I found it interesting in both Double Indemnity and Chinatown when the characters are in dire need of escaping the situation they are in, the vehicle appears not to start at first. The car, of course, eventually starts but this type of suspension makes the audience draw a breath in anticipation.
I think it was more effectively done in Double Indemnity. I remember exactly how I felt when that car wouldn't start. We just saw this plan played out with near perfection and suddenly everything is almost ruined because of the stupid car. The moment it created was great. However, I don't really remember too much about the car not starting in Chinatown. It was a good moment but not as great as Double Indemnity (for me anyway).
ReplyDeleteBut I completely agree. This type of action really does pull the audience in and create excellent suspense.
I also found this interesting! I do agree with Melissa though that it was done more effectively in Double Indemnity. Phyllis seemed to crank the car unsuccessfully for a few extra uncomfortable seconds, and the look on Walter Neff's face when he realized he could be undone by this mechanical failure was great!
ReplyDeleteI also found it interesting that both of these films shared a scene where the femme fatale (debatable in Chinatown) offered the male lead some iced tea. Both scenes were minor but very memorable.
I wonder if either of these scenes were done by Polanski in homage to Wilder's film? I did a quick search but didn't come up with anything.
Yeah it seems to be one of those classic occurrences in a thriller film. Same as in a horror film when there is a chase on foot and the person being chased falls down.
ReplyDeleteEven though I've seen things like that before, it always works. In Double Idemity I found myself thinking like "Oh No is there going to be a witness that they will have to kill also"
I know, I was waiting for someone to pop out of those bushes around the car and ask what they were doing there. I was almost anticipating another conflict to occur from the original conflict of the car stalling.
DeleteI found a few interesting commonalities between Double Indemnity and Chinatown, and I agree that I think Polanski is creating a subtle homage to Double Indemnity. For instance, and I just don’t see this being a coincidence, both films mention the Venetian blinds. I know it seems a small occurrence, but I think something as small—yet clearly identifiable as a noir “accent”—allows for it to be more than a coincidence. Also, there are other small moments, like the iced tea scenes, where it seems like a nod to the other film.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of mirror imagery, another thing I noticed in Chinatown has to do with a similar notion. In the film, when we notice the dead Mr. Mulwray, the audience finds him drowned, with bruises all over his face, and with only one shoe. This is after a conversation with a boy on a horse in a dried out river bed as he was mysteriously drifting around LA. Also, he has supposed clandestine encounters with a woman . . . supposedly of the unsavory variety. Then, as Jake investigates, he gets his licks from a couple of thugs, almost drowns, and loses a shoe . . . also a brief encounter with the same kid on a horse (where the kid tells him the same thing he told Mulwray) in a dried up river bed . . . and he too has a confrontation with a woman, of the unsavory variety. We also find out that the two men had met with Evelyn’s father before their incidents. I don’t know why I didn’t mention this sooner, but I am obsessed with this method and form of storytelling. It is such an interesting way to approach the story, to have both Mulwray and Gittes going through the same experiences, all in an effort to help the woman they love. Who just happens to be the same woman. I wonder why . . . I have so many questions about this mirror-effect portion of the film.
Part of the reason it works so well in Double Indemnity is because of how the actors react. It's a cliche moment in horror films, when the car suddenly won't start, and the escapee starts to panic and desperately try over and over again to start the car. The fact that Phyllis and Walter are quiet the entire time and share their panic only with a subtle glance makes it so much more effective. Imagine how much more suspenseful it must have been in 1944 before cars not starting became a standard horror trope.
ReplyDeleteSarah I couldn't agree with you more.
ReplyDeleteGreat observation, and funny that we end up seeing it again in Blood Simple. I think we get the same panicked feeling because we want the car to start (which might say a little something about us, the viewer, that we're rooting for murderers).
ReplyDeleteI like hearing/reading others interpretations of the films. I don't always make the same connections. Even though I see the same scenes played out and know on some level there are similarities, it's still enlightening to read it from others point of view. I saw how Gittes followed the same path as Mulwray before he was killed, but that's what PI's do. I didn't make the connection to the beating and lost shoe. Thanks
ReplyDeleteGoing back to this post... we saw, yet again, another character in Mildred Pierce trying to leave a place they most desperately want to leave (the beach house where Mildred found her daughter and her husband kissing). However, instead of the car not starting being a suspenseful moment, we feel simple frustration and exasperation.(The poor woman loses her company, daughter, and husband all in one day and now her car won't start!) Mildred is only running away from a terrible situation and it is only because the car wouldn't start that she now has to run away from a murder situation.
ReplyDeleteSo instead of Mildred Pierce using a broken down car as a direct tool of suspense, it is used as an indirect catalyst that creates the suspenseful "who killed Monte?" plot in the first place. If her car had started, she wouldn't have heard the gun shots, she wouldn't have attempted to cover for her daughter, and she wouldn't have been in the police station that night. (I just realized that the only reason why the police found the body that night was because Mildred had called the police but didn't say anything and they probably sent a squad car out to investigate just in case a bit longer, and that wouldn't have happened either). One could argue that if Mildred hadn't reentered the house, Veda may have been able to escape and avoid being caught by the police.