Victoria Rendon

I like how this first example of Slapstick does show the formula that will be used for other films. The formula being a set-up of the gag followed by the gag and then retribution. With out this formula a gag or routine would and could just be seen as physical abuse but using this formula the filmmakers allow for a fun comedic act to be played out.

This friday will be the first time I will be watching Dark Passage and I am so excited. I do think that the first person point of view was perfect for this opening. It allowed the audience to truely understand as much as possiible what the escaped conviced was feeling. If this was made in modern times most likely it would have been filmed in 3D but the POV is more successful than what 3D could have done.

When I first saw this film, I was definitely shocked when I saw Bette shoot the man. Looking at the opening again I noticed how the music gives the audeience a false sense of security and showing the workers resting puts you in a calm state of mind but the gun shot snaps you right out of it. Also what this film does that has become a staple to a film noir is to show the audience an event then backtrack for the rest of the movie which keeps the audience constantly guessing about what will happen next.

Like with the film "M", there was no opening music but instead the sounds created by the train. The fast cutting from one image to the next along with the sound of the train creates a sense of urgency and suspense. The kind of gritty, shakiness of the camera also gives a sense of realism that has been associated with film noir.

One thing I noticed was that there was no background music that played during the first minutes of the film. Usually music is heard to set a scene/emotion of love, comedy, or suspense but this was missing in this film. Instead Lang uses real noises that everyone would hear during their normal everyday life: children singing outside, car horns, a cuckoo clock. When explaining the nature of the crime, Lang shows the audience a poster that says that children are missing and have been murdered and has the child bounce a ball, a simple everyday act, on the poster in which I feel shows the innocence of the child not knowing or caring that a murderer is on the loose. Then Lang introduces his murderer with just a silhouette shadow of the murderer on the word murderer in the poster.