Capital Celluloid 2017 - Day 254: Wed Sep 13

Cast A Dark Shadow (Gilbert, 1955): Horse Hospital, 7pm


This is the second film in a three-part season at the Horse Hospital, curated by Duncan Carson, called Blitzed: A Season about British men, masculinity and the 1950s. You can find the details about all three of the the films via the page on the Horse Hospital website here.

Here is Duncan's introduction to the season and a note on tonight's film:
It's tempting to look at British cinema of the 1950s as waiting for something more exciting to come by. But before the Angry Young Men stormed the old guard, repression was creating something equally interesting, if you knew where to look. Contrary to what the view from 2017 might tell you, post-War Britain was a grim place. The end of the war brought the end of Empire, twelve more years of rationing, and a series of humiliations that put Britain's unique self-regard to the test. And that's without taking into account the readjustment of a generation of men ill equipped to deal with the emotional scars of war, and with a home-front effort that challenged the enduring patriarchy. British cinema did its best to hide these issues, but plenty crept in.
This series is designed as a primer to knowing what to spot in British cinema in the 1950s. 


In Cast a Dark Shadow, we have another thinly veiled queer narrative. Most people know Dirk Bogarde hinting at his sexuality in Victim but this film, four years before, hinted heavily at what he was hiding. He plays Edward 'Teddy' Bare, a manipulative gold digger who kills his first wife, only to find he has made a big mistake and won't inherit her fortune. Forced to find a new sucker, he makes the mistake of falling in with Freda (Margaret Lockwood) who is unwilling to accept Edward's sexual reticence. It's a thrilling portrait of a figure that the post-war generation feared: someone totally self-interested and in opposition to mainstream mores.

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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