Cast a Dark Shadow (1957)

Not even bad in a good way

Blistering performances.

The acting in this movie is really good.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

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.

After so many years from its production --1955-- this film shows its age, even so it's still very enjoyable due to the fantastic professionalism of its interpreters. The stand out performances in my opinion: Margaret Lockwood, Dirk Bogarde, Mona Washbourne and Kathleen Harrison.The seal of excellence goes to all of them, from the director Lewis Walsh to the night club singer, Lita Roza, plus the technical members, who created an impeccable thriller with an astounding photography and music. Some of the close ups with deep focus are jaw dropping as are the night scenes so charged with mystery and doom.Every other reviewer detailed and commented on the script so there is nothing more to say about it.It's a pity that due to those rigid conventional times the villain of the title couldn't have gotten away with his plan to get rich fast (and his homosexuality frankly displayed) since in real life he would have done so without a shadow of a doubt, but films then had to have a "moral message" to the masses and that's why everybody finds the last 30 minutes or so fake and almost preposterous.The character of the lawyer --Robert Fleming-- is there as Deus ex Machina, to judge the schemer and forbid him to get away with his plans, the only cardboard figure that most dates this film with the most awkward apparitions making his presence totally out of place.My seven stars qualification is only due to the script weaknesses, otherwise I would say nine when it comes to the actors, director and technicians skills.

The reason I gave this a 1 is simply that I will not be ripped off even if 99% of an offering is fabulous. One reviewer(MagicStarfire) even goofily indicated a plot hole in the reason Teddy murders Mony claiming it resulted after the inebriated explanation by Mony concerning the lawyers first visit. All that means is the reviewer didn't understand or listen to the actual conversation between the two in so far as Mony clearly was UNclear and made it sound as if she was leaving her money to her family(sister in this case) NOT Teddy. Teddy understandably misunderstood her ramblings. Some fans need to pay attention more attentively. In any event the real "Grand Canyon" of all plot holes is the fact that after he is exposed and escapes the house he jumps into his car and takes off only to find the road blocked by the lawyers car pointing toward the house and the sister's car(on which he had just cut the hydraulic brakes which will not fail immediately folks, by the way, explaining why she was able to stop on the flat straight roadway just 100 feet from the house) pointing away from the house. So what does he do? Does he get into the lawyers car and backup and turn that car and continue to escape.......no.....he jumps into the car he just tampered with and drives down a steep hill on which he will surely pump out the rest of his brake fluid and crash.........ridiculous for a number of reasons. He is clearly an expert mechanic. He was no longer in a panic if he ever actually was. He was a standard sociopath and clearly not suicidal. He was clearly familiar with those three vehicles and knew which was which and whose was whose. We were ripped off by this contrived ending and I object to it most strenuously. It was almost as bad as ordering a hot fudge sundae with everything and finding out it was made with low fat yogurt. If Teddy were hanged or got away in the lawyers car or joined the navy or murdered everyone in the house, it would have been a perfect movie.

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.