Stubs - The Locket (1946)

The Locket (1946) starring Laraine Day, Brian Aherne, Robert Mitchum. Directed by John Brahm. Screenplay by Sheridan Gibney. Produced by Bert Granet. Run time: 86 minutes. Black and White, USA, Drama, Psychological Thriller, Film Noir

As part of the clean out the DVR Saturday, we watch The Locket. The recording, as it turns out, dates from the 2015 edition of Summer of Darkness. This fact speaks to the need for clearing out old recordings and the fact that the recording was still playable after nearly 10 years.

In the things didn’t turn out the way it was planned department, Hume Cronyn originally bought the Norma Barzman screenplay to produce and direct the film with his wife Jessica Tandy in the lead role, but later sold the rights to RKO Pictures, which then assigned Sheridan Gibney to rewrite it.

Laraine Day, newly acquired by RKO, was cast in the lead, a step for her, having been best known for playing Mary Lamont in the Dr. Kildare series of films when she had been under contract at MGM. She apparently knew this was a make-or-break part for her and producer Bert Granet wanted her, even when bigger stars like Olivia de Havilland and her sister, Joan Fontaine, expressed interest. Granet, who liked the idea of Day, who had made a career playing simple girl-next-door types, as a compulsive liar and kleptomaniac. Granet fought to keep Day even though Fontaine was then married to Bill Dozier, the head of RKO, where the film was to be made.

Also cast in the film was Robert Mitchum in what would be his last supporting role in films. Although, a former colleague of Day, both having worked their craft in the Long Beach Players, he never spoke to her on set during the making of the film. Day put it down to Mitchum’s use of marijuana, but Mitchum was apparently upset with Day, believing that she had snubbed him in Schwab's Drugstore, when he, then a struggling actor, had tried to talk to her.

Production began in early March and lasted until mid-May. The film reused the same sets for interiors as was used for the house of Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains) in Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious, released by RKO in September 1946, but shot in 1945. The Locket was released on December 20, 1946.

On the day of his wedding, millionaire John Willis (Gene Raymond) is visited by Dr. Harry S. Blair (Brian Aherne), a psychiatrist. He is there to warn Willis that the woman he intends to marry, Nancy Patton (Laraine Day), is not who he thinks she is. Nancy, he warns him, is mentally unbalanced.

Willis, of course, doesn’t believe Blair, who claims to have been her husband a few years earlier. He relates the following: After an accidental meeting, with the two literally running into each other on bicycles in Florida, the two have a whirlwind romance and marry. They move to New York City, where he starts his psychiatric practice. Nancy stays home and fixes up the apartment.

For five years, everything seems to be going great for Blair until one day, when artist Norman Clyde (Robert Mitchum) comes to his office and tells him that an innocent man is about to be executed in Sing Sing Prison and that Nancy is the cause of his unjust incarceration.

Blair, of course, doesn’t believe Clyde until he relates the following story: Three years earlier, Clyde meets Nancy, whose maiden name was Monks, when she attends one of his art classes. She’s not really interested in art, so Clyde kicks her out. Only after that does Nancy’s friend inform Clyde that Nancy’s boss, millionaire Andrew Bonner, could help his career.

Norman Clyde (Robert Mitchum) makes a move on Nancy (Laraine Day) soon after meeting her.

Clyde isn’t interested, but can’t stop thinking about Nancy. When he goes to dinner alone at Luigi’s, he sees her there, too, and they talk and eventually fall in love.

Nancy introduces Clyde to her boss Bonner (Ricardo Cortez).

One day, she introduces Clyde to her boss Bonner (Ricardo Cortez). While Clyde won’t sell him anything, Bonner does invite him to showcase his paintings at one of his private showings, including a depiction of the tragic figure Cassandra, for which she modeled.

At Bonner's party, they meet Bonner's wheelchair-bound wife (Fay Helm).

That painting wins first prize at the showing. And Bonner and his wheelchair-bound wife (Fay Helm) try to outbid each other for the painting. The evening is perfect until it is announced that an expensive bracelet for one of the guests has been stolen.

Thinking nothing of it, Clyde and Nancy go to Luigi’s for a celebratory dinner. While looking for nickels for the jukebox in her purse, he discovers the stolen bracelet. They leave abruptly.

Clyde confronts Nancy about the robbery and she relates her story.

When they get home, Clyde confronts a confused Nancy about the theft, and asks her why she stole the necklace. To explain, she relates the following: As a young girl, Nancy (Sharyn Moffett) lives with her housekeeper mother, Mrs. Monks (Helene Thimig), in the lavish Willis home and plays with Karen (Gloria Donovan), the Willises' little daughter. Although Karen wants to invite Nancy to her upcoming birthday party, Mrs. Willis (Katherine Emery) refuses to allow the lower-class Nancy to attend.

A true friend, Karen promises to give Nancy one of the pins her guests are receiving and a piece of cake. When Karen realizes there are no extra pins, she offers Nancy the beautiful locket she has just received from her mother.

Nancy (Sharyn Moffett) feels blessed, but not for long.

Nancy's subsequent joy is quickly crushed when Mrs. Willis demands that she return the locket.

Mrs. Willis (Katherine Emery) makes Nancy confess to a crime she didn't commit.

Later, the locket is discovered missing and Nancy is accused of theft. Although Nancy's mother soon finds the locket in Karen's dress, Mrs. Willis refuses to believe Nancy and forces her to "confess."

Clyde hears gunshots and takes Nancy away from the scene of the crime.

The adult Nancy then admits to Clyde that this childhood humiliation caused her unconscious desire to steal the bracelet at the party. After a forgiving Clyde returns the bracelet anonymously, he and Nancy continue their romance until the next party at the Bonners'.

Bonner's dead body is discovered by his valet Myron Dexter (Dave Thursby).

Suspecting that the absent Nancy is spending the evening in Bonner's arms, Clyde leaves the party to look for her and sees her exiting Mrs. Bonner's bedroom just after two gunshots are fired. Bonner is found murdered and Mrs. Bonner's diamond necklace stolen.

Although Nancy and Clyde are questioned, valet Myron Dexter (Dave Thursby) is eventually found guilty and is sentenced to die. Clyde, however, strongly suspects Nancy, but she angrily maintains her innocence and leaves for Florida.

Clyde against the window he jumps through in Blair's office.

Back in his office, Blair defends Nancy to Clyde, but invites him to his house that evening. When confronted, Nancy denies everything and tells Blair that Clyde is merely jealous. The next day, Dexter is executed, and a guilt-ridden Clyde, after meeting with Blair, jumps from his office window to his death.

To avoid scandal, Blair and Nancy move to England and, after World War II breaks out, Blair volunteers his medical services while Nancy becomes an ambulance driver. They both work around the clock and, concerned about his health, Nancy convinces Blair that they need to take a break and insists that they take a vacation at Lord (Henry Stephenson) and Lady (Lilian Fontaine) Wyndham's manor house.

The Wyndham's manor.

While they’re watching a performance by a singer (Queenie Leonard), Lady Wyndham’s necklace comes off and Nancy, while Blair watches, hands it back to her. They also tour the Wyndham’s vast collection of jewelry.

Later, just as they are leaving, Blair learns that one of Lady Wyndham's valuable jewels has been stolen. Blair suspects Nancy, but is unable to prove anything. He wants to look in her purse for a cigarette and matches, but she already has both items out.

When they get home, there is a German air attack and Blair hurries to the hospital, but Nancy stays at home. In the field, it’s relayed to Blair that the area where he lives has been bombed and he rushes back home and finds that a bomb has destroyed their flat. Nancy is not around, but Blair finds her cache of stolen jewels in the rubble. Nancy, who got called in, wasn’t home.

Although confronted directly, Nancy continues to deny any guilt and divorces Blair after he suffers a nervous breakdown.

Nancy pretends to know Blair (Brian Aherne), but not as her former husband.
Her finance John Willis (Gene Raymond) looks on.

Back in John's study, Blair, like Clyde before him, tries to convince John to abandon Nancy, who now uses the name Patton. When Nancy comes looking for John, he introduces her to Blair. She acts like she barely knew him and tells John that Blair is still suffering from his breakdown.

The Locket Nancy has always wanted.

Moments before the wedding is to start, Nancy's future mother-in-law, the unsuspecting Mrs. Willis, gives her the same locket that she had once taken away, believing Karen would want her to have it and telling her that it is a precious family heirloom. The locket causes Nancy to be overcome with guilt. She hallucinates on her way to the alter, where she collapses in hysterics.

Nancy about to collapse at the alter.

As Nancy is later taken away to an institution, John sadly realizes the truth of Blair's story, but determines to see Nancy through her crisis.

Variety’s review was particularly strong, “The Locket is a case history of a warped mind and its effect on the lives of those it touches intimately. Vehicle is a strong one for Laraine Day and she does much with the role of Nancy, a girl with an abnormal obsession that wrecks the lives of four men who love her.”

The New York Times review was a little less complimentary, “The new attempt to dramatize why it is that some outwardly normal people are subject to irrational impulses comes off as rather ponderous entertainment, but there is no denying that the film contains a fair measure of morbid interest. And, unless the fad for so-called psychological drama has passed its zenith, The Locket should enjoy much the same popularity as its numerous predecessors.” The reviewer then adds, “For this film has much the same virtues and faults of those others; perhaps even a few more faults, since neither Laraine Day nor Robert Mitchum display any discernible understanding of the characters they play.”

Watching nearly 80 years after its original release, the film is interesting. The use of flashbacks, a film noir staple, is somewhat unique. It’s not many films that can pull off a flashback within a flashback within a flashback and make it work.

That is not to say that the film doesn’t have problems. I must admit I’m not sure why Clyde would kill himself, other than it was in the script. He really shouldn’t feel guilty, as he didn’t kill Bonner. And if he had really wanted to do something, he could have gone to the authorities and been a witness against his wife. Suicide seems like an odd reaction, though it does spur the plot forward.

Then there are the Willises. There’s no mention, that I can recall, of Karen having a brother, and how much of a coincidence is it that Nancy would marry into the family and that Mrs. Willis wouldn’t recognize her as the old maid’s daughter whom she’d accused of stealing the very locket she’s giving her? Did she never talk to her son’s fiancée before the wedding? Mrs. Willis is presented as a social status conscience control freak that I can’t imagine she wouldn’t have put Nancy through the ringer before okaying her son’s wedding.

And finally, why does Nancy have a mental breakdown at the end of the film? Isn’t she getting everything she wanted, Karen’s locket? And hasn’t she gotten away with her other crimes? The breakdown seems like something out of the Production Code, rather than real life. She can’t get away with her crimes without some sort of punishment, so a mental breakdown is one way to do that. I don’t believe that real life people like her have a conscious that gets in the way.

I believe I’ve seen Laraine Day in one of the Dr. Kildare films, so seeing her as a femme fatale is really against type. I’m not sure I agree with the NYT’s assessment that didn’t understand her character. That seems a little harsh. I think she plays it just about right. The fact that she made so few movies afterward was because her contract at RKO stated she would only make one film a year for five years. She would, however, be best known for marrying Lou Durocher in 1947 and becoming known as the “First Lady of Baseball" as a result.

Brian Aherne is an English actor, once married to Joan Fontaine, who plays Dr. Blair, Nancy’s husband for most of the film. His character lets his scientific instincts be overwhelmed by his love for Nancy. It’s an interesting position to be in as a character and he carries it off. By this time in his career, Aherne had been nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for the role of Maximilian I of Mexico in Juarez (1939). He would also appear in such films as Titanic (1953), and I Confess (1953) to name a few.

Robert Mitchum as artist Norman Clyde in The Locket (1946).

Robert Mitchum was on the verge of stardom, having been nominated for an Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actor for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). And following this film, he would go on to make his most famous film, Out of the Past (1947). I don’t agree with the NYT’s review, which states, “…Robert Mitchum gives a completely monotonous and inexpressive performance. There is not the slightest hint about this rigid face of the temperament of an artist, even granting that the fellow he is representing is a boody sort.” (Boody is a 1940’s way of saying to sulk or to be sullen.) He might not have been my first choice to play the role, but he does a good job with it for the most part. Even though he wasn’t the star, you can see that he has star power when he’s on screen. Again, the actions of the character speak more to the script than to the actor’s ability.

Overall, I would say that The Locket is interesting, but not a must-see. If you’re a fan of film noir, this wouldn’t be your go-to film in the genre. While it has many of the qualities that make that genre work, it is not a satisfying example. It’s more of a character study of Nancy and the men who let her get by with her crimes and, for whatever reason, are powerless to stop her.