Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Cast a Dark Shadow Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 27, 2021

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Cast a Dark Shadow / Wanted for Murder.

Considering their vaunted reputation as such a reserved and polite people, Brits certainly have a penchant for Murder Most Foul, if I might be permitted to co-opt a film title from one of the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple outings (a title which is itself lifted from Hamlet). Miss Marple's creator Agatha Christie may be the best remembered British author of murder mysteries, but this appealing double feature from Cohen Media Group's Cohen Film Collection imprint proves she wasn't the only one, and in fact wasn't the only female one. Both Wanted for Murder from 1946 and Cast a Dark Shadow from 1955 are based on stage plays, and in the case of Cast a Dark Shadow, a play written by Janet Green, who also gave the world Midnight Lace . Wanted for Murder has a different claim to fame in its authorship department, albeit in this case regarding one of the adapters of Percy Robinson and Terence De Marney's play, co-scenarist Emeric Pressburger, who had already begun his vaunted partnership with Michael Powell, but who was here on a "holiday" of sorts, before returning to Powell to deliver the one-two punch of A Matter of Life and Death and Black Narcissus.

Cast a Dark Shadow is one of those elaborately plotted British murder mysteries where you actually know who is doing the murdering, and where you are therefore simply consigned to seeing how comeuppances are delivered. Teddy Bare (Dirk Bogarde) is married to the considerably older Monica (Mona Washbourne), and while he seems solicitous enough, he also pretty obviously is some kind of a schemer. Monica's attorney Phillip Mortimer (Robert Flemyng) dislikes Teddy immensely and so is reticent to change Monica's will to include him, despite Monica's insistence that Phillip do just that. When Teddy misunderstands a partially overheard conversation about wills being changed, he concludes that he's about to be cut out of inheriting anything, and arranges for Monica's "accidental" death.

The first comeuppance is of course Teddy finding out that the joke is on him, as it were, since Monica died before changing her will, and therefore "all" he's getting is Monica's rather luxe mansion (which might be enough for most people, but which of course is nowhere near enough for Teddy). The bulk of Monica's estate is instead willed to her distant sister Dora, whom Teddy has never met, but the fact that he's told that if Dora dies, he'll finally get everything means Teddy's tendency toward murderous scheming may have a new goal in mind.

Meanwhile, and in what initially seems like a bit of a detour, Teddy ends up romancing and marrying a reasonably well off widow named Freda Jeffries (Margaret Lockwood), who is considerably less trusting of her new spouse than Monica was. In the meantime, another woman named Charlotte (Kay Walsh) enters the fray, ostensibly in search of a new house, which Teddy, a former real estate agent, is helping her to find. This film belies its stage genesis pretty thoroughly, despite some passing efforts to "open things up", but even aside from a certain set bound ambience, there's a kind of traditional set of third act "twists" that several may see coming, and one of which strains credulity to the breaking point. Suffice it to say that there is some subterfuge at play and Teddy's hubris ultimately gets the best of him, leading to what in murder mysteries of this type passes for a "happy ending".

Cast a Dark Shadow Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cast a Dark Shadow is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection, an imprint of Cohen Media Group, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.67:1. Cohen doesn't provide any technical information on the transfer, other than the front cover of this release stating it offers "two fully restored film noir classics" and the back cover listing "a new 2K restoration. . .from the Cohen Film Collection in conjunction with the British Film Institute." That BFI co-branding may point to the fact that this was either based on a well curated archival element or that more restoration moolah may have been available, since this is the better looking presentation of the two mysteries on this disc. While grain is occasionally just a little static looking, particularly in some opticals and establishing shots, on the whole this is a commendably organic looking transfer that preserves very good to excellent detail throughout while offering generally secure contrast. There's very little in the way of age related wear and tear on display, and no compression anomalies of any major note.

Cast a Dark Shadow Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cast a Dark Shadow features an LPCM 2.0 Mono mix which supports this talk heavy enterprise perfectly well. While there is a score by Antony Hopkins, interestingly the opening credits play out over sounds (and screams) of a fun house ride that Teddy and Monica are riding as the film opens. There's a brief musical interlude with singer Lita Roza, whom trivia fans may know since her recording of "How Much is that Doggie in the Window?" made her the first solo vocalist to top the UK charts, a couple of years before this film came out. Dialogue and the occasional sound effect like some roaring car engines at the film's climax are clearly and cleanly presented. Optional English subtitles are available.

Cast a Dark Shadow Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Cohen has packaged these together on one disc with the following minimal supplements. Both of the trailers listed below are new, not archival, and advertise Cohen's restorations.

• Cast a Dark Shadow Trailer (HD; 2:05)


• Wanted for Murder Trailer (HD; 1:22)

Cast a Dark Shadow Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cast a Dark Shadow has some fun mystery elements and it presents Dirk Bogarde at his most nefarious and black hearted. If the preposterous revelation concerning Freda Jeffries had been a bit more artfully handled, this arguably could have been a bit more forceful. Technical merits are generally solid. Recommended.