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.

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.

Cast A Dark Shadow casts Dirk Bogarde as a 50s edition of Bluebeard who marries and murders them. He's got a nice deadly charm to get the women to trust him.

This film has Bogarde involved with three different women. He's met and married Mona Washburne who is a good deal older than he. And a very clever job it was, fooled the coroner completely. But lo and behold she had not changed her will to include him. All he's left with is the house itself, all monies went to Washburne's sister living in Jamaica.

Which leaves him on the prowl to find an additional wealthy woman to provide for him. At a seaside resort he finds the tart tongued Margaret Lockwood who finds his charm irresistible, but she's canny on money matters.and she's not co-mingling the assets in any way.

So he moves on to Kay Walsh an even wealthier woman looking to buy property in the area. All the while getting a little more manic about money.

Bogarde is also quite manic about Robert Flemyng who was Washburne's attorney who has never liked Bogarde, suspects foul play but can't prove anything.

Bogarde is one clever and ruthless killer, but there's a con being worked on him and he doesn't catch on until too late.

There's an additional role of prominence here, that of Kathleen Harrison as Washburne's maid. She's really charming in her own way, an innocent old maid working in all this evil. Lockwood too emerged from her 40s roles when she was cast as a delicate beauty for the most part in costume dramas. She's got quite the tongue and is no one's fool. But she has her hormonal needs.

Cast A Dark Shadow holds up very well for today's audience. It's a timeless tale of greed and corruption.

Margaret Lockwood is so good as the hardened widow Mrs. Jeffries, it's almost scary. Those initial encounters between her and Bare (Bogarde) are like two sharks searching for a soft spot. Seldom has a courtship been more cynically reduced to a conjugation of bank balances than in this bleak little exercise. I love that tacky seaside club where they first meet with its empty tables and off-key musicians that reeks of faded gentility. Bogarde is all oily charm and greed, while Lockwood has seen it all, yet somewhere still wants to believe. Their prickly coupling is to marriage what he Hitler-Stalin pact was to peace treaties. Certainly, no one can accuse the writers of loading up with sympathetic characters. In fact, only the pathetic housekeeper Emmie invites empathy—Kathleen Harrison in a slyly bravura performance.

In my book, the movie's an excellent little thriller up to the point where the screenplay has Bogarde go bonkers. To that point, he's been all cold calculation and self-possession, an impressive study in ruthless boyish charm. However, by suddenly collapsing that cold confidence into a blubbering psychotic, the screenplay undercuts both the character menace and the dramatic tension. I'm just wondering whether some watchdog group insisted that the character be exposed as a weakling in order to undercut Bogarde's appeal as a villain. However that may be, the movie remains an atmospheric, well-mounted little thriller, unusually well acted.