It’s such a pleasant experience watching W.A.’s Manhattan Murder Mystery.
Several points to note:
1. When I heard them playing Dave Brubeck quartet’s take five at their first discussion of the mysterious death of Mrs. House, I knew that the movie’s background music is going to play jazz most of the time. And that pleases me. The same happened when it played twice at two exciting spots (one where Carol decides to stalk the widower, aka the chase with her mumbling husband Larry; another was when Larry took his car and drove it to Paul’s cinema backdoor after being telephone-blackmailed by Paul’s threatening killing Carol), the very famous track by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra called ‘Sing, Sing, Sing (with a Swing)’. And that actually reminded me, rather naturally, the tap dance by fred astaire and Gene Kelly. What an age!
(While I’m typing all these, my nose just wouldn’t let me off. It just kept runny wet.)
2. I have read several reviews and they’ve all commented on how great it must be to find a husband like Larry. Like he may seem to be discouraging to Carol’s suspicious or rather obsessive, self-absorbed adventures, but at the end of the day, he still risked his life to save you out of the shit you’ve created. Is that what he’s meant to be portrayed? To tell the truth I too can’t help but like that character. I especially like the part which showing how he responded to Carol’s clues – So what? He’s an old man who just becomes a widower. For Christ’s sake, leave the old man alone!
3. And his other funny lines:
［first lines］
Larry Lipton: C'mon, you promised to sit through the hockey game without being bored,
Carol Lipton: ［overlapping］ I know, honey, I promised.
Larry Lipton: and I'll sit through the Wagner opera with you next week.
Carol Lipton: I know.
Larry Lipton: I already bought the earplugs.
Carol Lipton: Yeah, well, with your eyesight I'm surprised you can see the puck (橡皮圓盤). Wow, yay, come on.
Larry Lipton: I think it's a reasonable assumption that if you're dead you don't suddenly turn up in the New York City Transit System.
Larry Lipton: I'll never say that life doesn't imitate art again.
Larry Lipton: Claustrophobia and a dead body - this is a neurotic's jackpot ((賭博中)累積獎金)!
Larry Lipton: New York is the city that never sleeps! That's why we don't live in Duluth. That, plus I don't even know where Duluth is. Lucky me.
Larry Lipton: Yes, of course you woke us - not everyone is up at 1 AM watching the porn channel.
Larry Lipton: This guy gets his jollies from licking the back of postage stamps.
Ted: I can see that, depending on who's on the stamp.
Larry Lipton: I can't listen to that much Wagner, ya know? I start to get the urge to conquer Poland.
Carol Lipton: I don't understand why you're not more fascinated with this! I mean, we could be living next door to a murderer, Larry.
Larry Lipton: New York is a melting pot! I'm used to it!
Carol Lipton: Helen Dubin's wrong for Ted. She's too mousey.
Larry Lipton: Well, he's a little mousey. They could have their little rodent (齧齒目動物的) time together, they could eat cheese together...
Larry Lipton: ［to Carol］ Save a little craziness for menopause (更年期)
Larry Lipton: C'mon, more, more! Adrenalin is leaking out of my ears! !
4. On the other hand, Ted seemed all (without reason, perhaps out of spontaneity fun) supportive of what Carol had in mind – and he’d accompany her to places where she believed to be related to the exciting murder case happened next to her door. Then he’d waited for some chance to sneak in some seductive, if not suggestive words. Carol was obviously aware of his affection towards her. The reason why she let him was solely because she was perhaps a bit bored and dried out in her marriage with Larry. And she may need Other to ascertain her attractiveness.
It may be interesting to turn to the motive of Ted being the seducer. Perhaps he too was bored. Perhaps to see a woman tingled was something fun to watch. Perhaps he had thought about confession this for a long time; there’s high chance he’s saying it genuinely (though I don’t buy) at the moment, the fact is, he couldn’t really fathom the real situation of having to handle Carol’s hysterical think-too-much in an higher-intimacy-level scenario, say cohabitation, say marriage, say to be in a real relationship. At most for a man to speak sweetnothings to a woman, he would have to experience a brand new stage once he actually got her heart, and had to stand her flaws, worries, and shit she may have stirred out of no reason – That for a man during constant courtship would never actually understand. The climax for them has already been reached once they see a woman aroused, or showing signs of interest. And it’s not uncommon to find these men at streets picking up girls with this mentality, and had entered into a relationship – and failed constantly because they just can’t stand the disillusioned picture of a woman they used to think it was. That’s why they’d always stayed hopelessly single, or stuck (rather self-inflicted) in a relationship that they think isn’t going anywhere.
5. Reference to other movie – Double Indemnity, Hitchcock’s Vertigo advertisement at the bus, the play they saw in the theatre is Guys and Dolls (1950), The lady from Shanghai – “I’m aiming at you, Lover. Of course, killing you is killing myself. But you know, I’m pretty tired of both of us.”, Casablanca, Peter Lorre – who caused an international sensation with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M (1931)
HD
