The Shadow Man (1953)
I never would have heard of The Shadow Man, but it was Cesar Romero week on Hot Toasty Rag, so I thought I’d give it a shot. It’s a British film noir about a man in the wrong place at the wrong time. Cesar Romero owns a slightly sleazy bar, with a sidekick (rudely) named Limpy. The cops are always trying to pin something on him, but he’s consistently clean. Kay Kendall is married to a shady customer, John Penrose, but she’s soon wrapped up in Cesar’s arms instead. There’s not much resistance, since she can’t stand her husband. But how will she feel when a dead woman is found in Cesar’s apartment?
This isn’t the best noir I’ve ever seen, but there was one part of it I found very interesting and effective: Cesar spoke in a Spanish accent. It was a British movie with a British cast, and speaking in his normal American accent would have been jarring and obvious of the studio’s desire to cross-pollenate. Instead, with a Spanish accent, he was instantly European, allowing us to get more involved in the story without wondering what he was doing there in the first place. It was also interesting to see how hard the director and cameraman tried to distract the audience from Kay Kendall’s nose. They (and she) took pains to never film her in profile, even making her walk backwards at times to avoid turning around.
Want to watch it? Click here to see it on ok.ru and thanks "Ric Vani" for posting!
More Cesar Romero movies here!
This isn’t the best noir I’ve ever seen, but there was one part of it I found very interesting and effective: Cesar spoke in a Spanish accent. It was a British movie with a British cast, and speaking in his normal American accent would have been jarring and obvious of the studio’s desire to cross-pollenate. Instead, with a Spanish accent, he was instantly European, allowing us to get more involved in the story without wondering what he was doing there in the first place. It was also interesting to see how hard the director and cameraman tried to distract the audience from Kay Kendall’s nose. They (and she) took pains to never film her in profile, even making her walk backwards at times to avoid turning around.
Want to watch it? Click here to see it on ok.ru and thanks "Ric Vani" for posting!
More Cesar Romero movies here!