The Inheritance

In 1845, 16-year-old Simmons is left to the care of de Marney, her uncle. The accommodations are less than pleasing, as Simmons learns de Marney is plotting to do her in, aided by the equally villainous Paxinou. Enter a good doctor who grows to distrust de Marney and, with the juvenile lead, foils his plot just in the nick of time. De Marney and Paxinou, the latter woefully miscast, ham it up shamelessly in this turgid melodrama. What it lacks in acting and script is slightly made up for by the direction, though this is hardly enough to carry the film.