Review By James Craver "Cast a Dark Shadow"
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Lockwood, Mona Washbourne, Kay Walsh, Robert Flemyng, Kathleen Harrison
Smooth British scam artist Edward "Teddy" Bare (Dirk Bogarde) has recently married elderly dowager Monica (Mona Washbourne), whom he plans to use as a steady source of food and shelter until her death, when he stands to inherit her fortune. But when he discovers that she plans to make a will, he drugs her wine and coldbloodly kills her with a faked accident.

The joke is on him, however, when Monica's attorney Phillip Mortimer (Robert Flemyng), who has always been suspicious of Teddy, informs him that her new will would have left her husband everything, but he is now stuck with just her house, with the bulk of the money going to her sister.

After pausing to con Monica's faithful maid (Kathleen Harrison) out of her meager inheritence, Teddy sets off for the nearest resort, where he immediately commences to woo Mrs. Freda Jeffries (Margaret Lockwood), a brassy young widow with her own fortune made from her marriage and her former career as a saloonkeeper. Luring her back to his manor and convincing her to rent it, he almost immediately seduces her into marriage.

The new Mrs. Bare, however, turns out to be every bit Teddy's intellectual match, and he soon fears that she will never give him a chance to get his hands on her money. So when socialite Charlotte Young (Kay Walsh) arrives, looking for a piece of land to make into a riding academy, the wily schemer decides that maybe he doesn't need Freda after all.


Plot
Crime & Scandal Yes
Story of - criminals stealing from honest people
Blackmail & Seduction? Yes

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 20's-30's
Eccentric: Yes - emotionally unstable
Hair color? - brunette (Black)
Hair type - (man) short/standard straight
Body type - (man) very skinny
Ethnicity/Nationality
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor? - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Secondary Main Character
Identity: - Female
Hair color - brunette (Brown)
Hair style - (woman) medium/shoulderlgn wavey
Body type - (woman) ample bosom & buttocks
How much in movie? - 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality - British

Main Adversary
Identity: - Female
Age: - 40's-50's
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - 20%
Hair color - blonde
Hair type - (woman) medium/shoulderlgn wavey
Body type - (woman) average
Ethnicity/Nationality - British
How sensitive is this character?
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Setting
Europe Yes
European country: - England/UK
City? Yes
City:
Misc setting

Style
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
Sex/nudity in movie? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references only - kissing
Check here if B&W Yes
Non-American film? Yes
What language? - English
Any profanity? - None
Is this movie based on a - play
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