Like most of Brownrigg's films, this was filmed in East Texas, specifically Jefferson, close to the Louisiana border, but really, it might have been filmed almost anywhere. Such was Brownrigg's singular vision - or technical resources - that his films tend to be set indoors in single settings. This one is a little less hemmed in than his earlier works, however, giving occasional glimpses of the small town to which a young woman returns to care for her elderly grandmother. In Grannie's old dark house, she finds herself trapped by a homicidal maniac.
The picture is also distinguished from the earlier works by a few moments of more inventive cinematography on the part of frequent Brownrigg collaborator Robert Alcott. In one scene, the camera cranes upward through the center of an elaborate spiral staircase, following the leading lady into a domed, blue-tinted attic room with sunlight coming through the red glass of the windows. Some observers and Brownrigg fans have favorably compared that scene with the work of Italian giallo horror directors Mario Bava and Dario Argento.
The terrorized young woman is played by Susan Bracken, daughter of the comic actor Eddie Bracken, star of two back-to-back Preston Sturges films of 1944, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero. Prior to this, Susan Bracken appeared in a couple of TV movies, one with Tab Hunter for Disney and another with a young Morgan Freeman. This was her last and only theatrical feature.
Principal photography (well, all the photography, really) took place for three weeks, most of it in what is known as the House of the Seasons (the picture's initial shooting title). The building got its name because the upper floor has tinted windows representing the four seasons (green for spring, amber for summer, red for fall, and blue for winter), hence the tinted scene described above. The Italian villa-style house was built in 1872 by Benjamin Holland Epperson, a well-known East Texas attorney and state legislator and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Shooting also took place at the town's Doll Museum and Jay Gould's Atalanta Railroad Car, a large custom rail carriage that carried rail tycoon Gould and his family and servants on their travels. Since the 1950s, it has been a tourist attraction in Jefferson.
Brownrigg groupies on line have also commented on the music score by Robert Farrar, particularly his use of "buzzsaw guitar" and "chamber-rock" ensemble compositions to complement what has apparently been his trademark, muffled flutes.
Don't Open the Door played very briefly in Texas and the South, reportedly under the titles Don't Hang Up and Seasons for Murder. In 1979 it was picked up by Capital Films Corporation and re-released under its current title (not to be confused with a 2014 film of the same name).
Brownrigg's sons followed him into the business: Tony as an actor, writer, director, editor, and producer; Stacy as a sound technician on many film and television productions, including Office Space (1999) and the miniseries based on the Stephen King novel 11.22.63 (2016).
Director: S.F. Brownrigg
Producers: S.F. Brownrigg, Martin Jurow
Screenplay: Frank Schaefer and Kerry Newcomb
Cinematography: Robert Alcott
Editing: Jerry Caraway, Lynn Leneau
Music: Bob Farrar
Cast: Susan Bracken (Amanda Post), Larry O'Dwyer (Claude Kearn), Gene Ross (Judge Stemple), Jim Harrell (Dr. Crawther), Rhea MacAdams (Grandmother)
By Rob Nixon
