Shadow on the Wall *** (1950, Ann Sothern, Zachary Scott, Gigi Perreau, Nancy Davis) – Classic Movie Review 8967

Director Pat [Patrick] Jackson’s 1950 MGM black and white B-movie psychological thriller Shadow on the Wall is an involved and involving, if predictable, melodramatic psychodrama, distinguished with an early score by André Previn and smartly imaginative black and white noir cinematography by Ray June. It is based on the 1943 novel Death in the Doll’s House by Lawrence P Bachmann and Hannah Lees.

New child star Gigi Perreau plays a nine-year-old child Susan Starrling, suffering from amnesia, who is the only person who can save her father (Zachary Scott) from the death penalty after he is wrongly accused of murdering her stepmother.

Ann Sothern stars as angry, vengeful Dell Faring, who kills her beautiful sister Celia (Kristine Miller) after she steals her fiancé, and allows Celia’s husband David (Scott) to be convicted and end up on death row. Then Dell discovers that Susan witnessed the crime, and Susan might not stay alive long enough to save her dad.

It is satisfying to have both Sothern and Scott acting powerfully against type. And Nancy Davis, later Nancy Reagan, gets her teeth into one of her meatier parts as Dr Caroline Canford, the psychiatrist who has to unlock the little girl’s psyche to find out whether her father really is guilty.

Also in the cast are John McIntire, Barbara Billingsley, Tom Helmore, Helen Brown, Marcia Van Dyke, Anthony Sydes and Jimmy Hunt.

Shadow on the Wall is directed by Pat [Patrick] Jackson, runs 84 minutes, is made and released by MGM, is written by William Ludwig, based on the story Death in the Doll’s House by Lawrence P Bachmann and Hannah Lees, is shot in black and white by Ray June, is produced by Robert Sisk and is scored by André Previn.

The eight-year-old Gigi Perreau wasn’t exactly a new child star as she had already appeared in 20 films. But there was a new star. This is the first substantial featured film role for future First Lady Nancy Davis [Nancy Reagan] after a couple of small roles in MGM films.

The novel Death in the Doll’s House was first published as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post from 16 January 1943 to 27 February 1943. Co-author ‘Hannah Lees’ is a pseudonym for Elizabeth Head Fetter.

It is British documentarian director Patrick Jackson’s only American film.

Shadow on the Wall was shot from 11 April 1949 to mid-May 1949 and released a year later on 19 May 1950, with disappointing results, resulting in a loss to MGM of $330,000.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8967

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