THE UPTURNED GLASS
UK, 1947, 90 Minutes, Black And White.
James Mason, Rosamund John, Pamela Kellino, Ann Stevens, Brefni O' Rorke.
Directed By Lawrence Huntingdon.
The Upturned Glass is a star vehicle for James Mason who had emerged as one of the principal lights of British cinema from the late 1930s and the succeeding decade, especially in the melodramas of the mid-1940s, The Man in Grey, Fanny by Gaslight, The Wicked Lady. He then went to Hollywood with a successful career there and continued to make films until the 1980s.
This is a crime drama with a double presentation of the crime itself.
James Mason portrays a surgeon, interested in forensic crime, giving a lecture about a perfect crime, visualised with himself as the perpetrator, a gentleman, a sympathetic doctor, falling in love with the mother of a patient while her husband was away, then discovering that she had died, having fallen from a window. He becomes suspicious of the dead woman’s sister, seduces her, with the intention of killing her. The sympathetic wife is played by Rosamund John and the sister by Mason’s wife at that time, Pamela Kellino, who also contributed to the screenplay.
The perfect crime described in the lecture does not go according to plan. All kinds of circumstances intervening, some of them very mundane, which means that the surgeon has to use his wits, is interrupted in his escape by the doctor asking him to help with an accident victim. He responds earnestly in helping forgetting the body in the car which the doctor finds – and the doctor giving him a lecture on not being emotionally involved with patients and on his paranoia and obsessions.
The film has a grim ending with the surgeon’s suicide, uncertain about his criminal mind, his madness and obsessions.
1. A psychological drama? The crime? 1940s style?
2. Black-and-white photography, Britain, university, offices, house, surgery, social gatherings? The musical score?
3. The introduction, students going to the lecture, Michael Joyce as a celebrity, shutting the doors, the lecture itself? Dramatisation of the story with Michael as central character? Intelligent, calm, planning of the crime? The mother with her daughter, the post-war injury, the operation, the girl and his discussions with her, preparation, scenes in surgery, Emma waiting, his reassurance? Emma, her husband away, falling in love with Michael, the affair, playing the piano, going out, sharing, love, and her having to make a decision, and consideration of her daughter?
4. The news of Emma’s death, the coroner’s court, Ann and her giving witness, Kate and her presence, her style, her story, relationship with her sister?
5. Michael visiting the house, the encounter with the gardener, his playing the organ, his initial attitude, the chat, memories, the drink?
6. Michael and his meeting Kate, the social, so soon after the coroner’s hearing, the society women and their blank talk, Kate, talking with Michael, the later meetings, the attraction, her being a widow, needing money, selling her sister’s carpet, sending Ann to boarding school?
7. Michael, meeting Ann at the surgery, his excuse, the explanation?
8. Kate discovering them, the drive to the house, the broken window, getting into the house, going up to the room, reconstructing the
scene, threatening Kate, his vindictive attitude, her fall?
9. The completion of the lecture, students’ reaction, questions about the state of mind of the perpetrator?
10. The second version of the crime, reality, the gardener present and his playing the organ, unexpected presence, Kate and her fear, the struggle, the key dropping out the window, the locked door, Michael getting out, moving the body, finding the key, putting the body in
the car?
11. The drive, the foggy night, the encounter with the driver looking for directions, covering the body? The accident, the encounter with the doctor, Michael and his compulsion to help, absorbed, the mother relieved at his work and saving the daughter? The doctor discovering the body, Michael’s explanation, the doctor, his declaration about not having feelings and emotions for patients, his analysis of Michael, obsession and paranoia?
12. Michael, his escape, perfectly intelligent, the crime, reflecting on the doctor’s words, driving to the cliffs, madness, killing himself?
