Review of Shadow on the Wall (1950) by Vanessa P — 07 Jun 2011

This is a thriller with a great premise but it fails under lukewarm execution. The script takes the unfortunate liberty of letting the audience in on the culprit of this who-dunnit from the very beginning, and for the rest of the film we are left to watch these wooden characters play catch-up.

It's a difficult operation, and Patrick Jackson proves he is no Hitchcock or Carol Reed. Still, the film is not without its merits. I enjoyed the first twenty minutes (the ones before the murder) very much; Zachary Scott is sympathetic and radiant in them, and the slow but violent unravelling of his wife's affair comes off as competent and even masterful screen drama.

Once Scott is behind bars, however, the only actor with enough charisma to try to carry the picture is Nancy Davis (future Reagan), and eventually she buckles under the weight of this wrongly proportioned story.