Castle Sinister (1948 film)

Castle Sinister
Castle Sinister
Directed by	Oscar Burn
Screenplay by	Mary Cathcart Borer (credited as Egan Storm)
Based on	the play Mark of Judas; by Vance Youden
Produced by	Wm. Howard Borer
Starring	Mara Russell-Tavernan
Cinematography	Jeff Davies
Edited by	N. Goude
Music by	Cyril E. Clarke
Production; company	Unicorn Film Corporation
Release date	February 1948;
Running time	49 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Castle Sinister is a 1948 British mystery film directed by Oscar Burn and starring Mara Russell-Tavernan.^[1] It is based on the play Mark of Judas by Vance Youden.^[2] It was remade in 1954 with the title The Devil's Jest, again starring Mara Russell-Tavernan.^[3]

Plot

During the Second World War, an Army intelligence officer travels to Glenye Castle in Scotland to investigate the death of an officer and the disappearance of another. Both are attributed to the castle's mysterious phantom but actually are the work of an enemy agent.^[3]

Cast

Mara Russell-Tavernan as Gabrielle, Marchioness of Glenye
Alistair Hunter as McTavish
James Liggatt as Neale
Karl Meir as Selwyn
Robert Essex as Nigel
Maureen O'Moor as Maggie
Myra Celian as Lorna
Humphrey Stamford as McWerter
John Gauntley as Michael
Patricia St. John as Jean
Lucien Boré as Fairfax
Hugh Arnald as Matthews
Harald Melvill as Crofter
Peter Emmott as Taxi Driver

Themes

Castle Sinister reflects the immediate post-war British concerns of the threat posed by Nazism (rather than Communism), and the possible existence of secret Nazi organizations in Britain working to rebuild Germany.^[4] It is one of few films of the period to examine the operations of enemy intelligence agents, saboteurs or traitors.^[5]

References

^ "Castle Sinister". BFI Collections. British Film Institute. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
^ Film's credits.
^ ^a ^b Murphy, Robert (1 March 2001). British Cinema and the Second World War. Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. pp. 275, 278. ISBN 978-0826451385. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
^ Shaw, Tony (2001). British Cinema and the Cold War: The State, Propaganda and Consensus. I.B. Tauris. p. 26. ISBN 978-1860643712.
^ Pronay, Nicholas (1988). "The British Post-bellum Cinema: A survey of the films relating to World War II made in Britain between 1945 and 1960". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 8 (1): 39–54. doi:10.1080/01439688800260021. Retrieved 18 March 2024.

External links

Jackson, Michael W. (6 February 2021). "Castle Sinister (1948) film review". Political theory and practice: Thinking and doing. The University of Sydney. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
Castle Sinister at IMDb

This article related to a British film of the 1940s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] "Castle Sinister". BFI Collections. British Film Institute. Retrieved 17 March 2024.

[2] Film's credits.

[Murphy-3] Murphy, Robert (1 March 2001). British Cinema and the Second World War. Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. pp. 275, 278. ISBN 978-0826451385. Retrieved 18 March 2024.

[4] Shaw, Tony (2001). British Cinema and the Cold War: The State, Propaganda and Consensus. I.B. Tauris. p. 26. ISBN 978-1860643712.

[5] Pronay, Nicholas (1988). "The British Post-bellum Cinema: A survey of the films relating to World War II made in Britain between 1945 and 1960". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 8 (1): 39–54. doi:10.1080/01439688800260021. Retrieved 18 March 2024.

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