Whispering shadows
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Whispering shadows |
| Original title | Chase a crooked shadow |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1958 |
| length | 85 (German) / 87 (original) minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Michael Anderson |
| script | Charles Sinclair, David D. Osborn |
| production | Associated Dragons ( Douglas Fairbanks junior , Thomas Clyde) |
| music | Mátyás Seiber , guitar sounds Julian Bream |
| camera | Erwin Hillier |
| cut | Gordon Pilkington |
| occupation | |
| |
Whispering Shadows is a British black and white thriller directed by Michael Anderson and premiered in London on January 21, 1958, starring Anne Baxter and Richard Todd .
action
The young South African diamond heiress Kimberley Prescott was living in her magnificent country house, the Villa del Mar, on the Costa Brava, when she received a visit one evening from a man who stiffly claims to be her brother Ward. Kimberley is angry and tries to explain to the man that she has never seen him. Her brother, an amateur racing driver, had been dead for a year, had an accident in his car when he fell off a cliff in South Africa. She even had to identify his body, as she assured the summoned local police superintendent Vargas. Vargas checks the stranger's license and passport; it is clearly Ward Prescott. The stranger explains that on the day of the accident, someone robbed him and stole the car involved in the accident. It was not he who was behind the wheel of the car. When Vargas leaves, Kimberley wants to continue with her car. She can no longer stand at the side of the man who claims to be her brother. When she arrives at her car, she sees that her brother's car, completely restored, is standing right next to it. Desperate, Kimberley runs back into the house.
Ward knows things only her brother can know. His detailed knowledge - he even knows her favorite drink and its composition - disturbs Kimberley more and more. The framed photos of her brother upstairs - exchanged and replaced by the portraits of the stranger, as she claims. Her brother's tattoo on his right wrist, an anchor - the stranger has it too. Kimberley suspects the man behind this man is no other than a particularly cunning and extremely well-informed legacy sneak. One morning a stranger to her, Elaine Whitman, brings her breakfast to bed. She is a friend of her brother and will take care of her from now on. The previous Spanish housekeeper Maria went to Barcelona for the weekend. Kimberley is horrified.
She drives into town to ask Police Commissioner Vargas again for help. But he thinks her suspicions are pipe dreams. When she leaves the police station, Ward is waiting at the door. In passing, he shows her the cigarette case that Kimberley once gave him. Kim tries to put him to the test. He was supposed to drive four miles down the winding coastal road in three minutes ... like before, four years ago. "Ward could still do it now," she smiles maliciously. Ward then races down said street with her in a breakneck manner ... and does it in three minutes and four seconds. He smiles at her and says to the bewildered Kimberley: "I told you yes, I'm a little out of practice".
Back at the villa, Ward confronts Kimberley with the fact that she fled Johannesburg immediately after both fathers died. Since then, all the diamonds in the vault of the father's company have been missing. She pretends not to know where the gems have gone. When her uncle Chandler visits her, Kim finally believes she has the proof of her theories in her hands. To her horror, Chandler greets Ward as warmly as if he had recognized him immediately. Cornered and believing that her uncle was involved in the conspiracy against her, Kimberley finally admits that she hauled the diamonds out of the country and deposited them in a locker in Tangier. In order to finally have her peace of mind from the intruders, she is forced to sign a power of attorney with which Uncle Chandler can gain access to the depot in Tangier. In return, Ward and the others promise to leave the house. In the evening they all seem to have actually left.
But suddenly Elaine Whitman stands in front of her. With a glass of milk and a will made out in her name that she only has to sign. Deeply frightened, Kimberley steals from the villa that night and descends to the beach house. When someone enters, she shoots the intruder with a harpoon. She just missed Commissioner Vargas. She shows him the will and that she must leave everything to the false brother in the event of her death. Then she claims that Ward stole the diamonds - everything the old man still owned - from both of their fathers. He finally had an accident while escaping by car. The police gave her his recovered belongings, including the diamonds. With them she went back to her father. But he had shot himself immediately after discovering the emptied safe.
This time you believe Vargas. And he also has an idea how to convict the wrong Ward. According to Kimberley, he wants to compare his fingerprints with those of her dead brother in South Africa. Kimberly then passes a wine glass with Ward's prints to Vargas. He and Mrs. Whitman panic a little for the first time, they hadn't expected that. Kimberley has run down to the beach house again and digs something out of the fireplace. It's the diamonds. She runs back into the house with them to get to the car and finally get away. When she opens the door to the outside, the uncle, who has just returned from Tangier empty-handed, is standing in front of the door. Kimberley faints.
When she wakes up again, everyone except Vargas is gathered around her. The diamonds are spread out on the table and Kimberley, lost all hope, signs the will before her. With a petrified face, Ward asks if they should both go for a swim. Mrs. Whitman suggests that he take the boat and go a little further out. Fear of death rises in Kimberley. Ward, the butler, Carlos, and Elaine grapple with Kimberley and lead her down the bluff. Uncle Chandler calls out to them from above that Inspector Vargas has just arrived. Kimberley sees himself saved, breaks away from the three and runs back into the house. But Vargas' statement shocked her to the core: Ward's fingerprints are identical to those of her brother who had an accident in South Africa. Kimberley thinks this is impossible and implores Vargas to stay, otherwise she will be drowned in the sea.
Vargas is just about to leave the property when Kimberley sees only one way to expose the false "brother": Desperate, she confesses that she killed her brother. At the time, she manipulated the brakes of his getaway car. She saw no other way to save her father and his company. That was the only way she could have retrieved the stolen stones. But their triumph is short; she experiences the shock of her life. Mrs. Whitman makes a short phone call and calls Ward on the phone. He just mentions his name, Inspector Williams, and says: “We have a confession.” Kimberley's uncle, her butler Carlos and, since the previous night, Inspector Vargas were privy to the game and were part of an elaborate and risky game by the police, the sister of the Convicted of murder. Kimberley Prescott is taken away.
Production notes
" Whispering Shadows " is based on a radio play from the Whistler series (1943). The same material was later remade three times for American and once for German television ( Die Trap , 1983). The film lives to a not inconsiderable extent from the superbly captured landscape images - on the camera: Berlin-born Erwin Hillier , who has worked with director Anderson time and again in his career - and the catchy, melancholy guitar solo Julian Breams.
" Whispering Shadows " was filmed in Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire , England, the exterior shots were shot on the Costa Brava in Spain . The car racing scene ('three minutes and four seconds') was filmed on the coastal road near Sitges .
The German premiere took place on September 19, 1958. The FSK released the film from the age of 16.
criticism
The reviews of this thriller with the completely surprising twist, in which the assignment of "alleged heroine" and "alleged villain" as the final point is reversed, were consistently positive.
The film's large personal lexicon called " Whispering Shadows " a " nifty, exciting, little Costa Brava thriller "
The “Movie & Video Guide” praised the film as an “ exciting, Hitchcock-like melodrama ”.
"Halliwell's Film Guide" summed up: " Tricksy, lightly controlled suspense melodrama with a perfectly fair surprise ending ."
The Lexicon of International Films wrote about Whispering Shadows : " Skilfully constructed, supported by good actors and a suggestive camera, the film is staged precisely towards the culmination of tension ."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 1: A - C. Erik Aaes - Jack Carson. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 100.
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 221
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 191
- ↑ Klaus Brüne (Ed.): Lexicon of International Films. Volume 2, p. 1057. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.