!"
Stanwyck has presence; She just needed the right Svengali to come along and show her the way. "The Locked Door" is certainly better than "Mexicali Rose" (the Brooklyn gal as a Latina?), but not much better. Rod La Rocque is the slimy villain she fights off then defends her sister-in-law from; He is an exile of the silent movies, a character that has thankfully faded from view in films, TV and theatre except for parody (most memorably in the Broadway musical "The Drowsy Chaperone"). No one else in the cast really is worth mentioning except for Zasu Pitts as the chatty operator who adds on some much needed laughs. Thankfully this has been rescued from obscurity by recent TCM airings, one of the last Stanwyck films I needed to see to complete my viewing of all her work. As Stanwyck herself proclaimed, "They never should have opened the damned door!"