HOW TO MURDER A RICH UNCLE

UK, 1957, 79 minutes, Black-and-white.
Nigel Patrick, Charles Coburn, Wendy Hiller, Katie Johnson, Anthony Newley, Athene Seyler, Kenneth Fortescue, Patricia Webster, Michael Caine.
Directed by Nigel Patrick.

This 1957 British comedy is based on a French play, with characters and situations more suited to a French farce. However, it is transferred to England but with the central character who is American, sent from England some decades earlier to the United States where has prospered and become rich.

The gist of the plot is that he is returning to England and his family there is quite impoverished. It is taken for granted that the head of the household, with the connivance of most of the other relatives, rather snobbish and aristocratic in their outlook, is planning to murder the uncle for his fortune.

The film establishes the range of characters, played by very effective British character actors led by Nigel Patrick, often stiff upper lip and military in British films, who also directed the film in widescreen black and white. Wendy Hiller, about to win an Oscar the following year for Separate Tables, is his wife. Athene Seyler is his mother and the always effective Katie Johnson, best known for The Ladykillers, is an old aunt. Patricia Webster is the young woman in the house who has invited her fiance, studying criminal cases, a very young and bespectacled Anthony Newley. Kenneth Fortescue is the awkward son and heir.

One has to look rather carefully to see a 23-year-old Michael Caine as one of the workers about the estate. It was going to be seven years until he made a strong impression in Zulu and headline films for more than half a century on.

The uncle is played by the veteran Charles Coburn, reminiscent of his roles in such films as The More the Merrier, for which he won an Oscar, Gentleman Prefer Blondes and How to be Very, Very Popular.

The basic conceit of the story is that with all the plans for murdering the uncle, the various members of the family are the ones who are killed, the comedy being in the variety of ways in which the plans go wrong and backfire. Eventually, the evidence all seems to point to the uncle to have murdered all his relatives. However, with the testimony of Katie Johnson, all sweetness and light, the truth comes out.

A slight and slightly enjoyable British comedy with a twist.