![]() The extended scene of Teddy being confronted by ‘Charlotte’ also occurs in the house. When Molly’s sister Dora arrives, incognito as Charlotte Young (Kay Walsh), Teddy takes it upon himself to show her local houses she may be interested in buying. He uses the house as a reason for the woman he has lined up to be the next Mrs Bare, Freda (Margaret Lockwood), to visit. Teddy also acts as his own letting agent. He worked for the estate agent who came to value the house, and indeed the house the only item Molly left him in her first will. It is also revealed that the house was the reason Molly and Teddy first met. Molly is pictured drunkenly dozing in a chair in the foreground of the shot while Teddy enters through the patio doors in the shadowy background. The cinematography of this scene is particularly atmospheric. Furthermore, Bare’s first wife, Molly, is killed by her husband in this house, and he makes use of a domestic appliance (a gas fire) to this end. The house’s location is visually connected to peril by a sign noting the ‘dangerous’ hill which foreshadows the film’s later action. The filming adds other important details. This is perhaps unsurprising as the film is Janet Green’s adaptation her own stage play which ran in London from 1952-1953. Much of the action takes place in the Bares’ large isolated house. This was supported by another key theme of the Gothic – the old dark house – being present. Viewing these women as women in peril connects it to the Gothic – a matter the melodrama research group has an interest in (see the blog’s gothic tag: ). Our consideration of characters led us to contrast Teddy (the irredeemable villain) to his wives, and other women, in the film (his potential victims). In fact, melodrama was supplied in the realistic and psychologically well-motivated relationships between the characters. We noticed that the film did not rely on coincidence to the same extent as many melodramas we’ve screened. ![]() This is soon revealed to be in response to a ghost train ride, rather than a real terror threat, and is followed by Molly and Teddy’s quiet discussion in a quaint seaside tea room. The film opens with a piercing scream from, and a look of terror on the face of, Molly Bare (Mona Washbourne). Confounding expectations of horror also occurs. This melodrama mostly takes the form of changing rhythm: less exciting scenes are punctuated by moments of action. ![]() We agreed that the fact that Teddy Bare’s (Dirk Bogarde’s) villainy was evident from almost the outset meant that mystery and suspense were subjugated to melodrama. Picturegoer magazine provided more detail, assessing that the film had ‘little mystery, some suspense, but plenty of spirited melodrama’ (17 th September 1955, p. It is the only genre mentioned in British fan magazine Picture Show’s brief review (8 th October 1955, p. We began by considering Cast a Dark Shadow’s relationship to melodrama, a label it was assigned in some contemporary reviews. ![]() Our discussion on the film covered: its melodramatic aspects and the horror genre related matters of the gothic: the house and the film’s women in peril Margaret Lockwood’s screen image Dirk Bogarde’s screen image Bogarde’s wider role in the film’s production. ![]()
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