It really irritated British critics when James Mason went to Hollywood at the end of the 1940s. British films had improved during the war and no star was more highly regarded than Mason. He was just hitting his stride with "They Were Sisters" and "The Seventh Veil" when, fed up with the dominance of J. Arthur Rank, he and his wife left for Hollywood. Not before "The Upturned Glass" which he also produced, a moody thriller directed by Lawrence Huntington who, the year before, had also directed the noirish "Wanted for Murder".
Mason plays a criminology lecturer who starts to tell his "agog" students a story of what happens when sane, normal people commit murder. Brilliant surgeon Michael Joyce (also Mason) meets Emma (the beautiful Rosamund John) when he successfully operates on her daughter to bring back her vision. Emma's husband is away for long periods of time and she and Michael, just by spending time together, find they have a lot in common, even though they decide to break off their affair. Time passes and the next time Michael hears of her it is to do with her death: she has fallen out of a top storey window. Her husband is distraught, her sister-in-law less so, in fact she can't wipe the smile off her face. Pamela Kellino is just marvellous in the role - she is dislikable from the start with her constant smirk and really irritating manner of speaking. Michael has never liked her and when he goes to the inquest he is convinced something is going on: young Ann is nervous in the witness box and is given an imperceptible sign from Kate that she is not to tell of the real events that led to her mother's death.
Up to now the movie had been a conventional British crime thriller but the psychological intricacies start when Michael puts into play a plan to find out the truth. He (however distastefully) starts to romance Kate who through her own ego cannot see that he is only half heartedly pursuing her. The angle of the camera also has Miss Kellino as the main focus for the audience so you almost see her through Michael's eyes.
Of course Michael believes he is sane and sensible but when when, towards the end of the movie, he has an encounter with a completely disillusioned and mercenary doctor, that doctor feels that his overly compassionate nature is likened to an upturned glass precariously placed to fall and break, aligning him with people of unsound mind. All paving the way to a very unsatisfying ending, taking the easy way out.
Pamela Kellino happened to be James Mason's real life wife at the time of this movie.
Mason plays a criminology lecturer who starts to tell his "agog" students a story of what happens when sane, normal people commit murder. Brilliant surgeon Michael Joyce (also Mason) meets Emma (the beautiful Rosamund John) when he successfully operates on her daughter to bring back her vision. Emma's husband is away for long periods of time and she and Michael, just by spending time together, find they have a lot in common, even though they decide to break off their affair. Time passes and the next time Michael hears of her it is to do with her death: she has fallen out of a top storey window. Her husband is distraught, her sister-in-law less so, in fact she can't wipe the smile off her face. Pamela Kellino is just marvellous in the role - she is dislikable from the start with her constant smirk and really irritating manner of speaking. Michael has never liked her and when he goes to the inquest he is convinced something is going on: young Ann is nervous in the witness box and is given an imperceptible sign from Kate that she is not to tell of the real events that led to her mother's death.
Up to now the movie had been a conventional British crime thriller but the psychological intricacies start when Michael puts into play a plan to find out the truth. He (however distastefully) starts to romance Kate who through her own ego cannot see that he is only half heartedly pursuing her. The angle of the camera also has Miss Kellino as the main focus for the audience so you almost see her through Michael's eyes.
Of course Michael believes he is sane and sensible but when when, towards the end of the movie, he has an encounter with a completely disillusioned and mercenary doctor, that doctor feels that his overly compassionate nature is likened to an upturned glass precariously placed to fall and break, aligning him with people of unsound mind. All paving the way to a very unsatisfying ending, taking the easy way out.
Pamela Kellino happened to be James Mason's real life wife at the time of this movie.