Don't Ever Open That Door

1952 film

1952 (1952)

Running time

85 minutesCountryArgentinaLanguageSpanish

Don't Ever Open That Door (Spanish:No abras nunca esa puerta) is a 1952 Argentine thriller film directed by Carlos Hugo Christensen and starring Ángel Magana, Roberto Escalada and Norma Giménez.^[1] It is a film noir anthology film based on two short stories by Cornell Woolrich, namely "Somebody on the Phone" and "Humming Bird Comes Home".

The film's sets were designed by the art director Gori Muñoz.

It was included in the 2022 list of The 100 Greatest Films of Argentine Cinema at number 45, a poll organized by the specialized magazines La vida útil, Taipei and La tierra quema, which was presented at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival.^[2]

Plot

1. Anguish - A rich man's sister is having trouble due to gambling debts. She will not tell him who is calling her, using a code of letting the phone ring five times before hanging up and calling back as a signal. He tries to help her but she commits suicide before he can determine exactly what exactly is happening. He tracks down a man he has seen her talking to in a bar, who he presumes is her blackmailer. After he kills the man, who says he was only trying to help the sister, the phone rings five times as he looks on in confusion and disbelief.

2. Pain. A blind woman lives with her young niece who assists her. The blind woman is very astute at using her other senses to determine what is going on around her. She misses her son who left eight years prior. Meanwhile, a man who whistles a familiar tune as he robs a jewelry store with two accomplices, kills the store owner while escaping with the stolen goods. The police announce this robbery denoting that the criminal whistles while robbing and murdering on the radio. He goes to the blind woman's house with his two accomplices and one of them dies while there. Soon, we realize that the leader is the missing son. The blind woman realizes her son has gone bad when he whistles the tune known to be used by the robber. At night, as the thugs sleep, she goes through the house removing keys and stealing their guns from their bedsides in a long, suspenseful sequence. She has her young niece remove all the fuses from the fuse-box to make it dark in the house and sends her to get help. In leaving by car, she rouses one of the thugs who wakes the son and the criminals go to the top of the stairs. Using a flashlight, the two thugs see the woman, and when one goes to shoot her with his hidden gun, a scuffle ensues. One man falls to the landing below, dead, the other comes down the stairs to the mother while whistling and whispers, "I'll follow the good path." Appearing to believe it is her son, she lets him go. The niece returns and it is discovered it is the son dead on the landing and it was his accomplice who has escaped. The niece covers the son's face with a napkin, repeating that he is now on "the good path."