Chase a Crooked Shadow

"The Man Hunts the Girl... The Girl Hunts the Man..."

1958 1h 27m EN

👍

7.1

SOLID

★7.1TMDB · 39

ThrillerMysteryDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A woman who lives in Spain has trouble convincing anybody that a complete stranger has taken her dead brother's identity.

“The Man Hunts the Girl... The Girl Hunts the Man...”

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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
Alexander Knox
Chandler Bridson
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Self - Epilogue (uncredited)
Thelma D'Aguiar
Maria

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Michael Anderson
Writers: David D. Osborn, Charles Sinclair
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

87 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

68 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Michael Anderson, shot by Erwin Hillier. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Matyas Seiber. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Gordon Pilkington shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Richard Todd and Anne Baxter and Herbert Lom carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The Man Hunts the Girl... The Girl Hunts the Man...".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Michael Anderson directs. Erwin Hillier behind the camera. Matyas Seiber scores. Gordon Pilkington cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

187 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
268 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
4Directed by Michael Anderson, shot by Erwin Hillier. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Matyas Seiber. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Gordon Pilkington shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Richard Todd and Anne Baxter and Herbert Lom carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "The Man Hunts the Girl... The Girl Hunts the Man...".
9IMDB entry: tt0050246 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Only 39 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Erwin Hillier
Original score: Matyas Seiber
Editing: Gordon Pilkington
Runtime: 87 min · 1h 27m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958)

Also by

Michael Anderson

Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2020-05-24
★ 8/10
Who is hunting who? Chase a Crooked Shadow is directed by Michael Anderson and written by David D. Osborn and Charles Sinclair. It stars Richard Todd, Anne Baxter, Herbert Lom and Faith Brook. Music is scored by Matyas Seiber, with additional guitar by Julian Bream, and cinematography by Erwin Hillier. A man shows up at Kimberley Prescott's Spanish villa claiming to be her brother. Trouble is is that her brother, Ward Prescott, died in a car accident a year ago... The core formula for Chase a Crooked Shadow has been well mined over the years, only recently I myself viewed the quite excellent Hammer Films Production of Paranoiac, which treads the same ground as Anderson's movie, but there's a filmic style here that adds further atmosphere to the moody mysterious tone of the narrative. Thus, in spite of the absurdities and stretching of credulity, this is well worth seeking out. Anderson carefully builds the suspense, ensuring that what we think we know may in fact not be the case. The twists and jolts are deftly handled and the finale is a delightful bolt from the blue. Along the way we are treated to a noirish canvas, where even though the film is shot on location on the Costa Brava, there's a Gothic sheen pretty much every where you look. The interior of the villa is complete with Grandfather clock, iron gate doors, odd light shades, statuettes and one of those staircases with balustrade, all of which is given maximum shadow effects by Hillier. The outside courtyard also serves the uneasy mood well, as does the stone beach house at the bottom of the hill, it should be idyllic, but fret and discord dwell there as well. Cast are most effective, some have called Todd too wooden, but he needs to be restrained here, he is after all playing the character's cards close to his chest. Baxter, looking positively lovely, handles the mental disintegration process with great skill, Brook really exudes a Mrs. Danvers like menace purely with cold dialogue delivery and an icy stare, while Lom has authoritative presence as the police man being pulled both ways of the mystery. Top performers doing justice to a fine mystery story that is in turn offering some visual pleasures too. 7.5/10

Production companies