A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
Direction
Brahm's nested flashbacks—four layers deep, flawlessly executed.
Acting
Laraine Day's ice-queen fragility is genuinely unsettling.
Writing
Screenplay by Sheridan Gibney, based on a novel that doesn't exist.
Director
John Brahm
Laraine Day
Nancy
Brian Aherne
Dr. Harry Blair
Robert Mitchum
Norman Clyde
Gene Raymond
John Willis
Sharyn Moffett
Nancy - Age 10
Ricardo Cortez
Drew Bonner
Henry Stephenson
Lord Wyndham
Katherine Emery
Mrs. Willis
Reginald Denny
Mr. Wendell
Fay Helm
Mrs. Bonner
Helene Thimig
Mrs. Monks
Nella Walker
Mrs. Wendell
Queenie Leonard
Woman Singer
Lilian Fontaine
Lady Wyndham
Myrna Dell
Thelma
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The novel 'The Locket' by Sheridan Gibney was entirely fabricated for marketing—no book existed before the screenplay.
Brahm's structure was so radical that studio executives demanded test screenings; audiences reportedly needed post-film explanations, yet the film became a noir touchstone for narrative experimentation.
US
