The Upturned Glass

Year: 1947

Runtime: 86 mins

Language: English

Director: Lawrence Huntington

CrimeDrama

A neurosurgeon tells his medical students a gripping tale of obsessive love. He recounts an affair with a married woman that ends when she falls from a window after their breakup. Convinced she was murdered, he launches his own investigation, intent on exacting personal vengeance rather than involving the police.

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The Upturned Glass (1947) – Full Plot Summary & Ending Explained

Read the complete plot breakdown of The Upturned Glass (1947), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.

Michael Joyce, James Mason, a renowned Harley Street brain specialist, is unhappily married and living apart from his wife when he meets Emma Wright, Rosamund John, who brings her young daughter Ann Wright, Ann Stephens, for a consultation. The two fall into a complicated, fleeting affair because neither can commit to marriage, and it ends almost as soon as it begins.

Weeks later, Emma dies after a fall from a second-storey bedroom at her country manor. At the coroner’s inquest, Ann Wright, Ann Stephens, and Emma’s sister-in-law, Kate Howard, Pamela Mason, testify. The death is ruled an accident, but Michael suspects foul play and begins to search for answers beyond the official verdict.

To uncover the truth, Michael enters Kate’s circle, knowing she was aware of Emma’s relationship but unaware that Michael himself had been Emma’s lover. He soon learns that Kate had planned to blackmail Emma for financial gain, a discovery that convinces him the case is a grave injustice. Driven by a desire to correct what he sees as a misjustice, he resolves to act on his own terms.

One afternoon, he drives Kate to Emma’s country house and manipulates events so that she ascends to the same upper-story bedroom from which Emma fell. In a chilling turn, he pushes Kate out of the window, retrieves her body from the courtyard, and loads it into the car to be disposed of over the cliff line by the sea.

En route, a stranded general practitioner asks for a ride to a patient—a 12-year-old girl whose prospects seem fragile. When the doctor seeks a second opinion, Michael looks her over and decides she might have a fighting chance, saving the girl’s life and altering the direction of his own trajectory.

As the journey toward the sea resumes, Michael confronts a mounting realization: he is not a perfectly sane man and his supposed social worth may be a delusion. He nears the edge of the cliff, gazes down at the relentless sea, and, in a fate that mirrors Emma’s and Kate’s, he falls to his death.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 12:36

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Movies about obsessive moral collapse like The Upturned Glass

Stories where a singular obsession leads to a complete moral unraveling.If you liked the tragic descent of the neurosurgeon in The Upturned Glass, explore more movies where a single-minded obsession leads characters into moral decay and self-destruction. These films share a dark tone, heavy emotional weight, and a focus on the psychological cost of vengeance and fixation.

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Narrative Summary

Narratives in this thread typically follow a clear, steady arc from a triggering event into an all-consuming obsession. The protagonist becomes the driver of their own downfall, as their quest blurs the lines between justice and vengeance, ultimately leading to a bleak resolution that offers no redemption, only the consequence of their choices.

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These films are grouped by their shared core of a psychologically complex protagonist whose fatal flaw is an unwavering obsession. They create a cohesive experience through their dark tone, heavy emotional impact, and exploration of how a person can be destroyed from within by their own fixations.

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Narrative Summary

The narrative pattern begins in the shadow of a pivotal crime, often a murder. The plot then unfolds as an investigation or a quest for vengeance, but the true focus is the internal struggle and psychological unraveling of the main character. The journey is less about solving a mystery and more about exploring the devastating consequences of the crime on the human psyche.

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