I don't get the ending - The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945) Discussion

[–] scot298 14 years ago

It turns out that the whole poisoning storyline was just a dream! Immediately after Lettie says goodbye in the prison before being taken away for execution, Harry wakes up in his chair. That's why Hester comes in perfectly healthy. I had to watch the ending twice to make sure I understood what was going on!

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[–] Maureen5 14 years ago

Hi scot298

You are joking, surely? LOL It reminds me of Dallas when the whole thing with Bobby was a dream. I was soooooooooooo disappointed because I thought it was for real!!! Never mind, eh? Thank you ever so much for enlightening me, you are a life-saver.

Love Maureen x x

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[–] William222 14 years ago

No wonder the producer resigned from Universal in protest when they selected this ending. What a joke. Apparently they were choosing between five different endings, I'm sure any of the other four would have been an improvement.

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[–] Maureen5 14 years ago

Yes, I'm sure you're right. I've seen this sort of thing before where they have several different endings and the most favoured by the viewers gets selected. I wonder who decided on this rediculous ending? LOL

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[–] TheDuchessofM 14 years ago

Perhaps because I was expecting this "twist" I have a better reaction to it. Though the play ends differently, the Code demanded people must pay for their crimes, and in this context, it makes sense that Harry's accidental poisoning of Hester and Lettie taking the fall for it is all a dream. This was no true film noir, and Ella Raines' character was no femme fatale leading him down a dark path, so his (dream) desire to kill Lettie was born from despair and desperation and sadness. The film spent almost an hour building up a portrait of a simple, repressed man who comes alive when Deborah enters his life. He's shown no violent, neurotic, or murderous traits, and he very conciliatory towards his bickering sisters (and in the case of Lettie, a manipulative hypochondriac with an unnatural desire for him). In short, he's an incredibly sympathetic character, and we cheer his dawning love for Deborah, so it actually betrayed the portrait the writer painted of Harry--and the mood of the film--to make the accidental death of Hester and the execution of the innocent Lettie, or for him to die, or pay for his crime in some shape or fashion, the ending of the movie.

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[–] Maureen5 14 years ago

Thank you, Evan, for your very informative reply. I shall have to pay more attention in future, haha I personally would have wanted him to have killed his evil sister to make it more exciting but then it wouldn't have been the film it is supposed to be.
I think George Sanders is a wonderful actor and I love his voice!

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[–] noveltylibrary 13 years ago

i thought he killed himself and the other girl must have too. adding his dead sister in just made me more sure. a dream? he didn't fall asleep in an old cabin as far as i can recall. anyway, disappointing in an otherwise great movie.

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[–] practicepiano 12 years ago

noveltylibrary wrote:

"he didn't fall asleep in an old cabin as far as i can recall."

He didn't fall asleep, he just went through the fantasy in his mind. And he wasn't in an old cabin, but in his art studio/observatory above the old stable.

At about the 54 minute mark in the film, he is up there, takes the poison out of his vest, sits and stares at the bottle, and there is a slow close-up and fade on the bottle, which is different from the ways scenes change in the rest of the film.

Everything from there to the fade in and pan back from the bottle was his imagining what would happen if he, a gentle soul, acted on his worst instincts. I rather like the fact that he didn't.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmmv55_the-strange-affair-of-uncle-harry_shortfilms

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[–] Mrs_Bundy 13 years ago

The same "it's only a dream ending" was also used to fairly ludicrous effect in The Woman in the Window, released the same year.

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[–] jimakros 13 years ago

i think this ending was great.In fact ,i was so dissapointed with the whole poisoning business because it looked so ridiculous,that such a kind and civilized man would ever commit such a crime,no matter how sad and angry he was about his sisters' behaviour.The ending is perfect,it brings the story back to reality ,what would happen in reality to such people,who had their faults but they were not criminals.

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[–] ilpohirvonen 13 years ago

I found the ending pretty good. It reminded me of Lang's The Woman in the Window. To me it doesn't equal naive simplicity but deep psychoanalytical approach.

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[–] Maureen5 13 years ago

Yes, but I think that with the 'Woman in The Window' it was different. Maybe because with this, you were led into the story and you stuck with it till the very end. With 'Uncle Harry', it wasn't a dream until near the end, although at the time, I didn't realise it was a dream and hence my post.

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[–] practicepiano 12 years ago

Besides being what the Code demanded, the "it was only a fantasy" plot line solved one problem that jumped out at me.

The law enforcement officer in the prison scene assures Harry that, if Lettie concurs with his story, her sentence would be commuted.

Huh? A prisoner bound for the death penalty gets to avoid it by agreeing with someone who claims to be guilty in her stead, but they wouldn't investigate his story otherwise?

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[–] dr-g-m-paterson 10 years ago

The ending is far more sophisticated than the replies have so far suggested. We have no grounds for believing that the last few moments of the film are "real", and the previous thirty minutes or so a dream. On the contrary we have a great deal of reason to believe that the last scene is a wishful fantasy on the part of Harry, guiltily wanting to turn the clock back. It certainly seems much less real than the murder itself, which is managed with expert suspense as usual by Siodmak. Harry's confession, his first attempt to right the wrongs, is derided as unbelievable by the prison governor, so it is splendidly ironic that the audience will find the happy ending analogously unbelievable. It is. In my reading it's somewhat similar to the fantasy that ends Brazil, but in that film the fantasy is revealed as such, though some cuts suppress this revelation as the studio in this case also tried to impose a happy ending. Todd Solondz Dark Horse similarly has many fantasy sequences that contradict each other so that it is almost impossible for the audience to work out what may or may not be "reality".

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[–] benman46 10 years ago

Actually the original ending, where Lettie does hang, was replaced by the studio, which imposed a happy ending. The producer, Joan Harrison resigned in protest.

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[–] allenrogerj 10 years ago

we have a great deal of reason to believe that the last scene is a wishful fantasy

Yes, my first thought - before I wondered about why Scarlet Street could get away with that ending and this film couldn't - was to wonder if Gilliam had seen this film before he made Brazil...

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[–] HeresJohnnyB 9 years ago

I really felt like the poisoning and death if not a dream was a fantasy. He's sitting in the chair with the poison, then the poisoning/death/trial sequence begins. After his last meeting with Lettie at the prison, she warns him what his future holds. The next scene he is still in the chair, holding the poison, with his eyes closed, and appears to awaken or 'snap out of it'. He then pours out the poison. I wonder if any of the alternate endings were like Brazil or even An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.

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[–] allenrogerj 9 years ago

I really felt like the poisoning and death if not a dream was a fantasy.

That's the Authorised Version. The play does end with the poisoning and no-one believing Harry when he confesses. The change in the film was supposed to be because the Hays Office wouldn't accept an ending like that, though they did in Sinister Street.

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[–] mam13143 9 years ago

The ending was made up by the Hays Office according to other posts and bears no relation to the play. In brief, no murder could go unpunished during that time so in order for Sanders to get away with it, it had to be a dream. Trouble is the dream makes no logical sense at all. Wish I knew the actual ending which should have been Sanders pours out the poison and leaves the room. He gets his wish which is revenge for his sister killing his beloved dog and sending his fiancé packing. At least that's my take.

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[–] mam13143 9 years ago

The ending was made up by the Hays Office according to other posts and bears no relation to the play. In brief, no murder could go unpunished during that time so in order for Sanders to get away with it, it had to be a dream. Trouble is the dream makes no logical sense at all. Wish I knew the actual ending which should have been Sanders pours out the poison and leaves the room. He gets his wish which is revenge for his sister killing his beloved dog and sending his fiancé packing. At least that's my take.

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