Under Capricorn Joseph Cotton - Creepy Villian or Unsung Hero?
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Under Capricorn Joseph Cotton gives a stunning performance as the mysterious and brooding Sam Flusky.
He keeps the audience guessing who he truly is--the creepy villain or the good guy?
Who is the moody and passionate Sam Flusky and is he the true love match for the beautiful Lady Henrietta?
Fun fact!
Joseph Cotton referred to this film Under Capricorn as "Under Corny Crap" in his autobiography "Vanity Will Get You Somewhere". It’s said that he had also done so on-set and this provoked Alfred Hitchcock's wrath! Alfred Hitchcock did not use Joseph Cotton again for six years--was it intentional?!
This post is all about Under Capricorn Joseph Cotton as Sam Flusky in Hitchcock's Under Capricorn 1949.
Under Capricorn 1949 Plot
Under Capricorn takes place in colonial Australia in 1813.
Sydney is a thriving frontier town populated with ex-convicts from the British colonies.
A handsome gentleman, Honorable Charles Adare (Michael Wilding) arrives in Australia seeking to make a fortune.
He is quickly introduced to one of the city’s wealthiest landlords, Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotten).
Sam Flusky is a gruff ex-convict whose background is shrouded in mystery with a reputation for violence.
Sam Flusky’s (Joseph Cotten) wife is the beautiful Lady Henrietta Flusky (Ingrid Bergman). She spends her days shut up in a dark mansion, drinking her past away, in terror from strange hallucinations.
Both men are in love with Lady Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman) but dark secrets from the past bind her to Sam Flusky. (Joseph Cotton) To add on another love triangle, the scheming housekeeper, Milly (Margaret Leighton), is in love with Sam Flusky.
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Under Capricorn Joseph Cotten as Sam Flusky - From Stable Boy to Ex-convict to Wealthy Landowner!
Joseph Cotten’s character Sam Flusky was a stable boy at Lady Henrietta’s family estate in Ireland. He fell in love with the nobleman’s daughter and they ran away together.
The passionate Sam Flusky had ‘a bit of the devil in him’ and the lovely Lady Henrietta had a ‘reckless strain’, so there was bound to be trouble!
The wealthy family did not approve of their daughter running off with the stable boy.
Sam Flusky recalled: “The people were determined to get me, and get me they did…. I was lucky to escape the gallows, but I got seven years transportation. She sold all she had and followed me out here….”
Sam Flusky served seven years working in a convict colony in Australia.
Lady Henrietta waited for his release in abject poverty.
Joseph Cotton and Ingrid Bergman in Hitchcock’s Under Capricorn
Fun fact!
Burt Lancaster was originally selected for the role of Sam Flusky, but he was too expensive.
Why did Hitchcock supposedly prefer Burt Lancaster? He thought Burt Lancaster would be more believable to be pursued passionately to Australia by Lady Henrietta!
Having a head for business, Sam Flusky quickly made money, moving from a poverty-stricken convict to one of the wealthiest landowners in Sydney. The banker refers to him as a “financial genius in his way.”
His knack for business is evident when he proposes a business deal to Charles Adare.
Sam Flusky tells Adare to purchase a piece of land from the crown, and then immediately turn around and sell it to him for a lot more. When Adare asks why Flusky doesn’t simply buy the land outright, he replies that he’s bought all the land one’s allowed--from the crown. But there is no law against a private deal!
Sam Flusky's obsession in building wealth is to make it up to Lady Henrietta for everything she’d been through. He builds her a sprawling mansion and she can buy anything her heart desires.
Even though Sam Flusky achieves incredible financial success, he continues to be obsessed with his working class background compared to his wife’s aristocratic roots.
Joseph Cotton and Ingrid Bergman in Under Capricorn 1949
In preparing a dinner party, Sam Flusky anxiously asks his servant, “You’ve had dinner with the knobs in your day… are you sure everything is alright?”
Later when Lady Henrietta is invited to the governor’s ball, Sam Flusky refuses to accompany her. He says that he’d never be welcome as an ex-convict and is “no dancing master”.
However, he excitedly offers to help her get ready.
Sam Flusky, “I’ll get you a wonderful dress… I’ll ride into Sydney today.”
Charles Adare chimes in, “Better to leave it to Hetty and me…”
Sam Flusky desolately replies, “Maybe you’re right… I’d be better at ordering a set of harnesses… let the cobbler stick to his trade….”
Under Capricorn Joseph Cotten as Sam Flusky - From sensitive to jealous in a heartbeat
In the opening scenes of the movie when Joseph Cotten’s character Sam Flusky sees how kind Charles Adare is to the delusional Lady Henrietta, Sam Flusky is genuinely touched.
Sam Flusky says, “You treated Hetty right, I appreciate that….”
When Charles Adare offers to help her get better, Sam Flusky says: “Maybe there’s some hope after all. I could get her interested in riding and clothes, we could drive into Sydney. If you could get her talking about old times, it might help, you never know… it might help…”
The first time in a long time, hope is radiating from Sam Flusky.
In an attempt to help Lady Henrietta, Sam Flusky invited the Honorable Adare over, in the hope the other guests would bring their wives. However, as each guest arrived, the men had a perfunctory excuse for why his wife could not attend.
You can see the hurt in Sam Flusky’s eyes. He almost flinches with each ridiculous excuse, and then his temper turns to a low simmer. He makes a sarcastic crack about something ailing all of the ladies of the colony.
Now moving from Sam Flusky’s sensitive side to his temper.
Remember the governor’s ball that Sam Flusky refused to attend? He later sets after them in a jealous rage, bursting dramatically into the ballroom.
Everyone is dressed to the nines in glamorous regency ballgowns and frilly attire, but Sam Flusky is dressed in simple day clothes. He is obviously out of place!
He angrily interrupts Lady Henrietta’s conversation with the governor.
She says they are talking about horses. He interrupts her and says, “I was brought up in a stable…. I was only the groom, you see. She married beneath her… I suppose I shouldn’t be here among all you swells….”
Sam Flusky throws down a few coins to the governor to pay for his right to ‘attend the ball’. Everyone is shocked by his temper and rude outburst.
Lady Henrietta runs crying out of the ballroom.
In another jealous rage Sam Flusky fights with Charles Adare and a gun accidentally goes off, wounding Adare.
Sam Flusky is a real human, with a sensitive side, as well as a temper that is easily ignited when he feels slighted by the upper crust or jealous.
Joseph Cotton and Ingrid Bergman in Under Capricorn
Under Capricorn Joseph Cotten as Sam Flusky - Die hard romantic?
Under Capricorn 1949 has four intertwined romances.
First, the young Honorable Charles Adare falls in love with Lady Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman).
Second, Sam Flusky is in love with his wife, Lady Henrietta. It takes a while to discover this, due to his rough and tumble devil can do attitude!
Third, the witch-like housekeeper Milly (Margaret Leighton) is in love with the passionate Sam Flusky!
Fourth, Lady Henrietta is in love with...? Does Sam Flusky, the ex-stable boy and ex-convict win her heart, or does the noble born Adare?
Due to the wily schemes of the conniving housekeeper Milly, Sam Flusky becomes jealous of Adare's affections for his wife.
Milly uses every opportunity to poison Sam Flusky against the two of them.
During one scene, she refuses to help Lady Henrietta to bed after one of her spells and tells Adare to do it. She then turns around and tells Sam Flusky that Adare is in Lady Henrietta’s room, when she is only half dressed!!
When Milly realizes that Sam Flusky plans to leave Australia to help Lady Henrietta, she is determined to stop him. It’s time to move beyond cruel hallucination tricks with shrunken human heads. Now she must kill her!
She prepares a massive overdose of the sleeping draught.
Barely conscious, Ingrid Bergman’s character Lady Henrietta screams for Sam Flusky.
When Milly is confronted, she unapologetically says to Sam Flusky, “You drove me to it, how could I let you go?”
Milly had been scheming for years to make Lady Henrietta go crazy and become an alcoholic, so that her husband would leave her.
Sam Flusky also realizes that Lady Henrietta put her neck on the line to save him when she admitted the truth of the crime that had occurred years earlier to the governor.
Touched, Sam Flusky says, “You were determined to risk your neck for me, weren’t you?” She replies, “What else could I do…?”
The movie closes with Sam Flusky and Lady Henrietta seeing Adare off to Ireland.
Lady Henrietta is clutching Sam Flusky’s arm tenderly. The two are happy together at last.
Under Capricorn Joseph Cotten as Sam Flusky - Fall guy?
Although Under Capricorn 1949 is a costume love drama, it features manslaughter and a "wrong man" dilemma.
Lady Henrietta confesses to Adare and the governor that she was the one who shot her brother when he chased after her and Sam Flusky all those years ago, back in Ireland.
However, the crime was penned to Sam Flusky and he swore her secrecy, in order to protect her.
Joseph Cotton’s character Sam Flusky served seven years in the convict colony for a killing he did not commit. He continued to be branded a murderer for a crime he was innocent of.
Later when the law enforcement asked Sam Flusky to corroborate Lady Henrietta’s statement that she’d committed the killing years previously, he refused. “You can do nothing to her without my evidence.”
Sam Flusky was a hero. Yes, he had his faults, but he was willing to sacrifice his life for the woman loved…not once, but twice!
This post was all about Under Capricorn Joseph Cotton as Sam Flusky in Hitchcock's Under Capricorn 1949.
Under Capricorn Sam Flusky was a complex hero, with an eruptive and passionate personality, and deep emotions.
The talented Joseph Cotton gave a very raw and real performance in this role.
What are your thoughts on Sam Flusky? Did you believe he was a villain until the very end, or did you suspect he was a true hero all along?
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