So much average

Don't listen to the negative reviews

A lot of fun.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

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). Director: PAT JACKSON (billed as Patrick Jackson). Screenplay: William Ludwig. Based on the 1943 novel Death in the Doll House by Elizabeth Head Fetter (under the pseudonym, "Hannah Lees") and Lawrence P. Bachmann. Photography: Ray June. Film editor: Cotton Warburton. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Eddie Imazu. Set decorator: Edwin B. Willis and Ralph S. Hurst. Costumes designed by Irene. Make-up: Jack Dawn. Hair styles: Sydney Guilaroff. Music composed and directed by Andre Previn. Montage: Peter Ballbusch. Sound supervisor: Douglas Shearer. Producer: Robert Sisk.Copyright 16 November 1949 by Loew's Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture. New York opening at the Palace: 18 May 1950. U.S. release: 19 May 1950. U.K. release: 18 March 1950. Australian release: 13 April 1950. 7,539 feet. 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. Admittedly, the casting is a bit disconcerting. 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. (I'm not giving the plot away as the audience is aware of this fact almost as soon as the action finally commences). It's probably true that this switch adds to the film's appeal. And I'm not advocating that the opening scenes should be trimmed either. Not only are they essential to the plot, but they feature the gorgeous Kristine Miller, whose performance is the best in the movie. (Not that Ann Sothern doesn't run her close).A creditable support cast also helps. Gigi Perreau (the intended victim) is especially convincing. And I liked Joan Davis (the too- trusting doctor) and John McIntyre (the hero's too-pragmatic friend and lawyer). English director Pat Jackson seems right at home with Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer's technicians, including expert cinematographer Ray June and smooth-as-silk film editor Cotton Warburton.

Zachary Scott equals film noir, right? Not always, as you can find out watching "Shadow On The Wall". It starts out with great promise but then quickly he gets killed. 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. I was waiting for some noir touches, like a hard-boiled detective in a trench coat or a stool pigeon on a bar stool, or maybe a body in an alleyway. 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. OK, but falls far short of edge-of your-seat stuff.

Ann Sothern was her own most caustic critic. In an interesting interview in "Films in Review" (March 1988), she was very scathing of her early films and finished up with a hope that her new film "The Whales of August" (1987) would garner her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Academy Awards (it did)!!! Every film I have ever seen her in she is usually the star to watch. Even watching "A Letter to Three Wives" - she had so much vibrancy, she put the other two wives in the shade (Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell). Almost straight after "A Letter to Three Wives" she played a cold blooded murderess in "Shadow on the Wall" and played it to perfection.Initially, she wasn't cold blooded at all. She played Dell Faring, sister of the beautiful Celia (Kristine Miller) who had made it her life's work to take everything that was precious to Dell - yes one of those sisters!!! Celia has it all, marriage to a devoted husband David (Zachary Scott) and a sweet step daughter Susan (Gigi Perreau). But Susan has reservations about Celia that are well founded for Celia is having an affair with Crane, Dell's fiancée. David finds out and makes it known to Dell who then comes to Celia's apartment for a showdown. Celia and David have had words and when David comes out of his stupor (he has been hit on the head) he finds Celia dead and that he has been charged with murder!!! He can't remember anything but believes he did it. 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. She is just first rate as she retreats into a world of her own, only remembering the hideous shadow on the wall. Sympathy for Dell evaporates as she becomes more and more determined to conceal the truth - even if it means killing Susan. There is a particularly chilling scene when Dell poisons Susan's chocolate milk. 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. Whatever she thinks about herself, she was definitely a survivor - there weren't many actresses who started in 1927 and were nominated for Academy Awards in the 1980s!!!

I first saw this film when I was about five years old. There were two things I remembered clearly. 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. I finally got up the courage (yes, it took me that long)to buy the video online. As it turned out, SHADOW ON THE WALL was not a supernatural tale of menace, but a darn good little suspense story. It just shows you what tricks your memory can play on you.Now, if I can just do the same thing with CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN...*who I actually met in the mid-sixties, and did not seem to be any taller than she appeared in the movie.