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Chase a Crooked Shadow is directed by Michael Anderson and written by David D. Osborn and Charles Sinclair. It stars Richard Todd, Anne Baxter, Herbert Lom and Faith Brook. Music is scored by Matyas Seiber, with additional guitar by Julian Bream, and cinematography by Erwin Hillier.

A man shows up at Kimberley Prescott's Spanish villa claiming to be her brother. Trouble is is that her brother, Ward Prescott, died in a car accident a year ago...

The core formula for Chase a Crooked Shadow has been well mined over the years, only recently I myself viewed the quite excellent Hammer Films Production of Paranoiac, which treads the same ground as Anderson's movie, but there's a filmic style here that adds further atmosphere to the moody mysterious tone of the narrative. Thus, in spite of the absurdities and stretching of credulity, this is well worth seeking out.

Anderson carefully builds the suspense, ensuring that what we think we know may in fact not be the case. The twists and jolts are deftly handled and the finale is a delightful bolt from the blue. Along the way we are treated to a noirish canvas, where even though the film is shot on location on the Costa Brava, there's a Gothic sheen pretty much every where you look. The interior of the villa is complete with Grandfather clock, iron gate doors, odd light shades, statuettes and one of those staircases with balustrade, all of which is given maximum shadow effects by Hillier. The outside courtyard also serves the uneasy mood well, as does the stone beach house at the bottom of the hill, it should be idyllic, but fret and discord dwell there as well.

Cast are most effective, some have called Todd too wooden, but he needs to be restrained here, he is after all playing the character's cards close to his chest. Baxter, looking positively lovely, handles the mental disintegration process with great skill, Brook really exudes a Mrs. Danvers like menace purely with cold dialogue delivery and an icy stare, while Lom has authoritative presence as the police man being pulled both ways of the mystery. Top performers doing justice to a fine mystery story that is in turn offering some visual pleasures too. 7.5/10

Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958)

This dives quickly in--an heiress has come to Barcelona and a man who is apparently after her fortune shows up, at night, with cocky assurance. It's evil and it's odd. The woman is played with stern conviction by Anne Baxter, and she holds the whole movie together. The filming is vivid, and dark and shadowy from the get go, in moderately wide screen black and white. When it goes to daylight, the crips, tonal perfection of the image is quite noticeable. That might be an odd reason to like the movie, but it's quite visually beautiful. I suppose the East Coast of Spain gets some credit. Unfortunately, the plot at first comes off as improbable, with a couple of twists at the beginning that left me incredulous. But the acting is so earnest you can put up with it for awhile. When it becomes a kind of mind game between the two leads, it has some reasonable thread (some) and it is only the steely determination of Baxter's acting that keeps it interesting. The plot against this woman is elaborate, and therefore scary, held in check by the upper class politeness of all the characters. I'm sure people would compare this to Hitchcock for its personal suspense, its stylish attempts at mind games, or for echoes of "Gaslight" and "Rebecca." It's a British movie, released by Warner Bros., and it might suffer from a sense of imitating Hollywood rather than making its own mark (as Carol Reed might have a few years earlier). The British director here is Michael Anderson, who left no real imprint on film history, and the leading actor is also British, Richard Todd, and he's more handsome than compelling. So why see the film? The palette of grey tones of the deep focus photography? The torturous plot with too much talking? Anne Baxter, alone, rising above? Maybe, almost. There is enough in these elements to almost work, actually. Convolutions. And Julian Bream's wonderful guitar.

"Chase a Crooked Shadow" is a 1958 black and white film starring Anne Baxter, Richard Todd, Herbert Lom, Alexander Knox, and Faith Brook.

Baxter plays an heiress, Kimberly Prescott, living abroad, whose dead brother (Todd) turns up after being killed in a car accident a year earlier. Except he's not her brother.

He brings a woman, Miss Whitman (Brook) with him, sends Kimberly's maid away and brings in his own servants. Kimberly is desperate to reach her architect friend Chandler (Knox) who will know this man isn't her brother, but she can't reach him. And the local chief of police (Lom) seems to side with the fake brother.

Well, after all, he does have the correct ID, and the photo Kimberly keeps by her bed has suddenly turned into a photo of the fake!

The question is, what do these people want? Is she safe with them, or do they plan to get rid of her?

This intriguing, atmospheric drama is excellent, except I've seen so many of these things (it's one of my favorite genres) that I figured the plot out right away. Most people will simply enjoy the ride and the surprises.

Baxter looks lovely as the put-upon, desperate heiress, and the role calls for a gamut of emotions, all of which she delivers. Todd and Lom are terrific as well. Really excellent, with very good performances all around.

When I was a little boy, I had seen the film, but remembered little of it. However, in the early sixties, my Dad took me on a holiday to Spain, to a little village south of Barcelona, called Sitges. During one coach journey, the courier told us that the mountain road that we were now on was the scene of a fast car drive in a film made a couple of years previously, called 'Chase a Crooked Shadow'. I remember the road well, with the cliff drops hundreds of feet below to the sea and this coupled with my fond memory of that holiday in Franco's long gone Spain and the fact that the film itself is a brilliant piece of old cinema with a terrific twist at the end, makes me watch this film over and over again. I see something in it every time I watch it - the sign of a good film!

Although it has been suggested that the premise of Michael Anderson's film is based upon Josephine Tey's 'Brat Farrar', subsequently filmed by Hammer as 'Paranoiac', it actually bears a far greater resemblance to an American radio play from 1948 entitled 'Stranger in the House'.

Be that as it may the plot of this particular opus, although ingenious, is inclined to stretch credibility to the utmost but remains eminently watchable thanks to Mr. Anderson's customary craftsmanship and undeniable skill with actors. The films fabulous 'look' is courtesy of Anderson's favoured cinematographer Ernest Hillier who learnt his trade under Murnau and Lang which is especially evident in the interior and night-time scenes. Although slowly paced the director and editor Gordon Pilkington maintain the tension and during the car ride at high speed along a mountain road, the splicing of back projection and live footage is brilliantly done.

This is Richard Todd's third film for this director and although Mr. Todd is traditionally at his best in uniform he acquits himself well here as a man who is not exactly what he appears to be! Good support from Alexander Knox and Faith Brook whilst the immaculate Herbert Lom is, as always, great value.

As an ardent devotee of Anne Baxter I would have to say that as well as looking good enough to eat her portrayal of gradually mounting hysteria is wondrous to behold. A consummate professional who never gave less than her best, whatever her material.

A few years earlier Michael Anderson had been described by one critic as the most promising British director since Carol Reed and David Lean. Although he may not perhaps have reached the heights of those two, he did, to an extent, fulfil his promise.

Having long been interested in watching this well-regarded British thriller of the 'let's-drive-an-heiress-mad' variety, I can't help admitting I was somewhat underwhelmed by it; the reason for this, perhaps, is that we've seen this plot in countless other films so that, while one hoped that the treatment would rise above the overly-familiar premise, what we get here is pretty standard (read: low-key or, if you like, genteel) stuff. That is not to say the suspense of the piece – and the awkwardness that goes with it (the heroine trying time and again to convince the police that the man who says is her brother isn't really) – isn't effectively rendered, far from it. For one thing, the consummate professionalism and no-nonsense attitude of the people involved (despite the modest resources at hand) is redolent of classic British cinema at its best and the casting, while unlikely at first glance, is quite successful in the long run. Anne Baxter is the put-upon heroine, Richard Todd the smooth intruder (who goes so far as to acquire the daredevil driving skills of Baxter's allegedly deceased brother!), Herbert Lom the Spanish Police Commissioner (the film is set in picturesque Barcelona) and Alexander Knox appears as Baxter's apparently duplicitous uncle. All of this converges satisfactorily in the film's twist ending – and its real coup – which not only subverts everything that has gone on before, but would be too far-fetched to swallow had one not been sufficiently drawn into the intricate proceedings.

A movie you will always remember. Intriguing story, 'look behind you' thrills, 'face at the door' shocks, solid acting, a great 'twist in the tale' and haunting guitar music.

It may have been cheaply made and studio bound but it just goes to prove you can't beat a good story and ... a memorable tune. Enjoy, because they don't make them like that anymore.

Chase A Crooked Shadow which was filmed in Spain and produced by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. has Anne Baxter as a rich heiress living in the family villa which is her's free and clear due to the deaths of her father and brother a year earlier. All seems well enough when Richard Todd shows up claiming to be her brother. Well and good, but when the household staff and her uncle Alexander Knox all accept him as the brother she identified as dead after an automobile crash in South Africa, Baxter thinks she's heading for the rubber room. She also gets little sympathy from the local police in the person of Herbert Lom.

There's also the matter of a fortune in diamonds that was stolen from the company where father made his millions. Another mystery as yet unsolved.

So just who is the bad one in this film? That you won't know until the very end when as the Belgian sleuth always says 'all will be revealed'.

Charles Boyer did not do a neater job of gaslighting Ingrid Bergman than Todd is doing to Anne Baxter. Both the stars do well, but the underlying reason for this particular gambit is a bit far fetched for my taste.

Apart from the ingenious (albeit a tad implausible) plot-with-a-twist story, the most memorable aspect of this movie is the haunting solo guitar music played by Julian Bream. It follows the action at every twist and turn, and has much the same tension building quality as did the zither music in "The Third Man".

Richard Todd is the ultimate "officer & gentleman" type actor, but he is quite adept at turning on a sinister streak, as in this movie (and the earlier "Stagefright"). I think Anne Baxter overplays the hysterics just a little (a touch of the "method" creeping in perhaps). But then who am I to say how a woman in such an odd situation as her character finds herself would react? So maybe Anne does get it right.

That situation is a simple one plot-wise. A menacing stranger (with equally menacing friends) has intruded into a wealthy woman's life purporting to be her long dead brother. But is he or isn't he? She is quite sure he isn't. She turns to the police and to her Uncle Chan for help, but none seems to be forthcoming. End of plot...or is it?

I may be wrong (although I don't think so), but I fancy I've also seen the same footage of the "car careering down the mountain road" scene in another totally different movie, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. Maybe some one can help me out?

This little black and white thriller keeps the guesswork and the suspense right through to the last. Every time I see it I wonder just how Alfred Hitchcock would have approached it. Differently no doubt, but I don't think he would have done any better. It's just fine as it is. Watch it and see.

I consider this movie as one of the cleverest ever made. It keeps you perplexed till the end. Marvellous acting by all, with Herbert Lom always at his best. B&W very appropriate. Please, Amazon, make it available!

I have to admit, I am a sucker for a plot with a good twist. The problem is they don't grow on trees. Think of the films of recent years and I can only come up with two, "The Usual Suspects" and "The Sixth Sense". Both come into the category of being worth a second look to see how they work and both pass the credibility test with flying colours. There was that detective novelist of yesteryear, Agatha Christie. I lapped up practically every one of her tales as a teenager and a young man. She must have tried out every permutation of the twist imaginable, always giving the satisfaction that, even if you did not guess it, the person who "dun" it was psychologically the only possible candidate. After "Aggie" the detective novel was never quite the same again. By trying to write "real" novels of supposedly literary quality, most writers in this field seemed more interested in realism than clever twists with the result that I rather lost interest in the genre. Again there are very few good twist movies from the time I grew up with cinema. "Les Diaboliques" and "So Long at the Fair" remain excellent examples that give pleasure on repeated showings even with the element of surprise missing. Worth mentioning that, although not quite on their level, I actually discovered a good little twist movie the other day from the same period, "Chase a Crooked Shadow" starring Anne Baxter and Richard Todd. Anne Baxter is in much the same sort of predicament as Jean Simmons in "So Long at the Fair". Instead of her brother disappearing, Anne's supposedly dead brother turns up as someone she does not recognise. She spends much of the film trying to convince friends and police that Richard Todd is not her brother but of course no-one believes her. I suppose that ultimately "Chase a Crooked Shadow" lacks the sense of style of the others I have mentioned. Michael Anderson's direction is rather pedestrian although he does manage a couple of sudden character appearances that made me jump. I don't suppose I shall watch it again as I rather think it has given up all it has to offer but I would certainly recommend it to lovers of Grand Guignol as an hour and a half of mildly pleasurably viewing.

The brother of a woman arrives at home while the woman denies him her brother. She repeatedly tells the police that her brother is dead. So how can he be her brother. Even his face is not match with her brother but the brother, the man has every prove that he must be her brother. A sinister incident must be unfolded.

One of the most intelligent plot. Richard Todd is an underrated actor. The car driving scene at the hill side was amazing. Amazing view and place where the house is situated. Top direction.

70% Recommended.

Chase A Crooked Shadow numbers among those ingeniously plotted movies that are too clever by half. But it sustains interest and stars Anne Baxter, nothing to sneeze at. Baxter plays a South African diamond heiress `resting' at her seaside villa in Spain. One night, up shows a total stranger (Richard Todd) who claims to be her wastrel brother, supposedly killed in a racing-car crash. He presents his alternative reality with needling superiority, and in Todd they found precisely the supercilious cold fish to present it.

Pleas to the local police (in the person of Herbert Lom) prove bootless, as Todd's papers and passport prove in order; he's also uncannily familiar with family details, such as the ingredients of Baxter's `swimming drink' (vermouth cassis with a splash of soda). At the bottom of the imposture is a quest for some $10-million in diamonds gone missing before Baxter's father's Transvaal Company went belly-up, resulting in his suicide. Baxter tries to find a chink in Todd's armor, but he seems to have covered every angle, including suborning her avuncular uncle (Alexander Knox, in a wisp of a role).

Though the movie is confined almost entirely to the villa and boasts a cast of six and a half, it's well photographed – the arches and wrought iron lend themselves to subtle and effective lighting. But what about the final twist of the plot? Since producer Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. appears in a coda to warn against giving away the secret, it won't be revealed here. But it leaves rapt viewers faintly disgruntled, wondering if and how they've been somehow swindled along the way.

I was drawn to watch this on TCM because of the excellent cast - Richard Todd, Ann Baxter and Herbert Lom - and was not disappointed. What begins as a seemingly mundane thriller soon develops enough twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat, and finishes off with a completely unexpected (if somewhat unrealistic) surprise. The acting is excellent from all concerned, and the pacing is superb. Also, the production values and cinematography are top notch, which is to be expected from director Michael Anderson, who gave us The Dam Busters, Shake Hand with the Devil, Mike Todd's production of Around the World in 80 Days, and many other fine flicks.

A South African heiress (Anne Baxter) begins to doubt her sanity when a man (Richard Todd) arrives claiming to be her brother, who was believed dead several months before, in Michael Anderson's mystery thriller.

It's got an intriguing set up, but I think a director like Joseph Losey would've done even more with it by heightening the more ambiguous psychological aspects of the story. Anderson does a good job of creating suspense here, especially in the claustrophobic shots that follow Baxter around the house, but everything's done too straightforwardly and stagily to really delve into this surreal side, which causes some of the twists to seem overly telegraphed in advance.

Nevertheless, it still builds a good mystery, with Baxter really selling her character's mounting paranoia as she struggles to convince the people around her that this stranger isn't her brother, slowly questioning her situation as time goes on. This leads to a great final sequence that really amps the tension up, rounding the story off in a way that helps to alter everything we've just seen.

Cast a Crooked Shadow is a solid thriller that has some effective twists and turns, even if it feels a bit too conventional to really stand out.

This is one of my favourite movies. It's filmed in gorgeous black and white in the gorgeous south of France. I like this film a lot because the twist at the end is so good and so well executed by the film makers, writers and cast. It's a B grade classic.

Anne Baxter plays a wealthy young woman with an inheritance and a beautiful villa on the Costa Brava. One day, a man shows up claiming to be her brother, who died in a car accident a year earlier and whose body Baxter identified. She's certain of it. He's eager for a share of the inheritance. He follows in his wake, bringing a butler and an unpleasant woman. The alerted police confirm his identity using his papers. A thrilling game of cat and mouse ensues.

The film's story is well-crafted, and I didn't see the twist at the end coming.

I wasn't really familiar with Anne Baxter as an actress; I can't immediately think of any films I'd seen of hers before, but I could be wrong, of course. She certainly delivers here.

The locations are also beautifully shot, giving the film a slightly exotic feel.

It all seems so perfectly comfortable and neat, with a lovely Anne Baxter in a great villa by the sea off Barcelona, a perfect paradise, and then someone turns up, who is not given any hearty welcome. A mystery enters of a most embarassing nature, since someone who has long been dead apparently isn't, or at least that death is most persistently disputed. There is an uncle who maybe could bring some relief to the situation, which however only gets constantly more complicated, as Richard Todd won't give in and mercilessly seems to get everyone on his side and keep the upper hand on the situation, which continues to build up...

Well, it certainly is the perfect set-up for an extremely screwed up criminal plot, and there is even a murder, but it is never committed...

More shall not be revealed here, enough said, that Julian Bream bandages the whole thing with his charming guitar music, the film is not without its romantic elements no matter how cool certain of the protagonists are, and a dead father also finally gets to be of some importance to the plot, since the whole matter actually is only about his suicide with its unfathomable consequences...

A highly enjoyable criminal mystery for the intelligent mind, which might even afterwards bring forth some releasing laughs...

On the trail of Hitchcock: Anne Baxter and Richard Todd in a thriller by Michael Anderson

While researching director Michael Anderson, I realized that I had seen this film a long time ago, but I remembered it as being well worth seeing. That's why I decided to write a comment on this British black and white film without re-viewing it.

South African diamond heiress Kimberly Prescott (OSCAR winner Anne Baxter) lives a luxurious life on the Costa Brava. One day an attractive man (GOLDEN GLOBE winner Richard Todd) shows up who steadfastly claims to be her brother Ward. But he had a fatal accident in South Africa a year ago. Kimberly feels more and more threatened by the mysterious stranger and calls Inspector Vargas (Herbert Lom) for help. Then events come to a head...

A mysterious plot, two gorgeous main actors, beautiful locations and surprising twists make this little film gem a great pleasure. There's a real buzz between Anne Baxter (1923-1985) and Richard Todd (1919-2009)...can that be possible between sister and brother?

A great film that should definitely be made available again!

The idea behind "Cast a Crooked Shadow" is really neat....it's what they did with it that really, really disappointed me and left me irritated. After all, with such a great idea, surely they could have dealt with it better than this mess of a film!

When the film begins, Kimberly Prescott (Anne Baxter) is taking control of her family's estate in Spain. It seems that her father killed himself and she's the surviving heir. However, soon her brother arrives and this is a SERIOUS problem since he is dead!! No, he's NOT a zombie but a man who is claiming to be her brother. She KNOWS he's a phony, as she saw her brother's dead body. But the man has all the documentation to prove he IS her brother! And, soon he brings folks into the home and soon Kimberly is a virtual prisoner due to these strangers! How is she to resolve all this, as they probably are going to kill her and the police think she's nuts!

So why did I eventually feel cheated? Well, how all this was resolved....it was terrible. And, I have no idea why they chose to run away from the menacing fake brother angle and where the film eventually chose to go. It didn't work and the big confession scene at the end was ridiculous. A BIG misfire.