The Black Door - Production & Contact Info (original) (raw)

Isabel Ralston, a young newspaper reporter, is send by the order of her managing editor into the middle of a mystery that recalls Poe's "Murders of the Rue Morgue." Cynthia is the niece of an old lady, Harriet Kennedy, whose wealth and the...See moreIsabel Ralston, a young newspaper reporter, is send by the order of her managing editor into the middle of a mystery that recalls Poe's "Murders of the Rue Morgue." Cynthia is the niece of an old lady, Harriet Kennedy, whose wealth and the imminence of her departure from this mundane sphere, have inspired her relatives with greed and caused them to conspire so that her demise may be hastened. But Cynthia is more than that. She is of the "criminal type." Miss Ralston falls under the evil sway of Cynthia and her band of harpies who have installed themselves in old Miss Kennedy's home, because, having befriended the old woman once, she has been sent for by the latter in her extremity. Jonas Slaughter is a lawyer and a sort of relative of old Miss Kennedy. He is also an occupant of the house. Slaughter and Cynthia, together with the dissolute nephew of Miss Kennedy, plot to kill the old lady and to throw the blame on Miss Ralston and John Farrar, Miss Ralston's law office fiancé, who has accompanied her at her request and who is stormbound as she is in the house of "The Black Door." James Kennedy, the nephew, who is egged on by Cynthia to garrote his aunt in her bed, and who is nerved to the deed by the administration of cocaine, is recognized by Miss Ralston, who has been kept awake by the storm, and brought to book by her for the crime, after she herself has been accused. The unmasking of the real murderer, James Kennedy, is skillfully handled. The mystery of the "Black Door," is solved when it is discovered that Cynthia has been in the habit of telling most industriously a story, which is based on an old southern superstition, that the front door of a house occupied for more than a century turned black when any member of the family died, and that it was she who blackened the door with a big brush in order to impress on the minds of simple folk that the death of Miss Kennedy had been wrought by some mysterious agency. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less