Laraine Day plays a disturbed young woman in "The Locket," about a childhood trauma that dictates a woman's future. Brian Aherne, a young Robert Mitchum, and Gene Raymond all play men duped by her as she goes from husband to husband.
During and after World War II, the subject of psychiatry became a popular one in films as soldiers and their families sought to deal with the psychological implications of the war experience. "Possessed," "Lady in the Dark," "A Dark Adapted Eye," "Snakepit," were some of those films, to name only a few.
In "The Locket," Brian Aherne visits bridegroom-to-be Gene Raymond to warn him about his future wife, and in Aherne's story, Mitchum has come to visit him - so that soon we have a flashback within a flashback within a flashback, going back to Day's childhood and the trauma she suffered at the hands of her mother's employer, when she is accused of taking a locket that in reality, the employer's daughter had given her. The Day character is a magnificent actress, fooling each man she meets into believing that the problem is with the man in the prior situation.
Laraine Day is lovely and does the wide-eyed innocent beautifully. She has long been a favorite actress of mine. The men are all good. It's great to see young, handsome Mitchum in the role of an artist who becomes involved with Day.
All in all, a fascinating story and well worth seeing.
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