kidboots Margaret Lockwood was a young British actress who was brought to Hollywood in the late 30s but didn't make good, however when she returned she became Britain's most popular actress of the 1940s - until Anna Neagle came along. Hard to believe that in 1950 she was only to make 6 more films and "Cast a Dark Shadow" proved to be her last film until 1976's "The Slipper and the Rose". Lockwood found television very lucrative and with "Cast a Dark Shadow" was offered one of her finest film character parts. Gone were the beautiful, evil vixens of her younger acting days - here she played a good humoured publican's widow, a touch on the vulgar side who is more than a match for unscrupulous psychopath, the charming Teddy Bare (Dirk Bogarde). Adapted from the play "Murder Mistaken" by Janet Green who was responsible for writing some first class scripts that were turned into some gripping films - "Lost", "Sapphire", Life for Ruth", any of which are worth hunting for.Teddy is searching for Dora, the sister of his late wife and the one who will inherit all of Molly's money. You see Teddy murdered Molly (Mona Washbourne) because he thought the will she was about to make would leave him out in the cold, little did he know that she was going to leave him everything - but he didn't give her a chance to. Still, the circumstances managed to convince the court that it was all a ghastly accident. He doesn't convince Phillip (Robert Flemyng), Molly's lawyer, and he cautions Teddy that he had better watch his step.Before long he meets Freda (Lockwood) a coarse ex barmaid with a loud sense of humour who definitely has Teddy's measure "pound for pound" (that's how they are going to conduct their finances, as Teddy gives her to believe that he is wealthy and bored) She is pretty nice and straight forward and after their wedding her first job is to see that Emmy (Kathleen Harrison) is put right - Teddy has managed to convince her that the legacy Molly has left her is really "wages in advance" - charming chap!!! Trouble in paradise, Teddy is keen for Freda to invest in a cinema but she is not having a bar of it. Into all this walks wealthy Charlotte (Kay Walsh) who is on the lookout to invest heavily in property. As Freda says "isn't it a pity that you saw me first"!!!Charlotte has a secret of her own - not hard to guess what as she seems transfixed by the fireplace where Molly was found dead and the ending is highly dramatic as Charlotte confesses that she has looked into his past, speaking to teachers and childhood friends and the picture she paints is quite ugly.Margaret Lockwood is just tremendous as Freda, especially as I had only seen her at the height of her beauty. Both she and Bogarde were singled out for praise with Variety citing their vivid characterizations, although I thought Kay Walsh was quite effective in her showy but smaller role. This should have opened the door for Lockwood as a character actress but she decided to stay in Britain and Britain seemed uninterested. She went back to the more appreciative stage and television, where in 1958 she appeared in "Murder Mistaken".Highly Recommended.

howdymax 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.

BaronBl00d 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.

MagicStarfire This oddball black'n'white movie from 1955, early on inserts a plot-hole so large it haunted me throughout the entire film.Dirk Borgarde plays a charming but evil young man with the unbelievable name of Teddy Bare. Yes, that's right - this character's name is Edward Bare, and he is called Teddy throughout most of the film.When we first meet him, he is newly wed to a woman who is supposed to be old enough to be his mother - but actually she looked old enough to be his grandmother.Of course he has married this older woman, named Mony, for one reason and one reason only - her money. Mony, money - hmmm - another odd character name. So, we in the audience are expecting him to off her at any time.Shortly after her marriage to Teddy, Mony made out a will leaving her new husband the large mansion they live in, along with a beach shack, but with all the money going to her sister, Dora. Teddy knows nothing about this will.Now Mony has had second thoughts and decided she wants to make a new will, leaving everything to her dear Teddy Bare. This she discussed with her lawyer, Philip Mortimer, I think was the character's name. He advises against it, but she has the bit in her teeth and she has decided she will sign the new will into effect first thing tomorrow morning.She then tells Teddy about her plan to leave everything to him, saying she hasn't even seen her sister Dora in 20 years. He tells her that isn't necessary, whoever the surviving spouse is will get it anyway and that he doesn't want her to do this. I assumed it was to throw her off the scent of the fact he's after her money--because there was certainly no other good reason for him to tell her this. She, however, has decided she will definitely sign the will tomorrow morning.Now what happens next is what threw a monkey wrench into the entire thing--creating the Grand Canyon of plot holes.Teddy then arranges for Mony's death that very night, and is successful. Now this stopped me right in my tracks - it made no logical sense of any kind.She was signing a new will the next morning that would guarantee that he would get everything. Having a will makes things much simpler and easier than when an estate has to go through probate which can take up to a year or longer. This was in Britain, so perhaps their laws are somewhat different, but it still made no sense for him to off her just before she was to sign this wonderful document that was completely in his favor and that cut out the sister entirely.Well, the story moves on. Teddy discovers he is bound by the first will, which he knew nothing about. He goes hunting for a new wealthy wife and comes up with one - a very disagreeable, but outspoken, older widow, Freda, whose husband passed away six months previous. They wed.Then a woman named Charlotte Young, pretty, sweet, wealthy and older than Teddy, enters Teddy and Freda's lives.Eventually there's a confrontational scene between Teddy and Charlotte. This scene is very strange - with Teddy making all sorts of wild-eyed confessions, followed by the two of them literally screaming at each other.The scene is much too long and drawn out and rather unrealistic as well.The ending one can see coming a mile away.5 stars out of 10.