Chase a Crooked Shadow is beautiful, haunting and sinister

Warner Bros. Pictures

When several rainy days emerge in a row without so much as a glimmer of sunlight on the horizon, it’s perfectly natural for one to try to find other things to occupy a restless mind. I was sitting in my cozy apartment sprawled across the couch on just such a dreary, gray day when I decided to pop in Chase a Crooked Shadow, courtesy of the Warner Archive Collection. It was the ideal day to focus on a classic black-and-white film noir, and I’d picked a doozy from 1958!

Starring Richard Todd, Anne Baxter, Herbert Lom, Faith Brook, Alexander Knox, Alan Tilvern and Thelma D’Aguilar, Chase a Crooked Shadow was directed by Michael Anderson, who also directed Orca, Waterfront Women, The Shoes of the Fisherman and Logan’s Run, among others. It was the title that first grabbed my interest, followed by the story’s premise. In it, Baxter capably portrays Kimberley Prescott, a diamond heiress who’s driven to the brink of insanity after a man claiming to be her deceased brother Ward (Todd) shows up unexpectedly at her Spanish villa’s doorstep.

He seems to have all the right credentials proving he’s Ward to the local police inspector (Lom) whom she promptly calls, including a valid passport and a convincing letter of reference from a financial institution, and there’s even a photograph of him found in Kim’s picture frame sitting by her bedside. However, Kim adamantly denies that it’s her brother, saying he died in a tragic car accident a year ago and she knows this because she identified his body herself. Ward explains to the police inspector that his sister simply must not be herself, for their father also died of an illness the previous year.

Why would she deny that this man is her brother? He seems to know information that only her brother could possibly know, doesn’t he? He makes her favorite breakfast drink at the bar, he possesses the cigar box she gave Ward that he must have had on his person in the car crash and he even has Ward’s car. Not to mention, he’s capable of driving around the Bay at a breakneck speed that only someone as passionate about amateur automobile racing as Ward was would be capable of recreating. Even her beloved “uncle” Chandler (Knox) identifies him as Ward. Why on earth would he betray her?

The viewer is not quite certain how this film noir is going to end. Is Kim insane? Did Ward somehow survive that car crash? Maybe there wasn’t even a car crash at all. Is Ward an imposter? If so, how did he obtain all those credentials and objects necessary to convince the police? Why is the uncle “in on it?” Does he really look like Ward or not? Are they really after her diamonds? Are they going to kill her and make it look like a suicide? Will the police inspector be able to find any proof that it isn’t Ward, and will he be in time? Is there anything more terrifying than being locked inside an isolated mansion with a man claiming to be your brother that you don’t recognize as such, but not being able to prove it to anybody?

Chase a Crooked Shadow features haunting guitar music from Julian Bream (an English classical guitarist and lutenist, made famous during the 20th century) and stunning coastal backdrops – it’s set along the picturesque Costa Brava region in Northeastern Spain. One of the most fascinating things I read about the film was that Todd and Baxter are really in that car racing along the road – the speeds and the twists and turns of the road made it impossible to have them preceded or followed by a camera car so they mounted the cameras in different positions on the vehicle itself and the stars performed the stunt themselves to make it look more authentic. Who does that in Hollywood anymore?

The film was also Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.’s final credit as a producer, and he even makes a rare cameo at the end to break the fourth wall, urging the movie audience, “In Northern Spain, there’s an old proverb, ‘To keep a secret is to keep a friend.’ So, we would appreciate it very much if you’d join with us and not tell anybody how Chase a Crooked Shadow ends.” Don’t worry, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Michael Anderson. I won’t spoil the fun of your masterpiece. If you want to know how Chase a Crooked Shadow ends, you’re going to have to watch it unfold for yourself. It took me a little by surprise. While there aren’t any bonus materials on the DVD, I still think this is one you’ll want to have in your personal collection for a rainy day in which you’d much rather escape to the Spanish coasts of yesteryear.