THE LOCKET: a Russian doll of a film

Why should I be describing a 1946 film noirish drama from RKO as a Russian doll?
Because just as one of those wooden painted icons opens to reveal another smaller doll inside which in turn opens to reveal yet another so is THE LOCKET constructed of a flashback within a flashback within a flashback.
What's most impressive is the way in which director John Brahm makes it all seem so effortless and un-confusing. Hollywood overdosed on the flashback as a storytelling technique in the 1940s and in some cases overused it to the point where it was almost impossible to figure out whether we were watching something happening in the present, the recent past, the distant past or somewhere inbetween.
THE LOCKET also plugs in to Hollywood's 40s fascination with psychoanalysis. This was the coming thing in medical science and had received it's highest profile attention to date with Alfred Hitchcock's 'Spellbound' released the year before.  And as with anything Hollywood got its hands on the idea was simplified to the point where any condition could be explained in 30 seconds or less.
The character in need of some analysing here is the beguilingly beautiful Nancy (Laraine Day), a seemingly vivacious and well adjusted young lady whose troubled past is gradually brought into focus thanks to the flashbacks narrated by the various men who have loved and lost her, Brian Aherne and a young, pre-paunchy Robert Mitchum among them. But are they telling the truth? Nancy's latest beau, the frankly too old for her Gene Raymond, doesn't want to believe what he's hearing on the morning of his marriage to her.

Aherne as Dr Harry Blair, a psychoanalyst and Nancy's former husband, acts as the narrator of Nancy's past, recounting it with a detached professional objectivity which is at odds with his personal feelings for her. Sure he's a doctor but can Raymond trust him? It doesn't help that Aherne plays the part like a man with a long, sharp stick firmly inserted in a place where the sun don't shine. As an actor he appears strangely out of place in this genre, and his palpable uncomfortableness in the role would seem to indicate he knows it. 
It's interesting to watch Laraine Day demonstrate that she's more than just a young and pretty face. Nancy is a character who is play acting for most of the time, presenting a front to the world without realising it. It's a challenging attitude and Day pulls it off convincingly. Not that it helped her much in her career. She made just 4 more films over the next 4 years before migrating to tv where, with few exceptions, she stayed for the next four decades.  
THE LOCKET's labelled as a film noir and I've described as film noirish because I'm not entirely convinced it fits comfortably into this category. There's undeniably a dark element to the story but it's not an entirely dark film and the style of the storytelling is closer to drama. Let's call it noirish drama and leave it at that!
Whatever you want to label it, THE LOCKET is definitely worth taking in. I'm not making any claims for it being one of the best movies of the 40s but it's certainly interesting and there's a delicious twist towards the end that you'll miss if you're not paying close attention.