Possibilty that he wasn't the real Charlie?
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moosefeathers — 14 years ago(March 13, 2012 09:38 PM)
so, the whole family woudln't recognize their own relative? they were obviously close knit, because she and the uncle had the "connection" and they had talked of him visiting before.
blah.
Swing away, Merrill.Merrill, swing away -
thegr8defender — 13 years ago(December 23, 2012 09:57 AM)
Exactly. Everyone is reading much too much into this. I agree with the "detachment" comment, that nothing he does nor any gift he gives means much to him. He has no genuine emotions or attachments, only survival instincts. And this was set in motion by his head injury as a child. In fact the picture we see of him is clearly Joseph Cotten.
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StevenSmithNYC — 12 years ago(April 16, 2013 10:23 PM)
- Family members say these things even about terrible family members to keep up appearances.
- There was no sexual tension. They were near each other because of the camera and close-ups are more dramatic.
- It's because he's a changed person. He's evil now. He doesn't think much about how he use to be.
- It's because he's evil now. Evil people have a different attitude and facial expression.
Unlikely, because it would have been revealed and would have be a better story line than the one in this film.
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beautifulcopper — 12 years ago(May 03, 2013 12:16 PM)
Interesting thread, but I think the sister would have surely known if he was an imposter. Also, in the dinner scene where Uncle Charlie is opening the wine bottle, they do laugh about some childhood memories while the husband looks on with a sort of bored expression. The sister says something like "Remember when the jones girl got married".
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amyghost — 11 years ago(April 09, 2014 03:22 PM)
The 1991 Mark Harmon made-for-tv remake did have him turn out to be an imposter. It robbed the story of a good bit of its effectiveness, but I suspect that the writers were trying to hint at the incest subtext a bit more openly (Cf. the scene where Charles kisses Young Charlie good night in her bedroom: on the lips, and just a bit too lingeringly); but because of television censorship, they couldn't have it turn out to be actual incest. So 'Uncle' Charlie turns out to be no relation to the rest of the family at all; just a clever (and apparently very well-informed) impersonator.
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parisel — 11 years ago(February 28, 2015 03:13 PM)
Young Charlie knew her Uncle Charlie, and so did her father. Emmy had seen him as an adult. The purpose of the bike story is to show that a brain injury changed him from an outgoing child to a quiet brooding boy, who grew up with no conscience.
He was the real Uncle Charlie.
I guess it's like looking at clouds. You see one thing and I see another. Peace. -
paulfuller-3 — 11 years ago(February 28, 2015 08:41 PM)
With regard to #4, one person alluded to the fact, but nobody directly mentioned, that it was Ann who said he looked "different". Joseph's comment was that he looked "great". That Ann remembers him at all would seem to indicate that the family had seen him within the past several years, so it hardly seems likely that anyone would be able to pull off a switch. It might be different if the nobody had seen Charles since he was a boy.
As for some of the others:- Though I'm sure it wasn't already the case in'43, by now it's the stuff of myth that everyone's first response upon finding out their neighbor is a serial killer is to say how nice and normal they seemed. I didn't take this as anything more than a recognition that if serial killers didn't look like nice people, they wouldn't be likely to get away with their crimes.
- If Charles knew they weren't related, but Charlotte thought they were, any sexual tension would still be half as weird, which is plenty weird enough.
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thebigmouth — 9 years ago(January 04, 2017 11:06 AM)
Huh. Didn't consider that possibility. I feel like Hitchcock would have made it explicit if that were what he meant. No reason not to. But your interpretation is plausible and compelling irrespective of whether he intended it or not.
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