Shadow on the Wall
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
Child Susan Starrling (Gigi Perreau) is the sole witness to a killing, but the shock causes her to suffer amnesia about the event. Her father David (Zachary Scott) is convicted of first degree murder of his wife. However, psychiatrist Caroline Cranford (Nancy Davis) is convinced she can cure the young girl and begins to suspect that another person is guilty.
That person is Dell Faring (Ann Sothern), who became incensed after brother-in-law David discovered that while he was away serving his country, wife Celia (Kristine Miller) was having an affair with Dell's fiance, Crane Weymouth. A resentment already existed between the sisters because Dell felt this was not the first time Celia had selfishly taken something from her. Celia knocked David unconscious during a quarrel over her infidelity. Dell then arrived, picked up a gun David brought home from the war and killed her sister with it. With no memory of what happened, David can only assume he was the one who shot Celia, so he accepts the jury's verdict and the judge's sentence that he be put to death.
Susan, who saw the murder from the door but repressed the memory, is haunted by the image of a shadow on the wall. A distraught Dell, realizing that Dr. Cranford is trying to restore the girl's memory, attempts to murder the child. When she fails, she adopts Susan instead. Dell casts a shadow on the wall that triggers Susan's memory.

Review: I'm convinced that movies that have SHADOW in the title have a better than average chance of being good flicks.
Ann Sothern turning in a surprising performance, always the good girl in movies, here the director plays on that, to create a character whose actions becomes ever more...
with her fall.A movie that ultimately revolves around four women as central characters, would hardly seem to fit the noirish mold, but this film is far less lifetime network and far more grim, and gritty.
The only foray into the the world of Noir by its director Pat Jackson, and the only script ever done by its writer Hannah Lees, the movie is deserving of far more recognition than its received.
MGM Playing Catch Up. Unheralded little thriller with a number of nice touches.
Little Gigi Perreau (Susan) has the pivotal role and comes through beautifully.
The movie scared the heck out of me as a boy, mainly because I was viewing the menace through the eyes of my peer, little Susan.
Nancy Davis Reagan-- perhaps surprisingly for many viewers-- is very persuasive as the doctor helping Susan to recover.Looks like this was another B-movie from MGM's Dore Schary period when he was refashioning the studio's star-studded image.
The under-rated Scott and Sothern are certainly playing against type, he as a kind-hearted father, she as a cold-hearted murderess.
In terms of actual screen time, it's probably Nancy Davis's movie, though she was likely too unknown to get star billing.
Note Pike's (John McIntire) shadow engulfing Dell (Sothern) at movie's end indicating the retribution to come; the blurry special effects mirroring little Susan's traumatized mental state; the suggestive hair-drier closing over Dell's head like an electrocution helmet; the great noirish shot of Dell framed against ominous skyscrapers suggesting dark powers looming over Susan.
Anyway, this all adds up to a very effective little thriller, proving that even though late to the party, MGM could B- movie with the best of them..
Ray June was the cinematographer, and his deep focus work makes the film worth seeing all by itself.
Zachary Scott, for a change, plays the typically confused noir male, and Ann Sothern, showing the force of period style, switches from Maisie to a somewhat tormented femme fatale.
A young girl(Gigi Perreau) becomes traumatized after she witnesses the accidental killing of her stepmother(Kristine Miller).
Well-acted film noir showcases the dramatic talents of the exceptionally gifted actress Ann Sothern, who was known primarily for her 'light' roles in films like MAISIE.
I saw this movie years ago when I was a little girl.
Although I was young, I remember it in detail and consider it to be one of the best movies I've ever seen.
A young girl(Gigi Perreau)suffers amnesia after witnessing her stepmother's murder.
Ann Southern, straying from her comedic roles, has trouble hiding her guilt and even thinks of causing harm to the little girl to keep her quiet.Fast moving film-noir also starring John McIntire and Nancy Davis.
Nancy Davis (Reagan) was solidas the psychiatrist trying to help little Susan (Gigi Perreau in a very good performance) remember a horrible event which she hadwitnessed.
Zachary Scott equals film noir, right?
The movie then turns into a potboiler about child psychiatry and the star of the film becomes Gigi Perreau.Had never seen or heard of this picture until it was on TCM the other evening and I thought what a shame to squander the talents of Zachary Scott and Ann Sothern in such a tepid melodrama.
Instead, I got Nancy Davis doggedly trying to probe the mind of a six-year old.I suppose it was interesting enough for a rating of six and all concerned did a good job in the acting department, but the storyline bordered on tedium for prolonged stretches, relieved only by Ann Sothern's scenes.
Containing Two of the Tropes Familiar to Film-Noir (not counting shadows), Amnesia and Psychiatry/Psychology, this Off-Beat Little Movie is Big on Suspense and Contains an Unusual Lead Role for a Child.Reminding of Val Lewton, the Film has an Ethereal Quality that gives it quite an Edge.
The Cast is Better than Average with Zachary Scott and Ann Sothern Playing Against Type and Nancy Davis giving a Low-Key, Restrained Good Turn as a Psychiatrist that Works Fine for the Film.The Child Actress Gigi Perreau is in Many Scenes and Holds more than Her Own with a Performance that is Spot On as the Disturbed and Haunted Little Girl.
The Movie has Style with a Number of Ominous Scenes and Flourishes that Enhance the Mood.A Definite Film-Noir with MGM Finally Deciding to Slum and Forego the Haudy Studio Persona, Finding Itself Forced to Play the B-Movie Game by 1950 with Changing Post-War Audience Expectations.
But the rest of the film centers on their daughter, who has witnessed but repressed the scene, and her psychologist, Nancy Davis (later Reagan).
The movie will probably keep your attention (it's blessedly short) but it's hard to work up much affection for a vehicle that so totally miscasts, and wastes, Ann Sothern..
FOLKS, please stop abusing the term "film noir." This flick is a very mundane B movie, with a ridiculous plot.The actors are adequate, certainly, but this film is little more than a "filler." Scott, Southern and Davis are fine, considering the material with which they are working.The first twenty minutes are promising, but the film quickly falls apart, once the plot is centered on the young girl.It's great to have access to these obscure movies on TCM.
Shadow on the Wall is directed by Pat Jackson and adapted to screenplay by William Ludwig from the story "Death in the Doll's House" written by Lawrence P.
It stars Ann Sothern, Zachary Scott, Nancy Davis, Giggi Perreau and John McIntire.
Story centers on a young child called Susan Starrling (Perreau), who after witnessing the murder of her step-mother, succumbs to amnesia.
Can the real killer ensure that that isn't the case?It's a personal thing of course, but I have always found there to be something off kilter about doll's houses, and here we are greeted to an opening shot of one, superbly accompanied by Previn's ominous music, it's a perfect mood setter as to what is to come.
The main building of the piece is not the doll's house, but that of the hospital where Susan is receiving treatment, and at night photographer Ray June perfectly sets it up for peril and dastardly deeds.
Honours go to Perreau, who is never once annoying, turning in an involving performance that has us firmly involved in her world, whilst Davis (the future First Lady Reagan) is very understated, where she gets a well written female character whose not relying on male dominance to expand the part.
David (Zachary Scott) is married to a no-good cheat, Celia.
In the meantime, Celia's sister, Dell (Ann Sothern) arrives and confronts Celia for stealing her fiancé.
David's been sent to death row and the only glitch in Dell's plan is that David's young daughter (Gigi Perreau) might have witnessed the killing and Dell needs to be certain she won't talk.
While the young girl is too traumatized to fully recall the events, she could remember through the course of therapy...and it could be Dell on death row instead!
So Dell can either wait and hope the child cannot remember or kill her to make certain!This is an unusual film due to the casting.
This is NOT a complaint, but seeing Ann Sothern playing a killer is interesting, as she usually played nice, sweet folks like her Maisie character from the 1940s.
At first, you can understand her motivation in killing her sister...but to see her attempting to murder an innocent child...that is a dark and twisted character!
Additionally, this is one of the few films I've seen where Nancy David (Reagan) is given a chance to really act and she was quite nice as the child psychiatrist, Caroline.
In general, film noir pictures were done by other studios and MGM preferred making 'nice' movies...but here they've created a rather hard-hearted film!
Not Zachary Scott's best film.
A child (Gigi Perreau) witnesses the murder of her soon-to-be step-mother but "represses" the memory until a psychiatrist at a children's hospital (Nancy Davis) succeeds in bringing out what really happened that night.
The dead about-to-be step-mother, engaged to the father of the child (Zachary Scott) was romantically involved with her sister's (Ann Sothern) fiancé.
The shadow on the wall is a nice touch as is the performance of Gigi Perreau, but Sothern makes something considerably less than the cold-blooded murderer she's supposed to play, although she isn't too bad in her attempts to silence the girl for good that take place within the confines of the children's hospital.
As for Zachary Scott, he's been in a few better films than this one..
Best known for starring in the classic sitcoms "Private Secretary" and "The Ann Sothern Show", Sothern delivers a dynamic dramatic performance in this suspenseful thriller.
Ann plays a woman who discovers that her sister is having an affair with her husband-to-be.
Sothern confronts the sister, accidentally kills her, then flees the scene, allowing her brother-in-law to take the rap.
The plot thickens, however, when it is discovered that Sothern's traumatized young niece witnessed the dreadful event, and the child is starting to regain her memory.
A young husband comes home only to discover her second wife has been having an affair behind his back with her own sister's boyfriend.
David Starrling has entrusted his young daughter, Susan, by a previous marriage to Celia, a beautiful and sophisticated woman, who is more preoccupied in two timing the absent husband than caring for the girl.
When she gets custody of the girl, wants her to come stay in her country place, Susan, who has suffered a great deal, suddenly sees a familiar shadow projected on the wall and screams for help, as the mystery is solved.Pat Jackson, a British director, got an fine screen play from William Ludwig, which he turned into a satisfying thriller.
He got helped along the way by the interesting music score Andre Previn composed and the cinematography by Ray June, with its dark shadows.
The movie holds the viewer in a certain suspense, even when the culprit is known from the start.Ann Sothern, who for some reason bears an uncanny resemblance of Agnes Moorehead in this film, has some good dramatic moments; she makes the best out of them.
Sweet Gigi Perreau is seen as Susan, the girl at the center of all the intrigue.
Nancy Davis, who went to be the First Lady of the land, makes an impact as Caroline Canford, the doctor that is able to untangle everything in the young girl's mind.
I remember well as a little girl watching this movie in the sixties and being shocked at the end of it.
If you are looking for the new type of "sixth sense" thriller, then this movie isn't for you.
But, if you like a good time trying to figure out what's going to happen, then "Shadow on the Wall" is not disappointing.
I saw Shadow on the Wall when I was 11 years old as part of a double feature with Annie Get Your Gun. I have never forgotten it.
It is the only movie that I remembered Nancy Reagan being in, and I thought she and Zakery Scot were great and that Gigi Pieureux was marvelous.
I have described this movie to friends many times over the years, and now I look forward to seeing it again at age 71..
The first was Nancy Davis as the psychiatrist talking about the sketch of the Indian doll which little Gigi Perreau* had named "Cupid." At five years of age I assumed that "Cupid" was an Indian spirit that was menacing the girl.
The second was the climax in which the little girl realized that her aunt, Ann Sothern, was the killer(I won't go into details for people who have not yet seen this film, but it's a stunner.) The latter scene practically scared me out of my diapers, as I thought that Sothern was not a human being, but a ghost of some kind.I carried the memories of those two scenes with me for over fifty years.
As it turned out, SHADOW ON THE WALL was not a supernatural tale of menace, but a darn good little suspense story.
Ann Sothern (Dell Faring), Zachary Scott (David Starrling), Joan Davis (Dr Canford), Gigi Perreau (Susan Starrling), Kristine Miller (Celia Starrling), John McIntyre (Pike Ludwell), Tom Helmore (Crane Weymouth), Helen Brown (Miss Burke), Barbara Billingsley (Olga), Marcia Van Dyke (secretary), Anthony Sydes (Bobby), Jimmy Hunt (boy with chocolate milk), Roger Moore (Townsend), George Eldredge (prosecutor), Thomas Browne Henry (judge), Don Haggerty (rescuing physician), John Maxwell (jury foreman), Johnny Indrisano (juror), Pierre Watkin (Dr Hodge), Ruth Lee (nurse).
84 minutes.SYNOPSIS: When a six-year-old child's memory is restored by a psychiatrist, she remembers a puzzling detail about her mother's murder.
COMMENT: Although slow to get going, this unusual "B" from Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer turns out to be an engrossing little film noir.
Perennial heavy Zachary Scott plays the good guy, a victimized innocent, while fluffy Ann Sothern of the light-headed "Maisie" series is the chilling murderess.
Not only are they essential to the plot, but they feature the gorgeous Kristine Miller, whose performance is the best in the movie.
Future First Lady Nancy Reagan is in Shadow On The Wall as a mental health therapist.
Her client is young Gigi Perreau who got the career role of her life as the young girl who saw her stepmother being murdered and her father Zachary Scott going away for the crime.Still Reagan suspects something's not quite right as Perreau fails to recover despite all kinds of treatments, some of which today would never be used.
With dad in jail the closest living and she's not quite a relative is Ann Sothern, victim Kristine Miller's sister.For those used to seeing Ann Sothern in roles like Maisie Revier on the big screen and Susie McNamara on television her portrayal here will be a revelation.
For those who remember The Mask Of Dimitrios this is a totally different Zachary Scott.This one is worth a look..
Gigi Perreau is Susie, a traumatized child in "Shadow on the Wall," a 1950 movie also starring Zachary Scott, Ann Sothern, and Nancy Davis aka our First Lady from 1980-1988.
Zachary Scott is David, who confronts his wife Celia about her affair with her sister's fiancé.
Her angry sister Dell (Sothern) arrives and kills her.
With her father on Death Row, Susie winds up in a hospital being treated by Dr. Canford (Davis), who tries to recover the child's memory of the murder and what she's blocking.Today, I doubt if Dad would be bringing his child an Indian doll, referred to in the movie as a "black Injun doll" that little Susie names Cupid.
I haven't seen many films of Ann Sothern, but apparently she starred in mostly light-hearted, comedic fare.
Nancy Davis takes a good turn as the caring psychiatrist assigned to help the young Susan remember what she saw.
I think the child actress did a great job as the daughter who witnesses her step-mother's murderer, but claims she can't remember anything.I liked some of the imagery used in this film.
There is a nice split-screen effect when young Susan is remembering the shadow on the wall and juxtaposes it with her "Injun" doll.One oddity in the film I noticed is the court scene when the father is being sentenced - the jurors are all men.
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 gave women the right to serve on federal juries, but not until 1973 could women serve on juries in all fifty states.) Also, there is a scene where the step-aunt (aka the murderer) is allowed to sit in a room behind a two-way mirror and observe the psychiatrist's working with Susan.
Also, there is a "bath therapy" where Susan is left ALONE in a treatment room in a bath hammock and almost drowns - again, something that would never happen.My biggest complaint with the movie though is the attempts that the step-aunt/murderer, Dell, takes to murder her young step-niece.
But here, she causes it, accidentally killing her evil sister and allowing innocent brother- in-law Zachary Scott face the chair.
Hodiak's young daughter (Gigi Perreau) saw Sothern's shadow and has had a breakdown.
Along comes future first lady Nancy Davis as a child psychologist who vows to uncover the secrets Perreau has locked up inside her mind.This glossy MGM film noir is interesting in its use of who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist and how the truth plays out.
Perreau is incredible as well, showing great depth as her horror comes and goes, giving quite the adult performance in the fact that this would be quite difficult to understand for a child in the situation, let alone play it out.
Every film I have ever seen her in she is usually the star to watch.
Celia has it all, marriage to a devoted husband David (Zachary Scott) and a sweet step daughter Susan (Gigi Perreau).
David finds out and makes it known to Dell who then comes to Celia's apartment for a showdown.
But there is a witness - Susan, who is in shock and by the help of a caring psychiatrist (Nancy Davis) is being persuaded to remember!!The movie really belongs to the talented Gigi Perreau, she has always had an ethereal aura (she was magical in "Enchantment") and was groomed as a successor to Margaret O'Brien.
While at first she was a happy little girl, most of the movie is set in the trauma ward of a children's hospital.
After asking a little boy to drink it as she thinks it tastes "nasty and bitter" they are both saved when it is accidentally spilt.This is a stylish film noir and Ann proved, once again, that she had what it takes to be a big star.