MovieChat Forums > The Locket (1946) Discussion > Love the flashback within flashback stru...

Love the flashback within flashback structure


and the visually constricted manner in which each of the flashbacks is filmed.

Well done!

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Indeed! The flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks elevated this movie from fairly standard mystery to something quite intriguing.

"He's already attracted to her. Time and monotony will do the rest."

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I agree. With that flashback structure we never really know until the end what's really going on. For all we know Dr. Blair is making up the whole thing. The men tell their story through him but he might not be who he says he is.

I love the way it all comes full circle too. Early in the movie we learn that Mrs. Willis has a son but he was away at school. How interesting that he's now her future husband. There was no hint of that in the beginning and it's clear he and no one else in his family knows anything about it.

As it came together, I still hadn't realized she was really psychotic and never even realized she was lying. I could understand why Mrs. Willis would have failed to recognize her. The last time she saw her, Nancy was a little girl. She had also changed her name by then, but how could Nancy not see the connection? After such a traumatic, life-changing experience, Mrs. Willis' face should have been seared into her memory.

For a moment I thought she had planned it that way, maybe to get back at her, but if she knew I don't think her reaction to the locket would have been the same and it wouldn't have been dramatic enough to cause her to have a complete mental breakdown.

This was an amazing movie; well-made, suspenseful, and entertaining from start to finish!


Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]

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Warner Bros. passage to Marseille also used a similar flashbak within a flashback structure but it was kind of pointless there.

"Some men are coming to kill us. We're gonna kill them first." 

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