Blitzed: Cast A Dark Shadow
Part of Blitzed: A three film season about British Men, Masculinity and the 1950s
DOORS 6:30PM (7PM START) TICKETS £8 ADV (CLICK HERE) £10 ON THE DOOR
Screening and extended introduction by Duncan Carson, programmer of Nobody Ordered Wolves, who will be speaking about Dirk Bogarde's star image in the 1950s
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CAST A DARK SHADOW
Lewis Gilbert, 1955
Before Victim, Dirk Bogarde starred in another risky tale of queer desires and murder. In Lewis Gilbert’s tart noir, Edward ‘Teddy’ Bear is the man-child husband of a rich heiress, Monie, on whose fortune he has nefarious designs. However, his plans go awry when he disposes of her just before she can alter her will in his favour. Forced to find another woman to prey on, he happens upon Freda (The Lady Vanishes’ Margaret Lockwood). But she is wise to Edward’s ploys and unwilling to accept his sexual reticence… what’s a guy to do?
This modern Bluebeard story is crisply shot with a healthy dose of expressionism. Bogarde plays Edward with camp mania, pursued all the while by Philip (Robert Flemyng), a bloodless and dogged lawyer. Flouting all male codes in the pursuit of naked self-interest, Bogarde as Edward is the terrifying embodiment of new 1950s manhood.
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Blitzed: A three film season about British Men, Masculinity and the 1950s
As Britain’s ‘finest hour’ faded in the collective memory in 1950s, British masculinity stood at the crossroads. With the decline of Empire, a decimated home front and troubling youth menacing the headlines, what was a chap to do? This series explores the way that British men faced (or repressed) these ruptures. In Obsession, we a homosocial triangle forms as one man traps another in a Blitzed building. In Cast a Dark Shadow, Dirk Bogarde hints at his sexuality, murdering a series of brides for his own dark reasons. In Hell Drivers, Stanley Baker plays an ex-convict making good at a gravel company, showing a new masculinity that has nothing to do with honour and everything to do with commerce.
Join us for three films that show British men trying to control the queer forces – in the culture and within themselves – brought on by the rupture of the War and the start of a new, changed manhood.
other films in this season: