The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry

A Hitchcockian strain of jealousy, guilt, and emotional warfare runs through this ominous 1945 romantic melodrama from film noir director Robert Siodmak. George Sanders stars as Harry Quincey, a designer working for a small-town cloth factory, whose romance with smart, confident urbanite Deborah Brown (Ella Raines) is sabotaged by his sister, Lettie (a superb Geraldine Fitzgerald). Harry is torn between the idealized past of his old-fashioned home and a future with the dynamic Deborah; but she's no match for Lettie, who plays the needy invalid in order to secure attention from Harry. Sanders portrays his cultured character as a meek, weak-willed nice guy, all morality and compassion, but lacking backbone…until resentment stirs up his darkest impulses. An incestuous undercurrent seems evident in Lettie's obsession—the two women here are portrayed as romantic rivals—but while the director ultimately resorts to a common twist to get around the censors, it doesn't negate the film's bold handling of suppressed desires and conscience-stricken guilt. Well-mastered from an archival source, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)