Cast a Dark Shadow (1955)
(On Cable TV, March 2022) British film noir is really in a class of its own—while it still plays on universal themes of lust, murder and deception, it does so from a very different context, especially as it existed in post-WW2 Britain. There are social class issues that don’t have a ready-made equivalent in Hollywood, and the atmosphere is, naturally, quite different. In some ways, you could have done Cast a Dark Shadow just as well in America: The idea of a serial seducer/killer meeting his match with a vengeful relative of a past victim is really good and timeless. But at the same time, you would not have ended up with the same kind of film, with the droll interplay between Dick Bogarde and Kay Walsh, not to mention the stunning Margaret Lockwood, the presence of an unusual police inspector or the matter-of-fact idea of vast manors fit to be inherited. It all builds to something like a cross between film noir and a light gothic thriller—that aspect could have been strengthened, but it’s intriguing nonetheless. There are many ways in which Cast a Dark Shadow could have been improved, streamlined, or punched-up—but what’s on screen (adapted from a novel) is reasonably interesting to watch, and definitely atmospheric in a way only British film noir could be.
