Cast a Dark Shadow

John Chard

Anyone would think it was Bluebeard's chamber! Cast a Dark Shadow is directed by Kewis Gilbert and adapted to screenplay by John Cresswell from the play Murder Mistaken written by Janet Green. It stars Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Lockwood, Kay Walsh, Kathleen Harrison and Robert Flemyng. Music is by Antony Hopkins and cinematography by Jack Asher. Edward Bare (Bogarde) marries an older woman for money, murders her and finds that inheritance is not forthcoming. Setting his sights on another lady target, he gets more than he bargained for when he homes in on Freda Jeffries (Lockwood)... You! Whatever you do, leave me alone! Splendid slice of Brit noir that takes the Bluebeard route and lets the actors indulge themselves with glee. There's a bubbling broth of class distinction and simmering sexual tensions on the stove here, with Gilbert (The Good Die Young) and Asher (The Curse of Frankenstein) dressing it up nicely in moody visuals. From a Ghost Train opening, where the eyes have it, to the consistent symbolic use of a rocking chair, there's a sinister edge to the piece that tickles the spine and tantalises the conscious. We are pretty sure what is about to unfold in the plotting, but the getting there through the shadows and low lights is where the rewards are. The cast are uniformly impressive. Bogarde by this time in his career was revelling in playing sleazy or emotionally corrupt characters, and he turns in another memorable performance here. Walsh and Flemyng are playing peripheral characters but strike the right narrative notes, and Harrison is heart achingly doltish as bewildered housekeeper Emmie. But it's Lockwood who shines brightest, here at the end of her film career, she delivers a spitfire turn. Freda is tough, has a waspish tongue (the script affords her some great moments) and uses humour as a mechanism for staving off potential peril. She also has a sexy glint in her eye that matches her ferocious laugh! It sometimes veers towards the over theatrical, and director Gilbert at times misses a chance to really tighten the suspense, but this without doubt is deserving of a bigger fan-base. 7.5/10

CinemaSerf

This is a smashing piece of cinema with Kay Walsh ("Charlotte"); Margaret Lockwood ("Freda Jeffries") and Kathleen Harrison ("Emmie") all on great form as the women involved in the machinations of the manipulative, murderous Dirk Bogarde "Edward Bare". When his elderly, wealthy, wife (Mona Washbourne) unexpectedly dies, he is disappointed to learn from her rather sceptical lawyer "Philip Mortimer" (Robert Flemyng) that the will doesn't provide quite as well for him as he had hoped - so he sets about finding a successor - and he alights on the streetwise "Freda" who makes it quite clear that what's her's is, well, staying her's - even after they marry... Not quite content with that arrangement, he decides that she might just have to have an accident, too. At this point, a stranger - "Charlotte" - arrives on the scene, ostensibly looking to buy a house and our mystery starts to unfold. Bogarde is on top form, and Lewis Gilbert manages to cleverly intertwine the characters whilst building a gentle sense of menace that runs pretty much to the end (though I found that a little bit flawed). Good stuff.