Screenfiend

Enjoying a day of Film Noir, after reading all the post this week and gaining so much new insight with regards to the study of The Daily Doses of Darkness its fair to say I'm viewing these films from a totally different prespective than normal and to that I say Thank you to all for the thought provoking post through out this past week.

Love the way this one starts, immediately we are lulled into a sense of calm with the quiet dripping of the rubber trees the moon and music from the plantation worker as they settle in for the night, then the crack of gunfire and the bird taking flight. Classic use of the traveling camera close up and lighting/shadowing as the moon reappears seemingly to expose the femme fatale.

Camera angles, working engineers and a fast moving train = Curiosity and questions

The opening scene for me evokes a sense of impending doom with the tired women seemingly beat down with their day to day tasks and the worries of a killer on the loose which are hieghtened by the unknowingness of children singing their macabre song. With just the right amount of sounds and silence. The foreshadowing of eventual doom seem to play out with the policeman saving young Elsie only to find her bouncing her ball off of the "wanted for murder sign" and her conversation with the shadowy Lorre.