Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 16-October-11
Spoiler Rating: Medium

The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945)

The "uncle" in "The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry" refers to the social status of its central character, a bachelor on the doorstep of 40 whom neighbors regard as a nice, mildly inadequate specimen of manhood. The "strange" refers to Harry's home situation and what happens when it is disrupted by an outsider. In fact, "strange" doesn't begin to cover the darkness of this story, in which personality and possession clash above an undercurrent of incest.

George Sanders plays the title character, the last male scion of a noble New England family which lost its fortune during the Depression. Harry maintains his ancestral residence by designing fabric patterns at the local mill, a job which seems suited to his artistic and unassuming temperament. His salary also supports a housemaid and two sisters, the older of whom (Moyna Macgill) is a widow, the only one in the family who married. The younger sister Lettie (Geraldine Fitzgerald) is a bit domineering, but Harry makes allowances for her because she is pretty and an invalid, the victim of a vaguely defined heart trouble. Besides, she is devoted to her brother and tries to make his house a home. If their joys and excitements aren't big or many, neither are their troubles. The siblings have every reason to expect a comfortable old age together … until Harry meets another woman.

Deborah (Ella Raines) is a smart and sexy New Yorker who arrives in town on business. She sees right off that Harry is a good guy who never bloomed. Pursuing him aggressively (the only way he'll get the message), she assumes that the Puritan environment stunted his growth (and, perhaps, kept him attractively innocent). Then she meets Lettie, who makes it plain that she disapproves of anyone horning in on her brother. When Harry announces his engagement to the invader, Lettie's disapproval ramps up to obstruction. Harry is slow to realize that his sister wants to keep him for herself, but when he does, his own share of the family passion comes out and matters turn very grim indeed.

The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry is based on a play, and it preserves the intense, intimate feeling of characters on stage without a trace of exaggeration or campiness. The affair is twisted but not shocking, the result of awakened hopes and thwarted expectations among essentially civilized people. Regrettably, the movie diverges from its source at the very end. Universal Pictures felt that a softened resolution to Harry's problems was more suitable for its audience, but the final minute of the film is just plain stupid. Fortunately, viewers can ignore it. The bulk of the movie stands as a well written, well acted, and deliciously disturbing piece of psychological drama.

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