I…did not know that. /ignorance
Really? If I heard a gunshot, I doubt I would even know that’s what it was, and there’s no way I’d call the police without knowing for sure.
Still ti seemed a strange way to end it - why not just call the cops?
Yes, but it seems rather optomistic to say they’re going to “die” - surely there would be other possible outcomes.
Can I really be the first to mention the letters of transit from Casablanca? Or Louis saying he was with the Americans “when they blundered into Berlin in 1918” when U.S. troops didn’t make it that far east?
Again, we are speaking of Humphrey Bogart. If he says there was an American tank unit in North Africa, there was an American tank unit in North Africa. Pay attention, there will be a test on Tuesday.
It’s more dramatic that way.
Hitchcock was smart – he didn’t let small nitpicks get in the way of the story.
One of my favorite Hitchcockisms: when he was once asked why his movie characters didn’t just call the police when things went awry, he said, “My characters do not call the police because that would be no fun.”
Frankly, he didn’t seem too bright; he should have just made a run for it instead of killing Stewart, which wasn’t going to stop his secret from being revealed to the police. (And do we really need to spoiler a movie that is older than the majority of the posters on this board?)
Well, that’s the essential story of any film noir; if the guy were smart and/or not being driven by his lust and/or desperation, he wouldn’t be in this situation. See Double Indemnity, Body Heat, Out Of The Past, The Asphalt Jungle, The Maltese Falcon, The Grifters, et cetera.
The letters of transit are one of a number of gaping plot holes in Casablanca. The film, in fact, makes very little sense, although if you assume that Ilsa is not, in fact, the guileless bimbo that she appears to be but in fact a scheming, manipulative goldbricker who is using Rick and setting him up to take the fall while she runs off to America with her meal ticket, it turns into a pretty decent Mamet-esque confidence game rather than the doubtful purported romance it is generally billed and reviewed as.
Stranger
On MALTESE FALCON: It’s clear (certainly in the book, but also in the movie) that “justice” is not spelled with a capital J. The ACLU appeals and so forth that we’re used to were not available in that universe. What would happen in reality in LA in the 1940s, I don’t know, but in the world of film noir and the world that we see, the cops will see to it that the frame is airtight. Remember that a critical plot discussion during the climax is “someone has to take the fall, it doesn’t matter who.” The implication is that the cops and DA will see to it that there’s enough evidence to convict, and that judge and jury are probably corrupt as well.
On SUNSET BOULEVARD: The whole point is that he’s seduced by greed and money. It’s not so easy to walk away from comfort when you’ve been struggling all your life, and he is unable to.
One wonderful and fun problem with analyzing Hitchcock is that he often had cute, glib quotes (often ones that he’d worked on to smooth perfection) that seem to answer the question but really avoid it with a wink. The reality is that, in his movies, he always has worked very hard to provide some explanation of why they don’t call the police. Typically, either (a) the police will certainly think they’re guilty (e.g., FRENZY or SABOTEUR or NORTH BY NORTHWEST (after the UN murder)); or (b) they don’t realize the severity of the difficulty and want to keep things quiet/in the family or they want to keep the money for themselves (e.g., PSYCHO or MARNIE or FAMILY PLOT); or © they actually do call the police, who are no help whatsoever (like in NORTH BY NORTHWEST (before the UN) or THE BIRDS.) But there’s almost always a scene that answers (usually in advance) the audience’s question of why don’t they call the cops? Hitchcock always planned his movies very carefully, anticipating audience reactions.
(Personal aside: I met him in the spring of 1966, spent a couple of hours with him.)
LA?!?!? Sam Spade is a San Francisco resident, thankyouverymuch. :mad:
He was clearly confusing Sam with the far superior Philip Marlowe.
Yeah, that’s right. I said it. Spade was not half the shamus Marlowe was. And less than one-quarter the man Marlowe was. Wanna make something of it?
I had seen this movie any number of times while growing up, but never understood that particular line (didn’t give it much thought, either, but just let it go). Last year my daughter and I watched Ziegfield Follies, which includes the “Two Dollars” sketch. Then we watched North by Northwest. When Mrs. Thornhill makes the “Pay the two dollars” wisecrack, my daughter and I looked at each other and collapsed with laughter. We also broke into simultaneous grins when we recognized the music playing in the lobby of the hotel where Cary Grant’s character stops for a drink at the beginning: It’s a Most Unusual Day.
VERY cool! Tell us more, here, or start a new thread, please!
What Isildur said!