Shadow on the Wall is a 1950 American psychological thriller film directed by Patrick Jackson and starring Ann Sothern, Zachary Scott and Gigi Perreau and featuring Nancy Davis.

With no memory of what has happened, David can only assume he was the one who shot Celia, so when he is tried for first degree murder, he accepts a jury's verdict of guilt and the judge's sentence that he be put to death.

Based on what the girl said during play therapy, Canford believes that Susan saw her father kill her stepmother, which she tells Dell.

She is on the verge of finding out what she might have seen when Dell, who has been watching from behind a one-way mirror, contrives to make a loud noise which interrupts the session.

Dell, realizing that Canford is getting close to restoring the girl's memory, attempts to murder the child with poison and by drowning.

The story Death in the Doll's House by Hannah Lees and Lawrence P. Bachmann, upon which the film was based, was first published as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post from January 16, 1943 to February 27, 1943.

[2] Bachmann had previously written stories and screenplays for medical dramas released by MGM which featured Dr. Kildare and Dr.

[3][4] Because of the sleeper success of RKO's The Window, which told the story of a young boy who tries to convince others that he's seen a murder, MGM rushed Shadow on the Wall into production.

Three of the film's cast were borrowed from other studios: Zachary Scott from Warner Bros., Gigi Perreau from Samuel Goldwyn and Kristine Miller from Paramount Pictures.

[1] When the film was first released, The New York Times praised the acting, writing "Nancy Davis is beautiful and convincing as the serious psychiatrist who uses affection and play therapy to delve into the youngster's mind for the evidence needed for both a cure and the eventual exposure of the criminal.

Gigi Perreau is excellent as the mentally tortured moppet, and Zachary Scott does a realistic job as her architect father and wrongly convicted murderer.

Kristine Miller is competent in the brief role of the victim, but Ann Sothern, who turns in a polished portrayal, seems out of character as the worried villainess of the piece.

The melodramatic script was often not believable and the action part of the story looked like pretend acting, just like the therapy Nancy Davis was applying to Gigi.