The Inheritance

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

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.

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.

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")

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.