CAST A DARK SHADOW

UK / Frobisher / 82 minutes / Released 1955 / black and white

Screenplay: John Cresswell / Play: Murder Mistaken by Janet Green / Photography: Jack Asher / Music: Antony Hopkins / Producer: Herbert Mason / Executive Producer: Daniel M. Angel / Director: Lewis Gilbert

In the thriller Cast A Dark Shadow young Edward Bare, aka Teddy is married to the middle aged Monica Vare, when he believes she is about to cut him out of her will he decides to murder her, however the opposite was true and she was about to leave him everything. Still penniless he sets his sights on another older woman, Freda Jeffries…

Co-starring a rising Dirk Bogarde with the entering into middle age Margaret Lockwood is a great idea, Bogarde has always had a knack of making nasty characters sympathetic to the audience. The film carries with it an excellent atmosphere, Bogarde’s character is somewhat reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley, basically a man of low moral scruples out to get whatever he can from the women he targets. Lockwood is fabulous here as the blousy ex-barmaid who definitely gives as good as she gets – “pound for pound”.

cast
DIRK BOGARDE as Edward “Teddy” Bare
MARGARET LOCKWOOD as Freda Jeffries
KATHLEEN HARRISON as Emmie
KAY WALSH as Charlotte Young
ROBERT FLEMYNG as Phillip Mortimer
MONA WASHBOURNE as Monica Vare
PHILIP STAINTON as Charlie Mann
WALTER HUDD as Coroner
LITA ROZA as Singer
MYRTLE REED as Waitress