The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945), pt 2

Now that I know Moyna MacGill is Angela Lansbury’s mom I can’t unsee the resemblance.

Are we supposed to think the family dog’s death was not natural, and that Lettie used the poison on him? Or did she just buy it from the drugstore, but the dog died of old age before she got around to using it?

I like how, without directly spelling it out, the film shows how carefully and subtly Harry--once he finds the poison in the desk and starts thinking about using it to revenge himself on Lettie-- makes sure everyone else knows that she’s the one who bought it. He also lets Nona sees him handle it so that if his fingerprints are on it later there’ll be a legit explanation. I assume his original plan is to try and make it look like suicide, though I wonder if anyone in town would buy that. After all, they all know what Lettie’s like, and that she’s just driven a wedge between her brother and his fiancée, restoring the family status quo—why would she kill herself instead of enjoying her triumph? When the cocoa cups get mixed up, they’re certainly all very willing to believe she murdered Hester.

Thatt last scene before Hettie goes to the gallows in which she exults in the fact that while she’s going being executed, Harry’s going to go mad with guilt-- beautifully monstrous performance from Fitzgerald.

OK so it’s not exactly an “it was a dream” ending, it’s an “I fantasized about killing Lettie and realized how horribly it could go wrong” ending, which—I can maybe live with? Harry thought better of it, and Deborah, at the last minute, thought better of marrying that other guy.