Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Michael Anderson

Writers:

David D. Osborn (writer)
Charles Sinclair (writer)

Release Date:

6 May 1958 (Japan)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Impostor | Inheritance | Mistaken Identity | Diamond | Twist In The End

Cast

Richard Todd	...	Williams, alias Ward McKenzie Prescott Jr.
Anne Baxter	...	Kimberley Prescott
Herbert Lom	...	Police Commissar Vargas
Faith Brook	...	Elaine Whitman
Alexander Knox	...	Chandler Brisson (Uncle Chan)
Alan Tilvern	...	Carlos
Thelma D'Aguilar	...	Maria

Runtime:

USA:87 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Associated British Elstree Studios, Shenley Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

Associated Dragon

Trivia:

'Marcel Dailo' was a possible for Vargas.

Goofs:

Continuity: While Ward accepts Kimberley's challenge and drives round the bends, the odometer of the car barely changes from 17858 to 17859 - implying they covered a distance of 1 mile (or km). Considering the speed at which Ward drove and the time it took, the entire distance covered to be a paltry 1 mile (or km) is implausible.

They don't make them like that, anymore !

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!