As a movie fan, one of the greatest revelations I’ve enjoyed in the past few years has been the excellent collection of classic Argentinean film noir released on DVD/Blu-ray by Flicker Alley. The Cornell Woolrich adaptation Never Open That Door/No Abras Nunca Esa Puerta (1952) now joins The Beast Must Die (1952), Bitter Stems (1956), and El Vampiro Negro (1953) in a group of films which demonstrates that Argentinean noir was just as good, if not better than Hollywood at exploring the darkness in the human soul.
Director Carlos Hugo Christensen had originally intended to adapt three stories by crime writer Cornell Woolrich (Phantom Lady, Rear Window, and many more). However, that would have brought the film to over two hours, which was unheard of in Argentina, so two of the stories appear in this film and the third was expanded and released as If I Should Die Before I Wake (Si muero antes de despertar)(1952). This film is included as a special feature in the Flicker Alley set.
The first half of the film is based on the story Somebody's on the Phone. Set in a world of elegant luxury, it features a brother and sister who live together, but who are a mystery to each other. When the sister finds herself in trouble with a blackmailer, her brother goes to extremes to find justice for her. The chilly, impeccable surroundings of their home make the reason for his sister’s distress more mysterious, because there is little around them to reveal who they are and what drives them. You are left to wonder about the trouble; is it excessive debt, embarrassing photographs, or something more sinister? This serves a purpose similar to Alfred Hitchcock’s MacGuffin, because the real story is the lengths this brother will go to for his sister.
An adaptation of The Hummingbird Comes Home closes the film. In it an elderly blind woman discovers that her long-absent son has come home with his accomplices after committing a string of crimes. She realizes by the tune he whistles that he is the dangerous criminal described in a radio news report. While she loves her son, she knows she must not let him cause more harm. In a story confined mostly to her home, she is clever and resourceful as she devises a plan to stop him, while hopeful that he will choose a better path going forward. Cinematographer Pablo Tabernero does remarkable work in both sections of the film, but here he is especially effective in using light and shadow to reveal the mix of vulnerability and strength this elderly woman possesses.
If I Should Die Before I Wake fits well into the trio, but is also extremely tense and effective as a stand-alone production. A boy is sworn to secrecy by a fellow classmate to not tell of the mysterious man who gives her gifts. When the man murders her, he is desperate to tell the truth, but feels bound to his secret, which his mother, not knowing the details of the matter tells him he must continue to keep. When the man sets his sights on another classmate, he realizes the danger of the adults in his life teaching him that the world must be approached as black and white, when it can be extremely dangerous to ignore that it is often in shades of gray.
The intended meaning of Never Open That Door is a warning to not cross from good to evil, with the implication being that it is never worth the risk. I thought novelist Halley Sutton revealed an even more compelling theme in her interview for a Cornell Woolrich documentary included in the special features: all three of these stories are about familial devotion. Whether it is a brother protecting his sister, a mother her son, or a son following his mother’s instructions to the letter, the tension comes from characters placing family above all else. While that devotion and sense of wanting to protect or avenge loved ones is common in film noir, it isn’t often mentioned as a common element of noir, and I thought it was an interesting point.
Along with If I Should Die Before I Wake, special features include a booklet with photos from the film, an introduction by Eddie Muller, audio commentary by author and film historian Guido Segal, a new documentary about source novelist Cornell Woolrich, and a newly recorded conversation with film archivist and historian Fernando Martin Peña.
More Argentinean noir from Flicker Alley:
