User reviews

Cast a Dark Shadow is directed by Lewis 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

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.

A crackerjack cast of British pros enlivens this drawing room murder story based on a play. Bogarde (looking lean and young) is married to doddering, but kindly older woman Washourne. When he misunderstands her intentions regarding her will, he decides to do her in. Unfortunately, his haste leaves him in a precarious financial state and so he must give marrying and killing for money one more try. He hooks up with wealthy, but incredibly common and vulgar Lockwood, but she proves to be more than he bargained for in the brains department. Things heat up further when attractive, tasteful and equally wealthy Walsh enters the picture. Meanwhile, Bogarde cons his first wife's simple-minded maid Harrison into thinking he's a decent man, but Washbourne's lawyer Flemyng isn't fooled. Though the film can't completely erase it's roots on the stage, the story is opened up nicely every so often and the story is compelling enough to hold one's interest. Bogarde is wonderful as the conniving lady-killer, showing lots of expression and layers. (His character has homosexual shadings. He's even perusing a muscleman magazine as he's on the hunt for wife number two!) Washbourne fulfills her role as the befuddled first wife very well. Walsh adds a dash of taste to the proceedings. The real gem of the film, however, is Lockwood. She's absolutely divine as the mouthy, tacky, worldly (but lonely) woman who has dealt herself not only a new husband, but a fractured nutcase. The role is unusual for her and she portrays it beautifully. In skirts that are so tight she has to pull them up in order to sit down and with cigarettes hanging out of her beauty-marked mouth, she enlivens the film every time she is on screen. The film has several great, dramatic flourishes and some gorgeous deep focus photography. There's also a memorably menacing title sequence featuring Bogarde's deranged eyes. Though the ending is fairly predictable, there is one twist that some viewers may not see coming. Fans of Hitchcock and his ilk of suspense films will probably enjoy it more than the average viewer.

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.

I tuned into this movie not realizing I had seen it years earlier, so I didn't pay a lot of attention to the opening credits or the set up. I was soon hooked - all over again. This is a thoroughly engaging movie with a twisted plot line. A thrilling English mystery with a wink and a nod.

Dirk Bogarde plays an absolute cad with a caviar appetite and a beer purse. He marries a tattered old English matron for her money, but misses the mark when she fails to include him in her will. They do a scene at a seaside tea house that is not to be missed. Listen for the lilting melody of the all girl band. He needs another sugar mama before his money runs out, and heads back to the tea house for another try. For a dapper dude, he really does not know how to pick them. This time his target is a shop worn widow played to the nines by Margaret Lockwood.It took me until halfway through the second viewing to figure out she was the same actress that played the naive ingénue in Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes". Not only does she outguess him, she outfoxes him. About this time, I began to think he ought to get another line of work. Margaret Lockwood makes him look like an amateur. Instead of her being a rich, vulnerable pigeon, she turns out to be very savvy slut who one ups him at every turn.

There is a real mind bender ending, but I would never screw the reader by revealing it. Every time I thought I had this movie figured, I got hit with one surprise after another until about four minutes before the ending credits rolled. Give this movie a play, but only if you have the time to give it the attention it deserves. For me, most of the delicious moments are quite subtle. I gave this movie a 9/10 and I'm a stingy voter.

Splendid acting all the way in this dark play of intrigue treating you with some very spectacular surprises. This lurid and scheming sly character of a reckless and shameless opportunist fits Dirk Bogarde's prying kind of acting perfectly, and I have never seen him better, but the prize goes to Margaret Lockwood - it's impossible to start with to recognize her as Margaret Lockwood. She is his perfect match and proves quite capable of handling this intelligent and calculating psychopath of a human failure as no one else. Kay Walsh, on the other hand, takes him on differently with kindness and sympathy but only to prove the hardest and cleverest woman of them all - their final volcano eruption of a quarrel makes the film glow of glory like an overwhelming theatre performance. It's an amazing story and film of amazing characters, each one shining in her own virtuoso performance, and even Kathleen Harrison adds to it with her very own idiosyncrasy of adorable honesty and simplicity. It's a real treat of a film for the noir lovers, especially if they know how to enjoy tense chamber drama of passion, crime and deceit like a best one of Hitchcock's, and it will even be well worth seeing a film like this occasionally again.

A charming, scheming young man, married to dowdy Mona Washborne(even in 1955!)believes his wife is about to disinherit him and murders her whilst trying to be proactive. He soon realizes that she had no intent to do so but rather to leave everything to him, and he must now go and find another middle-aged woman ripe for his charms. Unfortunately for Dirk Bogarde, giving a rather good performance as the lazy killer, he chooses vulgar, feisty Margaret Lockwood, a semi-self-made woman left a great deal of money by her recently departed husband. Lockwood falls in love yet never completely yields to Bogarde or his financial desires, and soon new thoughts creep into his head. Another middle-aged woman arrives and Bogarde has new plans. This is a well-made, well-directed, superbly acted film with a great deal of suspense and lots of good, old-fashioned storytelling. Director Lewis Gilbert creates a tense, taut pace and his actors more than arise to the occasion. Lockwood, for me at least, never was better giving her common, nouveau riche former barmaid a depth of character. She is vulgar, not overwhelmingly attractive, yet at the same time very humane, intelligent, and the core of common sense in the film. The other women characters are stereotypes as is Bogarde. They all give good performances but are not round characters at all. Washborne looks like she could play someone's aunt here, and Kay Walsh as the "other" woman gives a competent yet predictable performance. I did like the ending. It seemed to fit the film very well. Some other good acting turns are given by Robert Flemyng as a lawyer convinced of Bogarde's guilt and Katleen Harrison doing an outstanding job as a super loyal yet none too bright maid. Cast a Dark Shadow is an eerie look into the world of someone who lives his life as a human parasite.

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.

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.

The inimitable Dirk Bogarde stars as Edward (Teddy) Bare, he is a ladies' man – that is on occasion that the lady is filthy rich. He has married wealthy but older Monica (Mona Washbourne) and thinks he will inherit all her money as he is her spouse. However, she wants to make a will, so he decides it might be time for him to become a widower a little sooner than had been expected.

Alas he gets it all wrong and so is left 'financially embarrassed'. Well as he has gotten away with murder once he decides he needs another Mrs Money bags with a short potential life span and so he puts another dastardly plan into action.

This is lovely for all the right reasons. Bogarde as the deranged yet charming killer is just excellent – his facial expressions alone make this film. The supporting cast including Margaret Lockwood and Kathleen Harrison as the maid are all superb and totally believable in their respective roles. This was an adaptation of a play and that come across at times but it does not matter as this is a 'sit back and enjoy film' of how the other half once lived and more importantly died – recommended to all fans of old black and white British crime flicks.

Criterion Channel has given me the chance to see this British thriller from the 50's, with Dirk Bogarde as a slimy rat and Margaret Lockwood as a hard-as-nails yet sympathetic widow whom he marries for her money. Robert Flemyng and Kay Walsh round out the cast. Lewis Gilbert provides less than inspired direction (he made three James Bond films; Bond is the graveyard of directors, I've always felt). The story has weaknesses: Lockwood tells Bogarde at least three times that she's a very independent and capable woman, yet Bogarde can't seem to take this in. His actions in the last act are pretty illogical. Still, the actors are a pleasure to watch.

Dirk Bogarde is Ed Bare, who is surprised to find out that his wife (Margaret Lockwood) didn't have as much money as he thought. So he goes about looking for another, richer wife. But this wife has some surprises for Bare ... some clever twists and turns along the way. Bogarde was still on the upswing in his career, winning two Bafta's. Made some great films, several of them controversial. Lockwood had made Lady Vanishes with hitchcock, but that starring role was back in 1938. She did mostly television after completing this one. Based on the play by Janet Green. Directed by british Lewis Gilbert, who directed a bunch of James Bond films. And will be nominated for Alfie in 1967. It's quite good.

A lady killer gets his due in this 1955 crime thriller. Dirk Bogarde is married to a woman several years his senior but he seems too happy about it but when he helps her along in her demise (she passes out from drink & Bogarde places her limp body next to open gas valve), we see the monster he is come out but when her lawyer breaks down the particulars of her will, it turns out he's stuck (he gets the estate but all monies go to his wife's sister who lives in the Caribbean) so what can he do? He plans to go through the entire rigamarole again by finding another rich woman he hopes to sink his teeth into but she's tough as nails & bosses him around as badly as he bosses around his own maid but things perk up when a mysterious woman befriends him sending the new wife into a tizzy but what will be his endgame now that he's been pushed against the wall? Bogarde is unabashedly devious here (even at one point confessing to his new woman how he offed his last one) & he relishes the role like a fine tailored silk robe but when his new wife puts him on edge, played by Margaret Lockwood, giving as much as she's getting, Bogarde shows his true colors offering nothing more than a sadistic shrug. Director Lewis Gilbert who would score large w/Alfie which starred Michael Caine (he also directed 3 Bond films), gets at the heart of this particular cad as his devilish veneer soon starts to crumble at the hands of the very prey he lives off on.