Let's Kill Uncle (1966)

William Castle will forever be associated with the series of gimmicky shockers he produced and directed in the late fifties and early sixties, titles such as The Tingler (1959), House on Haunted Hill (1959, Homicidal (1960) and Mr Sardonicus (1961).    That and his later big 'straight' horror success, Rosemary's Baby (1968), which he produced.  In between these, however, were a string of less well-remembered films, mainly comedies and thrillers, which seem rarely to turn up on TV, DVD or any other media.  Perhaps the most intriguing amongst them is the black comedy, Let's Kill Uncle (1966), which I recently managed to watch.  Based on a 1963 novel of the same name by Rohan O'Grady, it provides Nigel Green - just off of The Ipcress File (1965) - with his first headlining role.  Indeed, Green is the closest thing to a star name in the film - which only features seven character - with Mary Badham (who had previously played Scout Finch in the 1962 film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird), the only other face familiar to contemporary audiences. Let's Kill Uncle is one of those films which seems to divide audiences - some enjoy its bizarreness and sense of off-kilter fun, while others dismiss it as another cheap B-movie with no redeeming features, indeed, some even find it distasteful in its central premise.  To be sure, its titular game of cat-and-mouse between the two main characters ensured that the film had no obvious audience: the two juvenile protagonists would undoubtedly make adult audiences think it was a children's film while, conversely, the darkness of the subject matter - an uncle plotting to kill his twelve year old nephew for an inheritance - would probably make most adults deem it unsuitable for children.  Moreover, it doesn't fit easily into any genre, being neither outright horror film nor thriller, let alone straightforward comedy or drama.

The plot of Let's Kill Uncle is simplicity itself: twelve year old Barnaby Harrison (Pat Cardi) is orphaned after his father dies in a car accident, becoming the heir to a fortune in the process, his only living relative is his British war hero Uncle Kevin (Green), who lives on a remote island and covets the inheritance to the point that he is prepared to kill for it.  When Barnaby is sent to the island to live with his uncle, (escorted by police detective Frank Travis (Robert Pickering), Uncle Kevin sets into motion his plan to kill Barnaby, but making it look like an accident.  With nobody believing the boy's allegations against his uncle, (he has history as a serial liar), he realises his only hope is to kill Uncle Kevin before he can kill him.  His only ally is a twelve year old girl, Chrissie (Badham), who has been sent to the island to live with her Aunt Justine (Linda Lawson) - she too becomes a target for Uncle Kevin when he realises she is aiding his nephew.  While Uncle Kevin has to make his attempts at homicide look like an accident - hypnotising Barnaby to walk off a cliff in his sleep, or trying to burn both children to death in a brush fire, for instance, Barnaby and Chrissie have no such restrictions and attempt to poison Uncle Kevin with toadstools and tarantula bites, draining the fuel from his light plane to cause a crash and eventually attempting to feed him to a shark. 

The various assassination attempts - by both parties - are undoubtedly what make the film distasteful to many.  While an adult attempting to kill children - by some pretty extreme means - would seem bad enough, the glee with which the two children - particularly Chrissie - take to plotting and attempting murder is possibly even worse for such viewers.  It directly challenges the idea of childhood innocence that films and TV of this period tended to promote, instead presenting them as scheming, ghoulish and potentially homicidal.  Sure, they are acting in self-defence, but most of their attempts on Kevin's life are pretty cold-blooded, with the pair showing no reluctance to resort to deadly methods, let alone any remorse for their actions.  Their antagonist, Uncle Kevin, is fascinating character - ruthless, yet charming and good humoured.  He makes no secret to Barnaby of his intent to kill him, knowing that nobody will believe the boy, but also makes clear that it is nothing personal: he just wants the money.  When not trying to murder him, Uncle Kevin gives the impression that he actually likes his nephew and certainly admires his attempts to turn the tables.  Being and officer and a gentleman, Uncle Kevin plays his murderous game to strict rules - his house is 'Switzerland', neutral territory where Barnaby is safe, (obviously, if the boy were to die there, suspicion would immediately fall upon his uncle).  Despite this, Barnaby and Chrissie, of course, have no qualms upon attempting to kill Uncle Kevin in his own home.

It has to be said that Nigel Green is excellent as Uncle Kevin, a role that gave him a chance to break away from the usual military martinet types of roles he was generally associated with.  Whilst he might well be an ex-military man, Uncle Kevin is presented as being far from a martinet - he is by turns a charming host, a playful, even jovial, uncle and a determined schemer who, nonetheless, always pursues his attempts at murder with good humour.  Ultimately, though, Green's enjoyable performance becomes problematic - he is the strongest character in the film and one can't help but like him, despite his murderous intent.  In fact, he is arguably the only truly likeable character in the film.  Barnaby, although the innocent victim of his uncle's schemes, is presented as being self-pitying, entitled, whiny and a habitual liar.  His constant putting down of Chrissie, despite the fact that she is clearly far more resourceful and capable than him, quickly becomes objectionable.  For her part, Chrissie, while a more easily likeable character than Barnaby, nonetheless comes across as more than slightly disturbing in her enthusiasm for devising ways to kill Uncle Kevin as the film progresses.  The only other two major characters, Justine and Frank, are vapid and ineffective, seemingly existing only to provide a romantic sub-plot.

Let's Kill Uncle has other problems, most obviously the pacing.  It seems to spend an age setting up the situation and establishing the characters.  There are far too many talky scenes of exposition in the early part of the film, with the actual main business of the three main characters devising and executing their murder schemes delayed far too long and consequently occupying far too little of the running time.  As a result, they feel too hurried for them to be suspenseful, let alone shocking.  The biggest problem, though, is the ending, which is abrupt, perfunctory, unsatisfying and resolves nothing.  According to Cardi, Castle actually filmed several endings, with the studio (Universal) selecting what Cardi thought was the worst.  Despite having the backing of a major studio, Let's Kill Uncle still looks and feels as cheap as any of Castle's better known horror films.  Indeed, aside from the subject matter, Let's Kill Uncle overall looks and feels a typical William Castle film: the limited cast, the studio-bound production (there's a single location sequence) giving it a claustrophobic feel, even when the action is supposedly taking place outside and the presence of at least one grotesque character, (the legless Ketchman, played by Ref Sanchez).  In spite of this, Castle just can't seem to quite create the same atmosphere as he did on earlier films.  In part this is down to the poor script structure which effectively undermines any attempts to create suspense.  The use of colour also doesn't help - even some typical Castle schtick in a derelict spooky hotel just can't quite deliver, with the colour photography and associated brighter lighting depriving the sets of the shadowy menace the earlier monochrome pictures delivered.

Yet, despite all of this, I still enjoyed Let's Kill Uncle.  Perhaps it was the novelty value of it being, for me, a hitherto unseen William Castle film, or maybe it was Nigel Green's darkly comedic performance, or just the dark, off-beat, subject matter, but I found it a likeable, if flawed, film.  It certainly isn't the best of William Castle's films as director but, like those earlier, black and white shockers, it has his trademark feeling of playfulness as he tries to manipulate audience expectations.  It also follows his usual pattern of being fashioned around a single, flamboyant and dominant performance - Vincent Price in the early horrors, Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford in some of the later thrillers, for instance.  Nigel Green's performance in Let's Kill Uncle is on a par with many of these, without the actor ever feeling as if he is going too far over the top.  (It is notable that Castle's less successful films tended to lack such strong central performances).  Even the abrupt ending couldn't diminish my enjoyment of the film, such was the entertainment value of green's performance.  Let's Kill Uncle is probably best described as a misfiring attempt at black comedy - with a better script which more fully explored its dark subject matter and better developed the plot, it might have been a minor classic.