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.

In "Cast A Dark Shadow", Dirk Bogarde should have hired a professional. He certainly wouldn't have run into the snags and problems he encounters during the story, a character study with excellent acting performances down to the smallest part. It holds your interest throughout with an absorbing tale of cupidity and stupidity.Besides the beleaguered Bogarde, Margaret Lockwood and Kay Walsh turn in great performances, as well as Robert Flemyng as the suspicious family barrister who is on to Bogarde. The movie plays like a filmed stage play,and in fact was adapted from the stage, with only a few token exterior shots.The website bills "Cast A Dark Shadow" as a thriller but it is neither a thriller or a mystery, just a competent and engrossing drama which is worth your time, and it is time well spent. It was on ol' reliable TCM the other morning.

Looked forward to Margaret Lockwood especially, but didn't like her switch in this. What a waste for a beautiful, elegant woman to do bourgeois vulgar, regardless of the talent it took to do it. Someone mentioned a plot hole in this and there's misunderstanding about the cad's misunderstanding of the new will. I agree there's a plot hole, but it's the fact that the brakes worked in the car Teddy tampered with. Remember, Charlotte Young stopped and came back. Maybe they weren't cut through and could stop a little, but not make the big brake on the dangerous hill. Regardless, I can't like this one. It compares unfavorably with similar others such as Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel, dark motive venues with many question marks and instability. Those were keepers in my view. This one just gets on the nerves for the wrong reasons. The Lockwood character is so tacky, she's difficult to endure. Bogard is too raw in his hungry greed. Both of these detract and distract from anything else. Definitely would not wish to view again.

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.