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Historical melodrama ("The Man in Grey", "The Wicked Lady", "Jassy", "Blanche Fury") was a popular genre in the British cinema of the forties, and "Uncle Silas", based upon a novel by Sheridan Le Fanu, is another example. (These films had their equivalents in the American cinema, such as "Dragonwyck"). The action takes place in the mid 19th century. The heroine, Caroline Ruthyn is a sixteen-year-old heiress. When her widowed father dies, his will appoints his younger brother Silas as her guardian. In his youth Silas had a reputation as a rake, but now everyone believes him to be a reformed character. The truth, however, is that he has only abandoned his debauched lifestyle because of failing health and dwindling finances, not because of a genuine change of heart. He greets Caroline warmly, but his affection for her is only feigned, and he is secretly plotting to get his hands on her fortune.

Some melodramas from this period, such as "Jassy" and "Blanche Fury", were made in colour, and can be seen as predecessors of the more recent "heritage cinema" movement. "Uncle Silas", however, was made in black-and-white, possibly to emphasise the Gothic elements of the story. It mostly lacks the element of bodice-ripping sexual passion which is strongly implied, if not always made explicit, in films like "The Man in Grey" or "The Wicked Lady". The only character who is chiefly motivated by sexual desire is Silas's dissolute son Dudley and his passion, for his cousin Caroline, is not returned. (Far from it. Caroline loathes Dudley and has no illusions about his true nature, even though she is still under an illusion about the true nature of his father Silas).

There are certain similarities between this film and the American-made "Dragonwyck", made the previous year. Both were set at around the same period in history and both feature a beautiful, innocent brunette heroine (Jean Simmons here, Gene Tierney in "Dragonwyck") who goes to live with a sinister relative in a gloomy Gothic mansion. There is an obvious contrast between the spacious, airy Georgian stately home which Caroline inherits from her father and Silas's ramshackle, tumbledown mediaeval or Tudor manor house. (As an impoverished younger son, he presumably cannot afford anything more commodious). At first the girl is deceived as to her relative's character- in "Dragonwyck" the heroine, Miranda, even goes so far as to marry her distant cousin Nicholas- but his true nature eventually emerges and she finds herself in danger.

The difference between this film and "Dragonwyck" lies in the way it is acted. As another reviewer has pointed out the good characters- Caroline, her father and her admirer Lord Richard Ilbury- are all played straight, whereas the evil ones- Silas, Dudley and their sidekick, Caroline's former governess, Madame de la Rougierre- are all to some extent melodramatic caricatures. The main villain in "Dragonwyck", Nicholas, is not caricatured in this way. Katina Paxinou as Madame de la Rougierre perhaps goes too far over the top, and Dudley, whose role is not a large one, is a sort of bargain-basement Squire Jasper. Derrick De Marney, however, makes a splendid villain as Silas. He was only in his early forties in 1947, but looks much older, and it is difficult to believe that he is the same man who had played the handsome young male lead in Hitchcock's "Young and Innocent" only a decade earlier. On the virtuous side, Simmons makes a luminously lovely heroine, and there is a good performance from Reginald Tate as Caroline's father Austin. The devoutly Christian Austin Ruthyn is a good man, but suffers from a character defect common among good people- he is so noble and upright that he cannot understand, or even conceive of the existence of, anyone who is less noble and upright than himself.

Today, melodramas like this one can come across as dated, with their exaggerated emotion and exaggeratedly black-and-white view of the world, represented here by the contrast between the good and the evil characters. Barbara and the saintly Caroline. Yet to anyone prepared to make allowances for the differences between contemporary tastes and those of seventy years ago, a film like "Uncle Silas" can be seen as a fine example of a once-fashionable style of film-making. 7/10.

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.

Uncle Silas is directed by Charles Frank and adapted to screenplay by Ben Travers from the novel of the same name written by Sheridan Le Fanu. It stars Jean Simmons, Katina Paxinou, Derrick De Marney, Derek Bond, Sophie Stewart and Esmond Knight. Music is by Alan Rawstone and cinematography by Robert Krasker.

Upon the death of her loving father, teenager Caroline Ruthyn (Simmons) is bequeathed the family inheritance when she reaches the age of 21. In the interim she is requested to go live with her Uncle Silas (De Marney) in his ramshackle Gothic mansion. Silas was once considered unbalanced, even getting off with a murder charge when some felt he was guilty as sin, but now he seems warm towards Caroline. Is it a bluff? When Silas' weird son arrives on the scene and her fearsome former governess is found to be haunting the edges of the frames, Caroline suspects she may indeed be in danger.

A film dripping with Gothic delights, Uncle Silas is undeniably dated, as evidenced by the over acting that surrounds the excellent Simmons, but this is no Jamaica Inn. Atmosphere unbound here as Charles Frank and the brilliant Robert Krasker surround the nastiness of the plot with nightmarish visuals and scenes fit to grace any bigger budgeted horror of the decade.

The mansion is a classic fit for such a tale of heiress stalk and kill fare, though it is more run down than the opulence of something like Manderley. With 90% of the picture shot in dark and shadows, where light comes via candles and firesides, the mood of impending peril is always high. Add in a few stormy nights, mysterious rooms, locked gates and characters straight out of one of James Whale's dreams and you are good to go for bodice bedlam.

Director Charles Frank (co-writer The Late Edwina Black) had no career whatsoever, which on this evidence is baffling. OK! He wasn't able to rein in De Marney and Paxinou on this one, though in the case of the latter it's a glorious case where excess fits the nightmarish dream- scape, but some of his visual touches hint at what a good noir style director he could have been. With two nightmare sequences superb, one Brandy inspired and an array of canted angles and shadowy menaced frames filing out the piece, this shows superbly someone able to sustain foreboding atmosphere.

In some sources it is listed that Nigel Huke was co-cinematographer, but on others not so, and I certainly didn't see his name on the credits when the film rolled? But what we can see for sure is Krasker at his best. In the same year as Uncle Silas he would elevate Carol Reed's Odd Man Out to classic cinematography status, and two years later he would of course be an integral part of what made The Third Man the deservingly revered picture it is. Uncle Silas represents something of a must see for Krasker purists. It's also definitely a film that Simmons fans should seek out.

The over acting will irritate some, and the mid-point drags as it goes into gaiety mode and nearly derails the suspenseful mood that has been built up deftly. But it quickly overcomes this and gets back on track to be a cracker waiting to be gorged on by like minded film fans. It would make a nice appetiser to Ealing's brilliant Queen of Spades, or as B support to The Spiral Staircase. It was released as The Inheritance in the States, and had changes made, suffice to say that anyone interested in this movie should see only the British version. Maybe that was where Huke was involved? In the American cut? Oh well, Uncle Silas, Brit version, wonderfully kinked. 8/10

Sir Hitchcock used to say : the more successful the villain ,the more successful the film .

And "Uncle Silas " got three memorable villains for the price of one. Katina Paxinou appears first as a French teacher ,but her lessons are so terrifying ( you 've got to pronounce "u " properly !say it again " uuuu"!) that her pupil gets nightmares at night ;she sings bizarre songs in French and she takes the ingenue for a promenade .....in the cemetery ...

.......where she meets the second villain(Manning Whiley ) who is none other than her first cousin ,son of sweet uncle Silas ....

.......who is the third baddie (Derrick De Marnay) and lives in a gloomy dark castle , par excellence the Gothic place ,with a roof which can give you the jitters ;uncle Silas is suave ,sly and ,little by little,reveals his true colors :he's the ogre of the fairy tales flash on the bone;

The three actors overplay ,in an outrageous way (mainly Paxinou), turns this Gothic tale into enjoyable grand guignol and combine their efforts to bump off pitiful Jean Simmons and to latch onto her valuable inheritance (hence the alternate title).Jean Simmons ,then at the beginning of a brilliant career ,and who had already a masterpiece under her belt ("black narcissus")

UNCLE SILAS (called THE INHERITANCE upon initial release in the United States) fits well into the 1940s cycle of British adaptations of classic Victorian literature. Think David Lean's Dickens movies or the Alaistair Sims A CHRISTMAS CAROL, films which use gorgeous black and white photography and a blend of realism and melodrama to bring these gothic worlds to life.

Of course, UNCLE SILAS hasn't the literary pedigree of a Dickens' work: it is quite a sensational narrative, as close to the first-wave of gothic novels from the 18th century as Victorian gothic literature gets. For the trouble of being pretty and expecting a fortune when she comes of age, the heroine Caroline is threatened by a series of sinister forces connected with her Uncle Silas, a former rake and current drug addict who needs money badly to pay off his debts. He initially tries to get her to marry his lecherous son, but when Caroline makes it loud and clear that she won't do so, his methods turn ever more cruel and murderous.

UNCLE SILAS nails the gothic mood perfectly, showing the decay of Caroline's sunny adolescence as she loses her father and falls into the hands of evil. There is a wonderful symmetry in this progression-- the film begins with a close-up of the wide-eyed Caroline and ends with a similar close-up, now emphasizing her lost innocence after barely surviving the events of the film. Jean Simmons makes the perfect gothic heroine: beautiful, spunky, and virtuous, all without coming off as cloying or too dumb to live, a rare feat for this sort of story. The music is dramatic and spooky.

So why isn't the film the equal of, say, Lean's GREAT EXPECTATIONS or OLIVER TWIST? Mainly, it has to do with two things: pacing and the villains. I love a good slow burn, especially in creepy fare, but some of the middle section of UNCLE SILAS is too slow for its own good, probably because a few of these scenes lack the sinister presence of the forces pursuing Caroline and her money.

Secondly, the villains of the story are an uneven bunch. The sexually aggressive son and the ghastly governess are both slightly comical in presentation, but manage some level of menace when terrorizing Caroline. The son makes it clear he could physically overpower Caroline without a problem and what his intentions are for her, and the governess has a garish, harsh appearance and witch-like personality which would not feel out of place in a child's nightmare. Unfortunately, Uncle Silas himself is not scary at all. He is at times enjoyably camp and I'll never say no to a good ham-fest, but he's never truly frightening, often acting more like a whiny cartoon villain than the decadent, ruthless beast he is supposed to be.

I think the inconsistent sense of dread and menace is what brings UNCLE SILAS down a few pegs. It's still a good movie and one I would recommend to other classic film fans though, as its virtues outweigh its shortcomings.