Chase a Crooked Shadow
7.2 /10 1 Votes
Director Michael Anderson Music director Matyas Seiber Country United Kingdom | 7/10 IMDb Genre Crime, Mystery, Thriller Duration Language English | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date 16 January 1958 (Premiere, London) Writer David D. Osborn (screenplay), Charles Sinclair (screenplay) Initial release January 21, 1958 (United Kingdom) Screenplay David D. Osborn, Colin Sinclair Cast Richard Todd (Williams, alias Ward McKenzie Prescott Jr.), Anne Baxter (Kimberley Prescott), Herbert Lom (Police Commissar Vargas), Faith Brook (Elaine Whitman), Alan Tilvern (Carlos)Similar movies Payroll , On the Night of the Fire , The Criminal , The Clouded Yellow , Footsteps in the Fog , The Third Man | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Premiere of chase a crooked shadow 1958
Chase a Crooked Shadow (a.k.a. Sleep No More) is a 1958 British suspense film starring Richard Todd, Anne Baxter and Herbert Lom. Michael Anderson directed Chase a Crooked Shadow, the first film produced by Associated Dragon Films, a business venture of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Contents
- Premiere of chase a crooked shadow 1958
- Chase a crooked shadow preview clip
- Plot
- Production
- Reception
- Remakes
- References
Chase a crooked shadow preview clip
Plot
In her family's Spanish villa, Kimberly Prescott (Anne Baxter), a young South African heiress of a diamond company, is grieving after her father's recent suicide and the death of her brother Ward (Richard Todd) in a car accident. Kimberly has trouble convincing her friends and family that a completely unknown stranger has taken her deceased brother's identity. The stranger appears to know events of their shared childhood.
Production
The film was originally known as The Prescott Affair. The story was optioned by Dragon Films which belonged to the team of heiress Pamela Woolworth (niece of F.W. Woolworth) and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. They had previously made The Silken Affair. Dragon developed the story and script, assigning it to two TV writers David Osborn and Charles Sinclair. Roy Kellino was originally attached to produce and direct. David Niven was the first male star announced.
Dragon obtained finance from ABPC who had a releasing arrangement with Warner Bros. The production company became known as Associated Dragon. ABPC's involvement saw director Michael Anderson and star Richard Todd come on to the project. The title was changed to Sleep No More, then Chase a Crooked Shadow. Filming started in May 1957. Fairbanks Jr. said he was pressured to make a cameo in the film, but refused.
Some of the exteriors were shot in the Palafrugel on the Costa Brava.
The guitar music that forms a significant part of the soundtrack is played by Julian Bream.
Reception
Chase a Crooked Shadow received mixed reviews. Bosley Crowther in his review for The New York Times considered the plot as overly complex and torturous, but that the melodrama was "nothing amazing, and neither is this film. It's just a moderately well-done program picture, endowed with a couple of standard thrills."
Remakes
Chase a Crooked Shadow was remade in India a few times, as the Bengali-language film Sheshankaa (1963), the Tamil-language film Puthiya Paravai (1964), the Hindi-language film Dhuan (1981), and the Malayalam-language film Charithram (1989)
References
Chase a Crooked Shadow WikipediaChase a Crooked Shadow IMDb Chase a Crooked Shadow themoviedb.org