The Mark of Cain

In Brian Desmond Hurst’s relatively unknown The Mark of Cain, the thick, stuffy Edwardian atmosphere conceals not just cruel intentions, but criminal acts too. Young, lovely Sarah Bonheur (Sally Gray) is courted by the two wealthy and competitive Howard brothers: the ambitious, yet under-sophisticated John (Patrick Holt) and the worldly, yet less successful Richard (Eric Portman). Sarah chooses John as a husband and Richard as a friend, but it doesn’t take long for the marriage to become strained, which Richard relishes as his opportunity to best his brother. Once John takes mysteriously ill, however, the dynamics change all over again and the threat of murder creeps in. (In truth, it’s hard to decide which brother is the bigger jerk.) While the story may seem over-simplistic to some, and there are missed opportunities for suspense, exquisite period detail packs every scene, the mansion interior impressively designed to create a feeling of suffocation, all the maids costumed in busy patterns to match the opulent wallpaper. Both the film’s title and the characters’ commentary on guilt relate the Christian theme; in the third act, note the courtroom set with its beams of light pouring in through high windows like a church clerestory.