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The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry

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284:. Harry and Deborah develop an interest in each other, supported by Hester but watched suspiciously by the jealous and domineering Lettie. When Deborah tells Harry that she will be taking an extended trip to Europe with her employer Warren, he finally declares his love for her. They plan to get married and live in the family's house, but this means the sisters finding a new home. While this is not an issue for Hester, Lettie is resistant, rejecting all proposals by the local estate agent. 292:
Harry allows the accusation to stand and, after a trial, Lettie is sentenced to hang. The conscience-stricken Harry confesses to the prison governor that it was he who poisoned his sister, but to no avail: the governor assumes that Harry is only trying to save his sister. During the siblings' last meeting, Lettie openly admits that she will leave Harry behind with the life-long guilt on his shoulders.
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Harry insists that he cannot leave his sister as long as she is ill. Deborah leaves him in disappointment. When the bedridden Lettie hears the news of Deborah and Warren's marriage a few weeks later, she quickly recovers. Hester openly blames her sister for her scheme in front of Harry. Lettie explains that in her eyes, a young woman like Deborah was not the right choice for Harry from the start.
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Harry awakens, the poison in his hand, realising that Hester's death and Lettie's trial had only been a dream. Deborah enters the room and says she did not go through with the wedding to Warren, as it is Harry whom she loves. Harry and Deborah decide to leave quickly for New York as they had planned.
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described the film as "a drab and monotonous succession of routine episodes" with a "script is pictorially cut-and-dried." Crowther also noted that "Siodmak's direction is curiously slow and stiff" and that "George Sanders is badly miscast as the murderous Milquetoast, giving neither an illusion of
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town of Corinth. Younger people in town call him "Uncle Harry". He lives in the family's mansion with his two sisters, the younger Lettie and the older Hester. Lettie idles days away in bed, feigning numerous ailments. Although the Quinceys were once rich and influential, their money was lost in the
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Harry finds a poison in Lettie's desk which she bought to relieve their old pet dog from his pain. He slips the poison into Lettie's hot chocolate, but the cups get mixed up and it is Hester who dies. The housekeeper enters and, since the sisters were always arguing, assumes Lettie poisoned Hester.
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After several months of having their plans sabotaged by Lettie, Deborah persuades Harry to run off to New York together and get married that evening. Their plan is thwarted when Lettie collapses in church and is taken to the hospital. Deborah demands that Harry choose between Lettie and her, but
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which showed the conscience-stricken Harry, unable to cope with his guilt for going unpunished for his crime, at the town's station, waiting to be sent to a mental institution. This ending had been, with some reservations, classified as acceptable by censor
426:. The film did poorly at the box office, and as a consequence of the studio's conduct in the matter, Joan Harrison ended her association with Universal and produced her next film for RKO. In later years, 418:'s production manager Martin Murphy insisted on re-cuts and the adding of the "dream ending" to get the PCA's approval. In his autobiography, Siodmak claimed that after repeated 659: 470:) saw an "impressive psychological study in various forms of obsession" with a "superb and unusually touching" performance by Sanders. 1461: 812: 1476: 1446: 1456: 390:
production in 1942, which ran for 430 performances. The screenplay which Harrison and Siodmak agreed on to produce contained a
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Everything is disrupted by the arrival of a new female designer at the mill, Deborah, an elegant young woman from
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rated it as a "perfect little picture of its kind, with impressive performances and an intriguing theme", and
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Harry Quincey is an amiable middle-aged bachelor working as a designer in a fabric mill in the small
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The London Stage 1940-1949: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel
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was also released in a heavily edited reissue version titled
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In later years, reviewers spoke more in favour of the film.
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Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style
820: 414:Prior to the film's scheduled August 1945 release, 589:The File on Robert Siodmak in Hollywood, 1941-1951 382:as the next project with director Robert Siodmak. 353:Coulter Irwin as Biff Wagner (as Coulter F. Irwin) 260:by Thomas Job, which was first performed in 1938. 1428: 453:timidity nor the menace of ugly temperament." 806: 813: 799: 524: 518: 403:(PCA). (Previously planned adaptations by 29: 712:Time Out Film Guide, Seventh Edition 1999 555:. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 145. 683: 657: 546: 544: 611: 582: 580: 578: 576: 574: 572: 550: 1429: 625: 623: 368:After their collaboration on the 1944 794: 586: 541: 533:(3rd ed.). 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(2014). 505:American Film Institute 299: 263: 1442:1945 crime drama films 587:Greco, Joseph (1999). 386:had seen a successful 1003:The Corsican Brothers 409:Twentieth Century Fox 236:, is a 1945 American 1487:1940s American films 1293:My Father, the Actor 1148:The Spiral Staircase 591:. Dissertation.com. 432:The Zero Murder Case 312:Geraldine Fitzgerald 250:Geraldine Fitzgerald 233:The Zero Murder Case 184: (United States) 93:Geraldine Fitzgerald 1273:Flesh and the Woman 1078:Someone to Remember 1403:Custer of the West 1353:The Nina B. Affair 1323:Magnificent Sinner 1313:Dorothea Angermann 1263:The Crimson Pirate 933:The Crisis is Over 913:The Burning Secret 821:Films directed by 766:TCM Movie Database 664:The New York Times 616:. 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Index


Robert Siodmak
Stephen Longstreet
Joan Harrison
George Sanders
Geraldine Fitzgerald
Ella Raines
Paul Ivano
Arthur Hilton
Hans J. Salter
Paul Dessau
Universal Pictures
film noir
Robert Siodmak
George Sanders
Geraldine Fitzgerald
Ella Raines
New England
Great Depression
New York City
George Sanders
Geraldine Fitzgerald
Ella Raines
Sara Allgood
Moyna Macgill
Samuel S. Hinds
Harry von Zell
Judy Clark
Craig Reynolds
Phantom Lady

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