The Late Edwina Black (1951)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Maurice Elvey

Writers:

William Dinnie (play)
David Evans (additional dialogue)

Release Date:

6 June 1952 (Finland)

Genre:

Mystery | Drama

Tagline:

Was this the kiss... of a murderer?

Plot:

When a sickly Victorian woman dies suddenly, a postmortem reveals that her body contains a fatal dose of arsenic...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Play

Cast

David Farrar	...	Gregory Black
Geraldine Fitzgerald	...	Elizabeth Grahame
Roland Culver	...	Inspector Martin
Jean Cadell	...	Ellen
Mary Merrall	...	Lady Southdale
Harcourt Williams	...	Doctor Septimus Prendergast
Charles Heslop	...	Vicar
Ronald Adam	...	Head-Master
Sydney Moncton	...	Horace

Also Known As:

The Obsessed (USA)

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S

Company:

Romulus Films

The Old Dark House

Edwina Black has died and an autopsy shows she was poisoned with arsenic. Meanwhile, her widower and his secretary (played by the wonderful Geraldine Fitzgerald), who have been waiting for her to die, are preparing to go off to the Continent. While the police inspector (played slowly and perfectly by Roland Culver) investigates, they turn on each other in private. Who poisoned Edwina Black? Who is lying?

Maurice Elvey, one of the great forgotten talents of the British film industry directs this as an Old Dark House mystery, where the spirit of the late Edwina Black is evinced by the low light levels and the occasional tinkling of a crystal chandelier. His use of camera movement is almost undetectable unless you look for it -- it serves merely to maintain composition. Elvey was among the most subtle of directors in the British industry -- he did what he did in support of the movie, lacked any of the immodesty that the auteur-loving writers of the CAHIERS DE CINEMA adored and made an excellent movie in the process. Take a look at this one and see.