Street of Shadows

Street of Shadows (AKA: Shadow Man) is directed by Richard Vernon, who also adapts the screenplay from the novel "The Creaking Chair" written by Laurence Meynell. It stars Cesar Romero, Victor Maddern, Kay Kendall, Simone Silva, John Penrose, Bill Travers and Liam Gaffney. Music is by Eric Spear, with harmonica by Tommy Reilly, and cinematography is by Phil Grindod.

A good old frame-up thriller with noir styling, Street of Shadows finds Romero as Luigi, the manager of a gaming premises in London's Soho area. When an old acquaintance of his, Angele Abbe (Silva), is found murdered in his apartment, he's naturally the chief suspect. Forced to go on the run, Luigi hopes that the police or himself can find the real culprit soon.

The story is pretty conventional stuff, with the mystery element none existent since it can only really be one person who committed the murder. However, the benefits elsewhere make this worth sampling by the film noir faithful, even if it's not what you would call essential viewing.

The whole picture is filmed in the noir style, Vernon and Grindod not missing any opportunities for a bit of shadow play or psychologically tinted contrast usage. The backdrop is a dour London of dark streets and alleyways, a dank part of the city where sordid characters go about their respective business. These people are either carrying some sort of affliction, aggressive or are emotionally stunted. An abused wife, a sexually frustrated janitor with a foot disability, card sharps, a man with huge cauliflower ears, a playboy, ladies of the night, or in the case of Luigi, someone who you really wouldn't want to count on.

Police Close Pin-Table Saloon!

Luigi's Pin-Table business is delightfully dingy, filled out with slot machines and macabre looking games such as a laughing sailor or Konki The Clown: Fortune Teller. Breezing around the place are the two gals, Angele and Barbara Gale (Kendall), getting the lads hot under the collar, while the human fortune teller Starry Darrell (Molly Hamley Clifford) is a splendid character capable of smoothing out Luigi's rough edges. Acting is good, with Maddern the stand out performer, and how nice to hear good quality Harmonica as part of a musical score. 6/10

This time it's Cesar Romero who has been drafted in to boost the box office for this otherwise rather unremarkable drama. He is "Luigi" and owns a seedy saloon that's usually frequented by petty criminals and ne'er-do-wells. One night he encounters the married, but neglected, "Barbara" (Kay Kendall) and after a whirlwind romance, they plot to elope. Before they can flee, though, his ex-girlfriend "Angelo" (Simone Silva) is found in his flat - dead as a doornail. He ropes in his rather untrustworthy pal "Limpy" (Victor Maddern) to get shot of the body, but the police intervene and both are soon facing interrogation. To be fair to Richard Vernon, the whodunit element of this thriller is kept under wraps til quite late in the day, so there is a gently accruing sense of mystery with quite a few red herrings to distract us from an ending that I quite liked. The production is really basic, though. The lighting is really in need of some extra wattage and the score is rather intrusive with enough harmonica to make an album of sea shanties. Not a film you'll remember, but it does remind of just how stylish Kendall was.

"Street of Shadows" is the only movie directed by Robert Vernon, rather producer of "Colonel Blimp" or "Kiss The Blood Off My Hand" (what a title for a film noir, Burt's seventh film noir in two years !!!). The bluesy use of harmonica from the beginning reminds of the main theme in a french film noir classic, "Touchez pas au grisbi" directed by Jacques Becker. The friendship between Cesar Romero and his crippled employee Victor Maddern is touching, the atmosphere in Romero's club is moody and sexy, the jukebox has some important apparitions (and like in "Brighton Rock" for a sequence, but we're far from that unique masterpiece). There are a lot of nice surprises in british film noir like this "Street of shadows".

A slick little British film noir in the French style with the usual atmospheric photography (both in the studio at Merton Park and on ___location in Soho) by Phil Grindrod, a moody harmonica score by Eric Spear (who later wrote the theme for 'Coronation Street') and a classy female lead in the form of Kay Kendall.

Victor Maddern's pathetic, lovesick sidekick 'Limpy' presumably led to his casting as mad scientist Donald Wolfit's hunchbacked lab assistant five years later in 'Blood of the Vampire'.

In the '50s, there were a lot of British noirs made with American stars such as Dane Clark, Dennis O'Keefe, Cesar Romero, and others. These noirs were usually atmospheric and fun to watch.

"The Shadow Man" is from 1953 and stars Romero, along with Kay Kendall. Romero is Luigi, who owns a pin-table saloon. Apparently this is some sort of a casino with pinball machines. Anyway, the cops are usually watching it because some of the patrons are not of the highest quality.

Luigi meets and falls for Barbara (Kay Kendall) whose husband is a gambler and not much of a husband. She agrees to go away with Luigi, but when Luigi's ex-girlfriend Angele (Simone Silva) winds up dead in Luigi's apartment, Luigi has to ask help from his employee, Limpy (Victor Maddern) for help, and then hide out and try to figure out who murdered her.

There's nothing very special about this, except that I have always believed Cesar Romero was very underrated as an actor. He's marvelous here, very handsome with a great presence, using just a touch of his accent. His saloon is crowded, chaotic, nothing fancy, and has a wonderfully '50s atmosphere. Kay Kendall, his costar, would go on to big fame before her early, tragic death (recounted in the play "In Praise of Love," originally starring her then-husband, Rex Harrison).

Nothing exceptional except Romero and Kendall, but they make it worth seeing.