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London 1916: Keith has to go to war, but he asks his fiancée Kathleen
(Amanda Waring) to not worry and wait for him, as he will be back ... a
few days later, his plane is shot down over France and he goes missing, is
presumed dead. 1941: Another war is on, and due to German air raids,
London lies in ruins. Kathleen (who is now played by Dorothy Tutin) has
since married another man (Robert Hardy), had children and moved to the
country. She has to return to London one day though, to pick up some
things from her (deceased) parents' empty house, the very house Keith has
told her to wait for him in, exactly 25 years ago. And wouldn't you know
it, in the house she finds a letter that was apparently written by Keith,
announcing his return on this very day. She is understandably confused at
first, but tries to make sense of it all, but the more she interviews her
friends, the less she can make heads or tails of the whole affair, and the
more frightened she gets - until a friend (Angela Thorne) offers her to
accompany her into the house where Kathleen collects all her
stuff in a hurry while she stands guard. Everything goes well until
Kathleen fetches a cab on her own ... and has to realize Keith is the
cab's driver ... In parts, this is a really good ghost story,
where a clichéed basic plot is told in such a way it's mysterious and
scary again, and a directorial effort that often borders the experimental
(though it disappointingly never really crosses the line) helps to
carry the script. But unfortunately, this is a good ghost story only in
parts, because besides the main plot, the script tries to stuff way too
many subplots into a mere 50 minutes, subplots about Kathleen's husband
and friends that simply fail to make sense in the context of the main
narrative. Now I'm sure these subplots come to much better fruitition in
the source story of this film (which I admit I haven't read), but here
they feel strangely out of place. Still, completely watchable as a whole
and among the best episodes of Shades of Darkness.
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