Secret Beyond The Door by Rufus King is "the exciting book from which the movie hit was made, starring Joan Bennett and Michael Redgrave". It was originally titled Museum Piece No. 13.
I bought a Triangle hardcover with a great dust jacket, and I heard there was a secret beyond the door, and of course I wanted to find out what it was. While both great, the book is very different from the film.
Lily Constable is a wealthy widow completely without relatives. When she meets Earl Rumney, they quickly marry and she moves into his large home Blaze Creek, site of celebrity parties and social events. There she meets his reclusive and unwelcoming son, Aderic, from his previous marriage to Eleanor. She died there mysteriously and her room is kept just as she left it. Diana Goff is Earl's sister and with her husband they help run Earl's large newspaper. Aderic has a caregiver, Miss McQuillan, who has a horrible facial burn that she got rescuing the son from a cottage fire years ago. She always wears a veil across half her face.
Strong shades of Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier as Lily is welcomed with a veneer of warmth by the family and staff, while underneath they look on her with pity ~ Eleanor was also wealthy and when her money ran out, Earl turned disinterested, perhaps instigating her death. As Lily tours the large house, she comes across a private wing where Earl keep his hobby... It won't spoil too much if I tell you what it is. Earl collects 'rooms' - entire tableaus where a grisly deed has taken place sometime in history. Odd murders intrigue him and he has the means to buy the entire room down to the last detail and reconstruct it perfectly at Blaze Creek. There are twelve rooms so far in this private museum and it gives him a thrill to show them to guests. Lily is fine with his collection, until she sees a new room, the thirteenth, which he will show to no one. Lily enlists the aid of a psychiatrist and some old friends in New York to fashion a duplicate key, and while sneaking in the dead of night, go to discover the secret beyond the door.
It's a fun book to read, mysterious and full of heightened drama. We are firmly on Lily's side as the family treats her poorly, including her husband most of the time, as they await what they feel is her inevitable sad fate. Once the secret beyond the door is revealed however, the story takes a twist I didn't see coming, with a murder, an escape into a trap and a true villain I never suspected! A great finale.
Unlike the novel, the film takes time showing how Lily and Earl meet, Miss McQuillan is not as burned or unfriendly, and a stronger friendship develops between Lily and the sister Diana. They leave most of the story intact, dropping the last third of the book, and its good in its own way. The rooms are there, the threatening mystery and a new finale. Joan Bennett is fine, but I've never seen Michael Redgrave so wooden! It's balanced by the always great actress Anne Revere as Diana.
Both are worth a look, but I'll stick with the novel. It was well written and entertaining, uniquely twisted. If you like the gothic Dark Shadows touch and want to discover the secrets of a museum of horrors in the middle of the night, give it a read.
1947 / Hardcover / 220 pages
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