Castle Sinister * (1948, Mara Russell-Tavernan, Robert Essex, Karl Meir) – Classic Movie Review 13,033

The mysterious hooded skeleton Glennye Phantom.

It’s murder in the 1948 no-budget, no-name British black and white mystery thriller film Castle Sinister when a mysterious hooded skeleton stalks the place.

Director Oscar Burn’s 1948 no-budget, no-name British black and white mystery thriller film Castle Sinister is based on the play Mark of Judas by Vance Youden, and stars Mara Russell-Tavernan as the Marchioness of Glennye, Robert Essex, and Karl Meir,

There are murderously sinister goings-on at supposedly haunted Glennye Castle, in Scotland, where a bunch of new folk hove up, including a doctor who is really a Nazi spy, the actual father of Lady Glennye’s son. An Army officer has died and another has disappeared, and the mysterious hooded skeleton Glennye Phantom supposedly stalks the place. [Spoiler alert] After a British Army intelligence officer agent turns up, it turns out the deaths  are the work of an enemy agent, the Nazi is shot, and Lady Glennye dies.

Unfortunately nowhere nearly as interesting as it sounds, the film is ruined by Mary Cathcart Borer’s busy and imaginative script that can’t make sense of all this and a bunch of no-name actors who don’t bring much to the table either. You want to like it but it fails in all aspects. There’s a no-budget production, poor acting and plodding direction. Sigh.

What is interesting, however, is that the script expresses British post-war paranoia fears of a resurgence of Nazism by proposing the idea that secret Nazi organizations are working in Britain to rebuild Germany.

The cast are Mara Russell-Tavernan, Robert Essex, Karl Meir, Alastair Hunter [Alistair Hunter] as McTavish, John Gauntley, James Liggat [James Liggatt], Maureen O’Moor.

Mara Russell-Tavernan (1909-1972) also starred in a 1954 remake, The Devil’s Jest, one of two only other films she made.

Castle Sinister is directed by Oscar Burn, runs 50 minutes, is made by Unicorn Film Corporation, is released by Equity British Films (UK), is written by Mary Cathcart Borer, based on the play Mark of Judas by Vance Youden, is shot in black and white by Jeff Davies, is produced by William Howard Borer, is scored by Cyril E Clarke (musical director). and is designed by Harald Melvill.

It is shot in Hertfordshire, England, and Thanet, Kent, England.

Release date: February 19, 1948 (UK).

It was released on DVD by Simply Media in the UK in 2013.

It has reappeared on the UK TV channel Talking Pictures TV.

The cast are Mara Russell-Tavernan as Gabrielle, Marchioness of Glennye, Alastair Hunter [Alistair Hunter] as McTavish, James Liggat [James Liggatt]as Neale, Karl Meir as Selwyn, Robert Essex as Nigel, Maureen O’Moor as Maggie, Myra Celian as Lorna, Humphrey Stamford as McWerter, John Gauntley as Michael, Patricia St. John as Jean, Lucien Boré as Fairfax, Hugh Arnald as Matthews, Harald Melvill as Crofter, and Peter Emmott as Taxi Driver.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,033

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