Cast a Dark Shadow

source: Cast a Dark Shadow

Trailer—Cast a Dark Shadow

Cast a Dark Shadow

This is a movie that has almost all the parts working, in varying degrees. Direction, cinematography, screenplay, editing all were professionally done. The acting was superb. Dirk Bogarde couldn't have been better. Margaret Lockwood gave an award caliber performance. Kathleen Harrison as the maid played her character superbly while keeping her in the background, so to speak. The one obvious flaw was the predictability of the story. I found this to be a minor irritation only.

DIRK BOGARDE was always at his best playing the anti-hero with a dark side, lifting his eyebrow to suggest still another wicked scheme going on in his mind. And he's got plenty of eyebrow raising to do in this story that has him as a scheming Bluebeard who's looking for wealthy women to keep him in the money. Here he has to cope with not one, but two very strong-minded women who don't fall so easily for his duplicity or his charm. MARGARET RUTHERFORD is a free spirited lady with a tough will to live and not be undermined by any man looking for a windfall of money. KAY WALSH is a woman we gradually learn has more to do with the plot than her chance encounter with Bogarde would seem to indicate. It's stylishly directed with the emphasis on good old-fashioned suspense as Bogarde spreads the devious charm throughout a story that ends with a wallop. Summing up: Bogarde's fans won't want to miss this one.

Adapted from a stage play ('Murder Mistaken'), this film shows the wonderful Margaret Lockwood playing a realistic character, rather than as a highwaywoman or gipsy in a melodrama. She is excellent as Freda, the vulgar second wife of the scheming Dirk Bogarde, who is clever enough not to be murdered by him like her predecessor. According to Bogarde, Lockwood's name on the posters was bad publicity for the film, as her fans wanted to remember as the villanous women she played in earlier films. This seems a shame, as Lockwood was one of the better actresses of the postwar British cinema who deserved to be given meatier parts, like their American counterparts.

If a murder can be said to be fun, this one is pretty close to it. We're talking one murder here and possibly a couple more to come down the pike. Dirk Bogarde is in his really really bad boy mode with those huge limpid eyes working away at catching the attention of the older ladies. Catch them he does and wonderfully so. Problem is that "lady #2" proves to be more than a match for Teddy and really gives back as good as she gets, plus some. It's dark. It's got twists and turns galore. It's an afternoon at the British seaside with one of those terrific British casts from the 50's with a stagy feel but set in real locations. Watch it if you can !

CAST A DARK SHADOW is a slice of British noir, centred around a well-to-do household where Dirk Bogarde plays a Bluebeard-type character who's desperate to make himself rich by bumping off a succession of wives. Bogarde takes possibly his darkest role here and he really has a ball with it, particularly in the latter stages when he really cracks up. The rest of the story is quite small scale and it's one of those static pictures that's quite obviously based on a play, with a succession of characters turning up to converse with the leads. Still, the cast is carefully chosen and the film's psychological aspects ring true. Some of the big twists are rather obvious for a modern viewer, but otherwise this is solid stuff.

It's a load of old tosh but its also a lot of fun with a grand cast pulling out all the stops. Dirk Bogarde is the psychopathic killer who does away with rich wife Mona Washbourne, making her death look like an accident but when he finds she's made a will leaving all her money to her sister in Jamacia he marries Margaret Lockwood for her money only to find she's not quite so easy to get rid off. They, as well as Kay Walsh as a rich newcomer to the district and Kathleen Harrison as a slightly dotty maid, are all at the top of their game and Lewis Gilbert directs as if he actually wanted us to take all of this seriously. It may stick very much to its one-room set, betraying its theatrical origins, but thanks to Gilbert and cinematographer Jack Asher it remains resolutely cinematic.

This movie originated in London's West End as a 'tour de force' vehicle for an actress who could play both victim and nemesis of the caddish hero 'Teddy'. In the movie the roles are split between Mona Washbourne and Margaret Lockwood. The film betrays its theatrical origins many times over and is firmly couched in the thriller conventions of its time. Dirk Bogarde, one of the best actors to emerge from postwar British Cinema is caught in a web of clichés as badboy Teddy: (The one original aspect of his character is a clearly signaled penchant for muscle men) but the one good reason for all fans of Ms. Lockwood to see this flick, is the opportunity to see her cast off the Wicked Lady mantle and assume a straightforward, eminently practical, tough-talking persona that we have never seen before. "you wouldn't like this one Monnie" says Teddy in imaginary dialogue with his late victim, "She's common". Well, Monnie might not like her, but be assured dear reader, you will.