The opening credits immerse us right away in a world of rapacious greed: a young man stares contemptuously at the much older woman beside him as she screams and laughs on a haunted house ride. In Lewis Gilbert’s Cast a Dark Shadow, the cold, conniving Edward Bare (yes, “Teddy Bare”), played by Dirk Bogarde, is determined to inherit a dead wife’s money — any wife will do as long as she’s loaded. His first attempt fails not because he didn’t kill her (he did) but because wife Monica (Mona Washbourne) had left all her money to her sister Dora with Teddy getting it only upon Dora’s death. The second attempt is more challenging: while his target Freda Jeffries (Margaret Lockwood) does fall in love with him, she’s much more shrewd and protective of her assets. The third attempt brings him right back to the first. While the film dips into black comedy territory here and there, it’s a showcase for Bogarde’s talent in playing duplicitous fiends: the first murder scene is particularly delicious — a nighttime breeze and birdsong as Teddy places his gloved hands around Monica’s neck — and his final confrontation with Dora in the chiaroscuro mansion is thrilling. The pathos comes primarily from the sweet maid Emmie (Kathleen Harrison) who is so devoted to the household that she offers to work for no wages.