| Cast a Dark Shadow | |
| Director: | Lewis Gilbert |
| Producer: | Herbert Mason |
| Based On: | [1] |
| Starring: | |
| Music: | Antony Hopkins |
| Cinematography: | Jack Asher |
| Editing: | Gordon Pilkington |
| Distributor: | |
| Runtime: | 82 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
Cast a Dark Shadow is a 1955 British suspense film noir directed by Lewis Gilbert and written by John Cresswell, based on the 1952 play Murder Mistaken by Janet Green. It stars Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Lockwood, Kay Walsh, Kathleen Harrison and Robert Flemyng. The film released on 20 September 1955, distributed by Eros Films Ltd. in the United Kingdom and Distributors Corporation of America in the United States. The story concerns a husband who murders his wife.
Married for a year, Edward "Teddy" Bare kills his wealthy older wife Monica after she asks her lawyer Phillip Mortimer to change her will. He stages it to look as if she accidentally asphyxiated while drunkenly trying to light the gas fire (he having assiduously encouraged her to drink heavily as part of his control over her).
To his chagrin, he discovers that she intended to leave him all her money; instead, he only inherits the mansion from a previous will while her fortune is left in trust to her only relative, her sister Dora. She leaves £200 to the elderly maid, but Edward convinces the maid that this money was in lieu of wages, getting her to then work for free. Edward will receive the main inheritance only if Dora dies. An inquest rules it an accident, but Phillip, Monica's lawyer, makes it clear that he suspects Edward. When Edward asks where Dora lives, Phillip tells him she is in Jamaica.
Edward meets Freda, a merry widow, in a seaside hotel and woos her. He invites her to stay at the huge house which he has inherited. She becomes friendly with the maid.
Edward manages to marry lower-class but well-off widow Freda Jeffries, who is closer to Edward's age than Monica, but much less trusting than her predecessor, keeping tight control over her fortune. As the death of a second spouse so soon after the first would be highly suspicious, he is powerless to do anything. The new couple meet Charlotte Young, whose car has broken down. Charlotte is looking for a house to purchase for an equestrian school. As Edward was an estate agent before he married Monica, he shows her several properties, making Freda jealous.
Edward lures Charlotte to his mansion late one night while Freda and the servant are out. He reveals he knows that Charlotte is Dora, then he brazenly admits killing her sister before trying to make her leave. Suspicious, she remains where she is. However, Freda and Emily return home unexpectedly because Emily felt unwell, and Freda escorts Charlotte to the door. After Charlotte drives away, Edward tells a horrified Freda that he killed Monica, secure in the knowledge that a wife cannot be compelled to testify against her husband and that he expects to inherit Charlotte's money shortly because he has tampered with the brakes on her car. He is shocked when Phillip enters the room, having heard his confession, followed by his intended victim. She had returned to the house after meeting the lawyer at the estate's gate. Edward flees in his car, but the entrance is blocked by Charlotte's and Phillip's automobiles. With Phillip in pursuit, Edward switches to another vehicle, only to realise too late that he has taken Charlotte's car. He loses control and drives over a cliff to his death.
The film was based on the play Murder Mistaken by Janet Green. Green wanted Dirk Bogarde to be in the play, but he declined, and Derek Farr played the role. When Lewis Gilbert was making The Sea Shall Not Have Them, he saw the play and thought it would make a good film, and he persuaded Bogarde to play the lead.
Bogarde persuaded Margaret Lockwood to co star. "I was dubious about being able to play such a character, though I liked her honesty," said Lockwood.[4]
"I think it was a very interesting plot, very claustrophobic," said Gilbert. "I think it was the best thing Margaret Lockwood did. She was great in the film."
Dirk Bogarde later said "the unwholesomeness of the hero was what was fun about it."
According to Kinematograph Weekly, the film was a "money maker" at the British box office in 1955.[5] However Dirk Bogarde said "the film was a failure":
It was the first time I had come under another star's name – Margaret Lockwood – and it just died, which was a pity because it was a very good movie and I had persuaded Maggie to do it. I remember being on tour in Cardiff with a play and I saw a poster for Cast a Dark Shadow and it had 'Dirk Bogarde in Cast a Dark ShadowLewis Gilbert later said "it was reasonably successful but by then Margaret [Lockwood] had been in several really bad films and her name on a picture was rather counter-productive."[7] He said she got "wonderful notices" but it was "too late for her. She'd already lost her audience. The film just scraped home, we just made a profit."[8]' and, at the very bottom, 'with Margaret Lockwood'. They altered the billing order because they saw it was dying and that, astoundingly, her name had killed it, though it was probably her best performance ever.[6]
"I'm glad I did it, but am still wondering exactly where it got me," said Lockwood in 1973. After making the movie, she did not appear in a feature film for another 21 years.
Monthly Film Bulletin wrote "This is an old-fashioned and thorough-going melodrama, adapted from the stage and retaining – notably in the big scene in which Bare confronts his victim’s sister – a decidedly theatrical flavour. It is conventionally but quite competently managed, achieving an occasional note of the authentically squalid and shabby in developing Bare’s dealings with the three women. Margaret Lockwood’s performance as the retired barmaid, although built up largely through mannerisms, has considerable spirit."[9]
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that the actors are skilled but "they are not offered many opportunities to make Cast a Dark Shadow mysterious or tense."[10]
Maclean's film reviewer Clyde Gilmour described the film as "[a] solid little murder thriller from Britain."[11]
Halliwell's Film & Video Guide described the film as "[unambitious] but enjoyable melodrama, well acted though with directorial opportunities missed."[12]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959, David Quinlan rated the film as "good", writing "Stagey thriller, played with panache."[13]
Leslie Halliwell stated "Unambitious but enjoyable melodrama, well acted though with directorial opportunities missed."[14]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "After murdering his wife Mona Washbourne for her money, Dirk Bogarde marries canny Margaret Lockwood who proves less easy to dispose of. When he meets Kay Walsh, however, murder is back on the agenda. A modest but entertaining melodrama, directed by Lewis Gilbert with a stylish and proficient cast. Lockwood, who would return to the screen only once more two decades later, is particularly effective."[15]
Cast a Dark Shadow was given a DVD commercial release by Simply Media in June 2015.