Chase a Crooked Shadow (DVD)

Reviews

"A Hitchcockian Thriller in a Spanish villa with vintage Bentleys" by NS34 - 6 January 2018

This is a thriller in the Hitchcockian tradition. Set on location in a magnificent Spanish Villa 80 miles away from Barcelona, the drama plays itself out in Black and White, against a dramatic backdrop of views of the Mediterranean, vintage Bentleys racing along sweeping coastal roads and a slowly ratcheted-up tension building up to a dramatic twisted climax. You are left guessing right up to the last moment. It is a great movie in the classic tradition of thrillers. There is no overt violence, save for two short scenes towards the end and they are very tame. It is a psychological drama. A rich South African diamond-heiress, Kimberley Prestcott (Anne Baxter) rents the villa for the season. It is 1958 when style was more important than fashion. Into the villa steps her long lost “brother”, Ward [Richard Todd] who she immediately rejects. She calls the police who arrive at 1am. Herbert Lom is the police inspector. She runs through all the possibilities and, in the end, the policeman leaves believing that she is delusional. Everything fits. All the details of her “brother” fit. She is the only one who denies his existence. The brother, Richard Todd, is suave and cool. He drives a 1931 supercharged Bentley 4,5 litre. He takes his “sister” for a dramatic drive along the coastal corniche which is a hair-raising moment in the film. The Bentley has a CA registration with a ZA international plate, which adds another South African dimension to the story. The story gradually comes out that she has stolen GBP10 million worth of South African diamonds from the vaults of the Transvaal Company, at the time of the suicide of her father and the death in a motor crash of her brother, Ward. [One could surmise that the distant inspiration of the film could have been Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, his son Harry and his daughter Mary]. As it unfolds, she admits the theft and sends off one of her new “brother’s” assistants on a wild goose chase to Tangiers to find the diamonds in a safe deposit vault. The story builds up to the point where the Police inspector believes her story that her “brother” is an imposter. There is a tense scene, at night, on the veranda, where she attempts to smuggle out a glass with her “brother’s” fingerprints on them to the police inspector. The Black and White genre lends itself to dramatic contrasts and heightens the tension. She decides that she must escape, so there is a tense scene where she has to escape from the main house, thread her way down to the beach house, collect a bank box filled with the diamonds and then attempt to escape. But, after signing a will, which is forced upon her by her “brother”, bequeathing everything to him, her “brother” and his associates decide to drown her in the little cove. But before that can happen, our friendly police inspector arrives who then pronounces a shocking thing: the fingerprints on the glass are indeed those of the original brother, whom she persists in saying is dead in South Africa. Well, it all builds up to a superb, twisted dénouement, and one is left guessing right up until the end as to who is good and who is bad. And Anne Baxter gives, I believe, the performance of a lifetime in the final scene. This is a truly great, classic film which is light on violence, but heavy on tension. A beautiful villa, two magnificent vintage Bentleys, spectacular Riviera scenery and excellent performances from acting veterans. Move over Hitchcock!