In 'The Upturned Glass (1947),' Mason stars as a prominent neurosurgeon giving a lecture on criminology. He offers the case study of Michael Joyce, an upright British gentleman – considered perfectly sane by the good doctor – who is driven to commit murder by "his own ethical convictions." The film's first half is a slow, steady narrative build up, but the final act is perfectly suspenseful. Our poor protagonist, having just committed the ultimate crime, has a ridiculous time trying to dispose of the body without detection– in the classic noir mould, one inconvenient encounter after another!
Michael Joyce (whom we learn is none other than the lecturer himself) has convinced himself that, unlike most common thugs, he has a superior moralistic justification for committing murder. 'The Upturned Glass' was released four years after the close of WWII, and was likely intended as a critique of state-sanctioned (that is, "justified") mass murder; Mason, the film's producer, was famously a conscientious objector during the war, a view which caused much consternation among his family.
To keep you guessing, there are also a few red herrings that Hitchcock would have loved – and this is three years before 'Stage Fright (1950)' wrote the book on red herrings. However, the film ends on a definite moralistic note, suggesting the lengths to which one will go to maintain the delusion of sanity, and questioning whether it is even possible for a sane person to commit murder. Even the impromptu saving of a young girl with brain injuries does not offset a murder already committed, and Michael Joyce dies by his own hand. I couldn't help feeling that Joyce, and perhaps the film, were taking the easy way out.
Michael Joyce (whom we learn is none other than the lecturer himself) has convinced himself that, unlike most common thugs, he has a superior moralistic justification for committing murder. 'The Upturned Glass' was released four years after the close of WWII, and was likely intended as a critique of state-sanctioned (that is, "justified") mass murder; Mason, the film's producer, was famously a conscientious objector during the war, a view which caused much consternation among his family.
To keep you guessing, there are also a few red herrings that Hitchcock would have loved – and this is three years before 'Stage Fright (1950)' wrote the book on red herrings. However, the film ends on a definite moralistic note, suggesting the lengths to which one will go to maintain the delusion of sanity, and questioning whether it is even possible for a sane person to commit murder. Even the impromptu saving of a young girl with brain injuries does not offset a murder already committed, and Michael Joyce dies by his own hand. I couldn't help feeling that Joyce, and perhaps the film, were taking the easy way out.