Oncle Silas

The thing that I like about Uncle Silas a.k.a. The Inheritance is that it is not your average thriller. The suspense is built slowly as we see things that affect the life of the heroine, but she is not aware of them yet. The movie builds up more and more and it becomes an exciting suspense movie that packs a punch even for its time. Jean Simmons is practically a child in this movie, she was so young and beautiful as always. Great acting and gloomy characters make this a fun movie to watch on a stormy night. Lovers of old Gothic tales and suspense movies will not be disappointed.

This little known film disappeared into obscurity and without much comment after its release in 1947. It has resurfaced on British TV in recent years where it has been given several matinee showings. BBC readapted the Sheridan Le Fanu novel as "The Dark Angel" for its classic novel Christmas offering in 1987. In Peter O'Toole they found a much more striking eponymous villain than Derrick de Marney but in every other sense it is the monochrome 'forties version that gives me the stronger pleasure. How could if fail with a heroine as touchingly vulnerable as Jeans Simmons at her most enchanting. The pair that later directed her in "So Long at the Fair" must have known of "Uncle Silas" when they opened their film with a similar wondrous closeup to our first encounter with her here. I know nothing of the director Charles Frank apart from "Uncle Silas" but the hands of a talented craftsman are clearly at the helm of this atmospheric adaptation of the Victorian Gothic melodrama about a dastardly uncle's attempt to wrest an inheritance from his trusting young niece. It is a pity that Derrick de Marney's hammy performance does not resonate with a greater sense of evil, but there is compensation in his confidante, Madame de la Rougierre who, in the hands of Katrina Paxinau, is one of cinema's most sinister female monsters. I was not disappointed when the sequence that had so fascinated me as an impressionable adolescent, where the evil governess embarks with her young charge on a journey of deception, emerged as powerfully as ever after a gap of so many years. The clock chimes of Bartram Manor that conclude this episode, like the huntsman's cry of "Gone to Earth" in the Powell and Pressburger masterpiece are among my most haunting cinematic memories. I often wonder if young audiences of today find similar marvels in the films made for them.

I really enjoyed "Uncle Silas", although it's called "The Inheritance" on the VHS copy that I own and there are seemingly five minutes of footage missing. It's a wonderful, creepy little film about a young woman, Caroline (lovely Jean Simmons), who goes to live with her scheming old Uncle Silas in his big, gloomy mansion after her father dies. Uncle Silas (perfectly played by Derrick De Marney) and his accomplices; a French governess, Madame de la Rougierre (marvelously played by Katina Paxinou), and his son, Dudley (well played by Manning Whiley) are planning to do away with the heroine to gain her fortune. Thankfully, there are intervals where the young woman visits with her sympathetic cousin Monica (nicely played by Sophie Stewart). Brilliant music score by Alan Rawsthorne is available on CD through Amazon.com on a collection called Rawsthorne:Film Music. Nice cinematography and sets add the finishing touches to this atmospheric film. I got my VHS copy from Movies Unlimited.com.

I saw this film years ago as "The Inheritance," and I never forgot it. When I read the description of "Uncle Silas," I thought it sounded suspiciously like "The Inheritance" - after all, did Jean Simmons go around playing one young heir after another? After seeing it again, I'm not surprised I remembered it.

"Uncle Silas" is a Gothic thriller, based on a novel by Sheridan Le Fanu, and directed by Charles Frank, who also directed "So Long at the Fair," another wonderful film. "Uncle Silas" is the story of a young heiress, Caroline Ruthyn (Simmons) who is sent to live with her uncle (Derrick De Marney) in a dark, eerie mansion after her father's death. Her father adored his brother, who was once accused of murder, and has made Carolina a ward of Silas. However, as he's dying, he tries to change this provision, but dies before he can do it. Silas, with the help of Caroline's ex-governess (Katina Paxinou) plan to get rid of Caroline, since the inheritance then passes to him.

The acting of especially DeMarney and Paxinou is fairly over the top, but I believe this was intentional on the part of the director to give it that good old scary Gothic feel. Sinister characters often aren't very subtle in Gothic books. Jean Simmons is lovely as Catherine - vulnerable, sweet, and naive, making her a perfect target of danger.

This story was remade as "The Dark Angel" back in the '80s - I remember the sets being completely overdone, a kind of Gothic version of Liberace's house. I don't remember much else, but I'm sure O'Toole was marvelous as Silas.

As others have pointed out, the British version is recommended.

This moody version of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's classic Gothic novel is quite simply one of the most accomplished British films of the 1940's.

With cinematography reminiscent of (and rivaling)that seen in David Lean's "Great Expectations," it is a pity that this picture is not better known.

This may accrue from the fact that an American, heavily edited, and re-titled version ("The Inheritance") is the only print in U.S. circulation.

At all costs avoid this butcher job, as the 6 minutes of missing footage are very germane to the story's narrative, mood and imagery.

Jean Simmons is a reminder of yet another lost dramatic staple--a decorous, demure heroine, who speaks in complete sentences with flawless diction. Her lady like deportment combined with her unquestioned loveliness makes her a very sympathetic Lady Caroline. Mr. De Marney is similarly impressive as the sinister, titular character.

But the film belongs to Katina Paxinou as the redoubtable Madame De La Rougierre. I believe Mr. Le Fanu would approve of her performance. In any case, her first appearance, as depicted with her malignant face peering through a rain lashed window pane, is as startling an entrance as one could hope for.

Laurence Irving's art direction is superb, (and some of his sketches for this film are included in Edward Carrick's "Art and Design in the British Film," Dennis Dobson, London) fully realizing, as it does, the stories' atmospheric requirements, and amply demonstrating how superior sound stages are to location shooting.

All told, this picture stands favorably alongside Thorold Dickinson's "Queen of Spades," Terence Young's "Corridor of Mirrors," Anthony Pelissier's "Rocking Horse Winner," Leslie Arliss' "Night Has Eyes," Jacques Tourneur's "Experiment Perilous," and Martin Gabel's "The Lost Moment," as one of a small group of visually distinguished Gothic melodramas of the 1940's, and far superior to the more recent television version, which despite the welcome presence of Peter O'Toole and Barbara Shelley lacks both flavor and mood.