The female of the species is more deadly than the male! In the gothic chiller Double Door from director Charles Vidor (Gilda, A Farewell to Arms), Mary Morris reprises her acclaimed Broadway role as one of the most dastardly villains of all time, Victoria Van Brett. In a spooky New York City mansion, the Van Brett matriarch rules her clan with an iron hand. The sinister spinster schemes to ruin any chance her siblings might have for happiness. Evil lurks around every corner of this old dark house, and especially in a secret room behind a certain double door! Evelyn Venable (Death Takes a Holiday), Kent Taylor (I’m No Angel), Sir Guy Standing (The Eagle and the Hawk) and Anne Revere (National Velvet) round out the cast of this Pre-Code classic that features the splendid Morris in the role of a lifetime as “The Female Frankenstein of Fifth Avenue”!
For thoughts on Double Door, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic here.
Video Quality
Double Door makes its Blu-Ray debut thanks to Kino Classics with a 1080p transfer from what appears to be a mostly solid older master. For a film that was never a marquee title, this is about what is to be expected without a fresh scan. There is a pleasing amount of detail present with nice textures on the clothing and within the production design. The transfer shows off some amount of depth and enhanced detail within the film’s composition. The black-and-white photography looks pretty decent in high definition with natural grain throughout. Black levels are pretty weak with very little in the way of fine detail in shadows. The contrast is middling in its definition, and the track experiences a consistent amount of flicker and specks of damage throughout. There are also some stray, faint vertical lines that make appearances without ruining the overall aesthetic of the film. Kino Classics has rescued a film that has not been easy to find for many years, but do not expect the picture quality to be a flawless effort. .
Audio Quality
The Blu-Ray comes with a pretty decent DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that serves this movie well for this earlier time period. This track does present with a minor amount of age related wear and tear including some faint hissing and crackles that likely date back to the source elements. Dialogue and background noises are represented in pleasing harmony with all competing elements. The music never overpowers the dialogue or other important information, but it does sound a little fragile at its highest peaks. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles included for the feature film. The good folks at Kino Classics have done their best to provide a stable experience for this one.
Special Features
- Audio Commentary #1: Film Historian Tom Weaver delivers a pretty informative commentary track in which he discusses many historical details about the film, how this feature plays beside the films of the time, the source material, analysis of the plot, the background of the performers, the locations in the background and more.
- Audio Commentary #2: Film Historian David Del Valle and Film Historian/Archivist Stan Shaffer likewise deliver a deeply informative and entertaining commentary track which is more free-flowing than the first track. These two have great conversations about pre-Code filmmaking, early horror films, the disturbing aspects of the story, how the film compares to the stage play, how the film pushes boundaries and more. Both tracks are a wealth of information and worth checking out for fans of the film.
- Trailers: There are trailers provided for Blackmail, Supernatural, The Undying Monsters, The Spider Woman Strikes Back, Duel In The Suns, and A Farewell To Arms.
Final Thoughts
Double Door is a compact thriller that succeeds based on the strength of its central performances. Mary Morris is wonderfully despicable as the devious lady of the house who is very protective of what is hers. The film succeeds in ratcheting up tension strictly through uncomfortable character dynamics, and, when things do escalate, you can never be sure of what the end result might be. Director Charles Vidor brought out a lot of nuance in such sparse elements. Kino Classics has released a Blu-Ray featuring an A/V presentation that gets the job done and a really great commentary track. If you are a fan of the talent involved it is worth checking out. Recommended
Double Door is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Kino Classics has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
