Cast a Dark Shadow
Description
Before becoming a 1960s international art house favorite in the films of Joseph Losey and Luchino Visconti, Dirk Bogarde shot to stardom in England playing sexy, amoral cads in juicy ’50s crime dramas. The best of the lot, Cast a Dark Shadow (based on a play by Janet Green, author of such stellar thrillers as The Clouded Yellow, Eyewitness and Sapphire), offers Bogarde as Edward “Teddy” Bare, a cocksure sociopath with a taste for older women—and their money. He dispenses with devoted wife Molly (Mona Washbourne) in a cleverly designed “accident,” only to learn that she has left her fortune to a far-flung sister. All he’s left with is the house and its ditzy servant, Emmie (Kathleen Harrison). Undeterred, this homme fatale quickly snares well-off widow Freda Jeffries (Margaret Lockwood) as his latest sugar momma. But Freda, cut from the same lower-class cloth as her conniving paramour, is no pushover. Lockwood, once the preeminent femme fatale of 1940s British noir, is a bracing and bawdy antidote to the starry-eyed saps hopelessly in thrall to noir’s “bad boys.” She sees this cad’s con a mile away—and may even be playing him for the chump. Although some critics at the time (and even her own director) denigrated Lockwood as “over the hill,” it’s her performance—decades ahead of its time—that gives Cast a Dark Shadow, seen here in a new digital restoration, its smart and savvy luster 60 years on. —Eddie Muller
Lewis Gilbert (b. 1920) is one of Britain’s most accomplished writer-producer-directors. Mentored by the likes of Alexander Korda and Alfred Hitchcock, he directed a series of stylish 1950s films, including Cosh Boy (1953), The Good Die Young (1954) and Reach for the Sky (1956). He made Michael Caine a star in Alfie, nominated for a Best Picture Oscar® in 1966. Three Bond blockbusters would follow—You Only Live Once (1967), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979)—before Gilbert scored late successes with romantic comedy-dramas such as Educating Rita (1985) and Shirley Valentine (1989). For his life’s work, Gilbert was named a Fellow of the British Film Institute and granted the title Commander of the British Empire (CBE).
Trailer
//player.vimeo.com/video/157228598?autoplay=1Film Details
Language English
Year 1955
Runtime 83
Country UK
Director Lewis Gilbert
Producer Herbert Mason
Writer John Cresswell
Editor Gordon Pilkington
Cinematographer Jack Asher
Music Antony Hopkins
Cast Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Lockwood, Mona Washbourne