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Above Suspicion (1943, MGM) In the sequence you have chosen, discuss how classical Hollywood cinema brings the aspects of cinematography, editing, sound and narrative together, in order to create meaning in that sequence, and what is that meaning? Above Suspicion is not remembered particularly fondly, if it is remembered at all. In an internet ‘Favourite Joan Crawford Movie Poll’ it has polled two votes from seven hundred and thirteen. It was her last film with MGM, which she remembers in the book ‘Conversations with Joan Crawford’ as “No prize this one” (Quoted by Joan Crawford Online). However, it is classical Hollywood cinema, made in 1943 by MGM, and arguments over its merits not-withstanding, brings together aspects of cinematography, editing, sound and narrative, in order to make meaning in the classical Hollywood way. I shall discuss how it does this, and what that meaning is, in the first four minutes and eleven seconds following the opening credits. Once the opening credits have finished, the first two shots serve the purpose of establishing the location and time. A still reading “Oxford 1939”, over a backdrop picture of the town opens the sequence. The music is cheerful, but as the shot dissolves to a newspaper hoarding reading “Danzig Hitler Speaks” it changes to a dark tune, then quickly to a jolly up tempo university theme. The music here anticipates the forthcoming shot of the exterior of the university, giving us a precise setting. The foreboding music and the name Hitler provide the compositional motivation that Germany and the Second World War will be a part of the story. The next sequence introduces us to the two protagonists; Frances and Richard Myles, played by Joan Crawford and Fred MacMurray respectively; provides exposition and introduces two motifs. The third shot is of the exterior of the university, we understand this thanks to the earlier musical cue, otherwise it might not have been so obvious. We can also draw the conclusion that the large amount of youthful people milling around are students. A cry “Make way for the bride and groom!” introduces a musical change to the wedding march, which is still non-diegetic, although it would be appropriate in the diegesis. As they walk, the most obvious feature of the mise-en-scene is an extravagant bouquet of flowers held by Crawford. She then proceeds to adjust the heel of her shoe, as she explains to her new husband, slipping the heel off her foot to alleviate her “funny ankle”. Flowers will play an important role in the development of the film, as they are used to identify Crawford and MacMurray as ‘friends’ in espionage situations. The repeated shoe adjustments will eventually give Crawford away to the Nazis. Before they can leave for their honeymoon, a rather comic event occurs, and the editing and musical score in this scene wring every last drop of comic value out of it. Before the car carrying Crawford and MacMurray can depart, a small group of students attach a chain to its back, which causes it to abruptly stop no sooner than it has moved off. We then see the couple in the back of the car, sharing a kiss, before suddenly being jerked forwards, with an accompanying pluck of strings on the soundtrack emphasising the event. The music again emphasises the comedy when the chauffeur gets out to see what happens; as the students release the chain, the car moves off without him. Here despairing low notes underscore his woeful situation. The editing in this scene, jumping from outside the car to the back seat, demonstrates Pudovkin’s description of editing as taking the spectator to what they want to see (Pudovkin, 12). As the car jolts to a stop, we want to see the reactions of our heroes inside the car. In fact, this desire is so strong, it’s easy not to notice that in order to show the full extent of the prank’s effect, the scene jumps back in time by a couple of seconds to before the car had been stopped. We first see in the exterior view the incident, and then the couple kissing until the car stops, again! That such a jump in time in otherwise chronological editing could still be seen as ‘invisible’ is considered by Bazin, when he explains the spectator’s acceptance of sudden changes of viewpoint, where they are “Justified by the geography of the action or the shifting emphasis of dramatic interest.” (Bazin, 44). So because the spectator wants to see the reaction, and because it is the obvious event to be shown once we have seen the exterior view, we do not notice the bend in time that has to be incorporated in the scene to allow for this. The sound of the students laughing not only acts to further smooth the cuts in the previous action, but provides crucial spatial information when the action goes from the university exterior to a small office. We see a man looking out of a window, and students outside, but this could be anywhere. However, the continuation of the laughing makes it clear that the window of this office looks out on the action we have just witnessed. The angle of the man even allows the spectator to place his office in the film’s geography. He goes on to make a telephone call, telling someone that he has “just missed them”. We then see a man in another office, speaking on the telephone. Although these men may well be hundreds of miles apart in the context of the film, we are still made aware that they are speaking to each other in part by the framing of the two shots, one man faces to the right, the other slightly to the left. The shot of the second man is a close-up, which serves to “emphasize character as a source of narrative causality.” (Thompson 1985, 197). He wants to speak to the couple, and this is the film’s first suggestion of conflict or complication, we cannot tell which yet. This shot is particularly long, at twenty-nine seconds, which causes us to believe this character will serve a large role in the development of the plot. His identity, Peter Galt from the Foreign Office, is revealed in the course of a second phone-call that he makes, asking the police to find them for him, but this is after some wait, bringing mystery to his role, and the role he will continue to play in the narrative. The next scenes, outside and inside Crawford and MacMurray’s hotel, give us several clues that they will be caught here by the man from the Foreign Office.
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