I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Based on the play "Uncle Harry" by Thomas Job, this movie is a gripping psychological drama in which romance, obsession and murder all feature prominently. Its story charts how the mundane, well- ordered lives of three siblings who live together are suddenly disrupted by the arrival of someone who provokes strong emotions in two of them, and in so doing, brings the presence of some very dark desires to the surface.Middle-aged bachelor Harry Melville Quincey (George Sanders) leads a desperately dull existence in the small town of Corinth, New Hampshire where he spends his working days as a fabric designer in the local mill until he returns to his home where he lives with his two squabbling sisters, Lettie (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and Hester (Moyna MacGill). Lettie is a spoilt and selfish young woman who spends her days in bed complaining about a series of imaginary illnesses and bickering with her older, widowed sister, who she criticises for gossiping with some of the townsfolk. Harry's life suddenly brightens up when Deborah Brown (Ella Raines), a designer from the company's New York City office, arrives on the scene and is obviously instantly attracted to the man who the younger employees at the mill affectionately call "Uncle Harry".Harry and Deborah soon get to know each other better, fall in love and decide to get married. Hester is genuinely happy for her brother but Lettie, who's very attached to Harry and likes to monopolise his attention, easily becomes jealous of anyone (even his dog) who takes his attention away from her. As a cultivated person, she doesn't overtly show her displeasure at the presence of Deborah but instead, in her own refined and affected way, tries to discourage or undermine the relationship. When her scheming fails and it becomes clear that the two sisters should vacate the house for the future newlyweds to move in, Lettie uses the opportunity to frustrate the couple's plans by saying that every house that's offered to her is unsuitable. This goes on for so long that Harry and Deborah decide, in desperation, to elope together. On the day when they're ready to leave town and get married, Lettie fakes a collapse, gets rushed into hospital and Harry's conscience compels him to abandon his plans and instead, rush to her side.Harry's actions result in Deborah returning to New York City alone and he later hears that she has new marriage plans in place. In his sadness, he reflects on Deborah's words when she said that "Lettie has no intention of setting you free, not as long as she lives" and this inspires him to take revenge on his evil sister by using the poison that she'd bought to administer to his sick old dog called "Weary". The ramifications of his actions, however, go far beyond anything he could ever have imagined.As a rather passive man who'd felt a great responsibility to support his two sisters, Harry had tolerated their arguments and eccentricities and dutifully did what he considered to be the right thing until he realised how destructive Lettie's feelings for him had become and this provoked a profound change in him (which is contradicted by the movie's absurd censor-imposed ending). George Sanders, in an excellent performance, makes his character's descent to the dark side understandable and Ella Raines, whose expressions are priceless, is a pleasure to watch as her character never, even for a second, gets taken in by Lettie's antics. Sanders and Raines are also good in their scenes together and generate a few laughs when they launch into a rather risqué conversation about stargazer Harry's 9" telescope.Geraldine Fitzgerald is also perfectly cast as the manipulative Lettie who asserts that she has always known what's best for Harry and says that her devotion to him was the main reason why she never married."The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry" is a fine, well-acted movie which features a tagged-on ending which was necessary to placate the demands of the censor who, it seems, must have been totally unconcerned about the story's various allusions to Lettie's incestuous feelings for her brother.

I looked at THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY last night on Amazon. George Sanders is superb in it, but not sure how I felt about Ella Raines (whom I normally like in other pictures). Some of her line readings were flat, and the scene where George puts their wedding off, where she is supposed to break down in tears and run off seemed like something from a high school play. The two gals playing the sisters are great, and in a way, the film should have been built around them more (Geraldine Fitzgerald and Moyna Macgill). And there is genuine suspense, when the poison is introduced, and we know it will lead to deadly consequences. But the production code severely compromises the ending of this kind of story-- and in spots, the scenario is a bit implausible. Maybe with a different director (think what Hitchcock would have done) and a slightly longer running time, to flesh out some of the details, it would have been a masterpiece.

An aging bachelor living with his spinster sisters finds romance. This is an engrossing drama, thanks to solid direction and a fine cast. In somewhat of a departure from his usual roles, Sanders plays a decent and sympathetic character who feels trapped by his family commitments. Fitzgerald is quite good as one of his needy sisters. MacGill, as the other sister, looks like Angela Lansbury and understandably so, being her mother. Raines is typically smooth as Sanders' fiancé. To appease the censors, the filmmakers added a silly finale that is poorly executed, although the basic premise behind the final plot twist is more in keeping with the Sanders character.

Robert Siodmak directs this psychological film noir that is based on the Broadway play Uncle Harry by Thomas Job. It stars George Sanders, Ella Raines, Geraldine Fitzgerald & Moyna MacGill. The story follows Harry Quincey (Sanders) a shy clothes designer in small town New England. He lives with his two sisters, the pretty but manipulative Lettie (Fitzgerald) and the more scatty and care free Hester (MacGill). Into his life comes the gorgeous Deborah Brown (Raines) who quickly brings colour to his otherwise dull existence. But Lettie is far from impressed and sets about doing all she can to stop the couple getting married and living together. Her actions will have dire consequences for all of the Quincey family.Though falling some way short of the noir standards of Siodmak's best genre efforts {The Killers/Criss Cross}, this none the less is a dandy piece dealing in various forms of obsession. Finding that it's produced by Joan Harrison gives weight to the notion that this is more a Hitchcockian small town thriller than an overtly film-noir piece. Harrison of course wrote a number of screenplays for Hitchcock, and sure enough as the film unfolds one feels like we are involved in something the big director would have revelled in. Quite what Hitch would have made of the palaver surrounding the ending of the film, one can only imagine, but yet again a nifty 40s thriller is saddled with an ending that has caused division across the decades.Because of the Hays code, five different endings were tested for the film, with the one chosen vastly different to the one in the play. So while I personally find the existing ending quirky, and certainly not film destroying, it's sad that the incestuous elements of the source have been jettisoned and therefore taking away a crucial dark edge to the turn of events in the last quarter of the film. Harrison was incensed and promptly quit Universal Pictures in protest. With hindsight now, they could have ended the film about ten minutes earlier and it would have worked better. But cest la vie and all that.Sanders is superb, very touching as the shy, naive designer pushed to his limit by sibling suffocation. Fitzgerald is glamorous and nails the devious side of her character with much conviction. While Raines, a touch underused due to the story, has a hard quality that puts one in mind of a certain Lauren Bacall, and that to my mind is very much a good thing. Some food for thought tho, I couldn't help wonder about if the roles had been reversed. Raines playing manipulative bitch and Fitzgerald the love interest definitely cries out as a winner me thinks.It's a conventional story, but one that has depth and boasts a director capable of crafting the right sort of itchy mood. There's no technical trickery exactly, but attention to detail exists and between them the makers have produced an intelligent and gripping film, that, in spite of some foregoing of dark emotional undercurrents, is very recommended to noir and Hitchcockian supporters. 7.5/10