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P r ef a ce

M
ovies and Meaning focuses on narrative filmmaking, and on fictional
narratives in particular, because this is the most popular and perva-
sive form of filmmaking, seen by the largest audiences, and what most
people mean when they talk about “the movies.” Throughout the text, boxes
extend the major topics of discussion into more specialized areas and supplement
film examples with brief profiles of major directors. The reader will gain a more
comprehensive understanding of cinema by exploring these boxed discussions.
Each chapter ends with a few suggested readings to direct the interested reader’s
attention to more intensive treatments of basic issues. Boldface terms throughout
the text designate items defined in the glossary.

New to This Edition


With each new edition, I’ve aimed to improve the coverage of existing topics, add
coverage of new topics, and update the film examples and chapter information.
The sixth edition includes the following changes:
• I have incorporated new examples and pictures to illustrate fundamental con-
cepts and terminology as well as film syles and filmmakers and have broadened
the ­inclusion of international films and older, classic films.
• Spotlight discussions of directors Dorothy Arzner, Yasujiro Ozu, and Sergei
Eisenstein, sound designer Ben Burtt, and the traditions of French New Wave
and Italian neo-realist filmmaking.
• New spotlight discussions also examine 9/11 in the context of documentary
filmmaking and in terms of its influence upon Hollywood film.
• New case studies examine production design in Schindler’s List and the use of
fantasy in Pan’s Labyrinth.
• A new chapter examines visual effects and their use throughout cinema
history.
• I have abbreviated the discussion of film criticism and have enlarged the cover-
age of film theory, particularly psychoanalytic and feminist approaches.
• As in earlier editions, I’ve updated the coverage of digital tools used in
filmmaking.

How This Book is organized


Movies and Meaning provides a comprehensive introduction to the ­motion picture
medium. The text is organized around three basic questions: How do movies ex-
press meanings? How do viewers understand those meanings? How does cinema
function globally as an art and a business?
Most introductory film textbooks concentrate on the first question and tend to
vi
minimize or disregard the other two questions. A special feature of this book is the

A01_PRIN1029_06_SE_FM.indd 6 11/01/12 10:52 AM


Preface vii

attention that it gives to the ways that viewers understand and interpret the elements
of film structure and the attention that it gives to cinema as a global business as well
as an art. To fully understand the medium of cinema, the reader needs to know what
filmmakers do with the tools of their craft, how viewers respond to the designs those
tools create, and how the art and business of film are interrelated. Film is an art
form, but it is also a business enterprise. These two domains are not separate; they
map onto each other, and knowing one requires knowledge of the other.
These three core questions frame the essential attributes of cinema. The first
question—How do movies express meaning?—asks what filmmakers do and how
they do it. The basic tools of filmmaking include cinematography, production design,
the actors’ performance, editing, sound design, and narrative structure. Each of these
areas contributes to the organizing design of a film, and, by manipulating these tools,
filmmakers are able to express a range of meanings.
To look only at what filmmakers do to create meaning, though, is to leave
out a crucial part of the picture. One also needs to know what viewers do with
the movies they watch because, without viewers, there are no meanings in film.
The medium of cinema depends on a contract between filmmaker and viewer.
Together, they co-create the film experience.
Thus, the second core question—How do viewers understand film?—asks
what viewers do when watching movies. How do viewers interpret the audiovi-
sual designs that filmmakers have created? How do filmmakers anticipate in their
work the likely ways that viewers will react to certain kinds of stories and audio-
visual designs? What makes movies understandable to viewers in the first place?
How can filmmakers facilitate the viewer’s ability to understand and interpret the
images and sounds on screen?
Viewers respond to film, and understand it, by applying significant aspects
of their real-life visual, personal, and social experience as well as their knowl-
edge of motion picture conventions and style. The upcoming chapters emphasize
both aspects of this response: the mapping of real experience onto the screen and
the knowledge of medium-specific codes and style. This dual response is a func-
tion of the medium’s own duality, its ability to document visual reality and to
transform it. These functions receive special emphasis throughout the chapters
because they are fundamental to much of what the cinema does and how.
The third question—How does cinema operate as an art and business on a
global scale?—asks about the medium’s capacity as a business enterprise and a
­vehicle of creative expression. An account that emphasized the cinema only as an
art form would be inadequate and incomplete, and it would fail to grasp some
of the m­ edium’s essential features, namely, the remarkable interrelation between
art and commerce that has defined cinema since its inception. Filmmakers today
work in a medium that faces grave economic problems, and these problems are
affecting the kinds of films that get made. Furthermore, commercial filmmaking
operates as part of a global communications industry, which exerts considerable
influence on film content and style. At the same time, the global context carries
with it considerable diversity, with filmmakers representing a range of countries,
cultures, and styles. Although these issues of art and commerce, of cultural diversity
and h­ omogenization, are complex, no comprehensive examination of the medium
should ignore them.

A01_PRIN1029_06_SE_FM.indd 7 11/01/12 10:52 AM


viii Preface

About the Photographs


The photographs that appear in this textbook are frame enlargements. This ensures
that the images from films under study correspond exactly to the images on screen
that viewers see when watching a film. The use of frame enlargements is intended
to provide a major teaching advantage over other textbooks that use mainly public-
ity stills. Regarding publicity stills, these are taken by an on-set photographer dur-
ing the course of a film’s production, and they only approximate the actual shots
and compositions in a film. To exactly reproduce these, frame enlargements must
be used, and I have spent many hours producing these in optimal condition. The
frame enlargements used in this text are identified as such in the captions.

Supplements
Instructor’s Manual
The accompanying Instructor’s Manual, written by Stephen Prince, includes an
outline of the main emphases in each chapter, suggested teaching approaches for
the content, exercises, and sample test questions for every chapter. It is available
for download in our Instructor’s Resource Center, www.pearsonhighered.com/irc
(access code required).

PowerPoint Presentation Package


Available for download in our Instructor’s Resource Center, www.pearsonhighered
.com/irc (access code required), this text-specific package provides PowerPoint slides
for each chapter of the book.

Acknowledgments
For their valuable help on this and previous editions, I owe great thanks to Kevin
Davis, Linda Montgomery, Donald Larsson, Richard Terrill, Blake Wood, Paul
Helford, Joe Opiela, Karon Bowers, Terry Geeskin, Edd Sewell, Gerry Scheeler,
Carl Plantinga, Richard Dillard, Eric Poe Miller, Grant Corley, Bob Denton,
Teresa Darvalics, Marjorie Payne, Myrna Breskin, Marty Tenney, and Molly
Taylor. Also thanks to Susan Mattingly, Executive Director of the Lyric Theater,
who kindly allowed me to photograph the historic site. Philip Cho designed the
visual effects drawings and diagrams that appear in Chapter Eight.
The author gratefully acknowledges the following reviewers of the new
­edition:
Nancy Andreasen, Inver Hills Community College
Daniel Linton, University of Memphis
Robert Matorin, Middlesex Community College
Helen Robbins, Lyons University

A01_PRIN1029_06_SE_FM.indd 8 11/01/12 10:52 AM


1
Film Structure

Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

■ explain the nature of film structure and its ■ distinguish the three basic camera angles
relation to the ways movies express meaning and describe the ways they influence viewer
response
■ describe the production process and its
relation to film structure ■ differentiate telephoto, wide-angle, and zoom
lenses and explain their optical effects
■ describe the relation between film structure
and the cinema’s properties of time and space ■ explain the basic categories of camera
movement and their expressive functions
■ distinguish the three basic camera positions
and their expressive functions ■ explain how a film’s structural design is
shaped by a filmmaker’s choices about how to
■ describe how camera position can clarify the use the tools of style
meaning of an actor’s facial expression and
gestures
1

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2 c h a p t e r 1   Film Structure

■ describe the relation between the ■ explain how the camera creates images that
camera’s view of things and human both correspond with and transform the
perception viewer’s visual experience

The shark in Jaws (1975) and the digital characters in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King (2004) thrilled and amused moviegoers throughout the world. Audiences have em-
braced films as diverse as Toy Story 3 (2010), True Grit (2010), The Social Network (2010), and
The Dark Knight (2008). Each of these pictures provided its viewers with a strong cinematic
experience, crafted by filmmakers using the elements of film structure: camerawork, lighting,
sound, editing. To understand how movies express meanings and elicit emotions, one must
begin by understanding their structural design. This chapter explains the concept of film
structure, the camera’s role as an element of structure, and the relation between the camera’s
method of seeing and a viewer’s understanding of cinema.

Elements of Film Structure


Structure refers to the audiovisual design of a film and the particular tools and tech-
niques used to create that design. (Scholars sometimes refer to this by the term film
form. Thus, one might speak of formal design or of structural design. The terminol-
ogy is interchangeable.) A convenient way to illustrate this concept is to make a
distinction between structure and content. Consider the average newspaper movie
review. It provides a description of a film’s story and a paragraph or two about the
characters and the actors who play them. In addition, the reviewer might mention the
theme or themes of the film. These descriptions of story, character, and theme address
the content of the movie.
Now, instead of thinking about content, one could ask about those things that help
to create the story, give shape to the characters, and illustrate and visualize the themes.
These are questions about the elements of cinema—the camera, lights and color, produc-
tion design, performance, editing, sound—and their organization in a given film.

The Production Process


A helpful way of understanding film structure—and the material presented in upcom-
ing chapters—is to map its components according to their place in the production
process. When does production design occur? Cinematography? Editing? Filmmaking
involves three basic steps or stages. Preproduction designates the planning and prepa-
ration stage. It typically involves the writing of a script; hiring of cast and crew;
production design of sets, costumes, and locales; and planning the style of cinematog-
raphy. Set design and camera style are both previsualized using software programs
that enable filmmakers to “see” in advance how camera setups and lenses will look
on the sets that are planned. Preproduction also sometimes includes a brief period of
rehearsal for the actors. Production designates the work of filming the script (cinema-
tography) and sound recording of the action. The director may request a temp track,
a temporary musical score that is similar to the one that will be created for the film.
Postproduction involves the editing of sound and image, composition and record-
ing of the music score, additional sound recording for effects (Foley) and dialogue
replacement (ADR), creation of digital visual effects (these also may occur during pro-
duction), and color timing to achieve proper color balance in the images. This may be

M01_PRIN1029_06_SE_C01.indd 2 02/01/12 1:56 PM


Elements of Film Structure 3

PREPRODUCTION PRODUCTION POSTPRODUCTION

Script Shooting & Sound Editing of Sound & Image


optioning Recording of Scenes Music Scoring
writing Foley
revisions ADR
Hiring of Cast and Crew Digital Effects
Design of Sets and Costumes Color Timing (Digital/Lab)
Plan Style of Cinematography Release Prints
Rehearsals

Figure 1.1
The production process.

done digitally (known as digital grading) or using traditional lab methods. Copies of
the film are then made for exhibition, either as prints (on film) or as digital video.
Because filmmakers apply the elements of structure at different points in the
production process, these elements can be used to modify or influence one another. A
director might realize that a scene as filmed lacks emotional force and may turn to the
composer for music to supply the missing emotion or to the editor to sharpen its dra-
matic focus. A cinematographer in postproduction may alter the image captured on
film by using digital grading to adjust color, contrast, and other elements.

Titanic (Paramount/20th Century Fox, 1997)


Titanic’s production design evokes a now-vanished early-twentieth-century world.
Meticulously detailed costumes and sets are an essential part of the film’s structural design.
Frame enlargement.

M01_PRIN1029_06_SE_C01.indd 3 02/01/12 1:57 PM


4 c h a p t e r 1   Film Structure

The Role of the Director


A wide range of creative personnel design picture and sound on any given produc-
tion. While filmmaking is a collaborative enterprise, one individual has chief artistic
authority, and this is usually the director. The director coordinates and organizes the
artistic inputs of other members of the production team, who ­generally subordinate
their artistic tastes or preferences to a director’s stated wishes or vision. The direc-
tor, in turn, answers to the producer, who generally has administrative control over
a production (e.g., making sure the production stays on schedule and within budget).
In practice, though, many producers hold more than administrative authority and are
actively engaged with the director’s creative decisions, especially if the producer is a
powerful figure in the industry.
Great variety exists in the working methods of directors. Some directors, such as
Robert Altman (Gosford Park, 2001; The Player, 1992), welcome input from other
production team members in a spirit of shared collective artistry. Other directors, such
as Alfred Hitchcock or Charles Chaplin, tend to be more autocratic and commanding
in their creative approaches. Some directors, such as Woody Allen (Match Point, 2005;
Deconstructing Harry, 1997), Steven Spielberg (The War of the Worlds, 2005; Saving
Private Ryan, 1998), and Stanley Kubrick (Full Metal Jacket, 1987; Eyes Wide Shut,
1999), take an active role in the editing of their pictures. Most directors place special
emphasis on the quality of the script, believing a polished script to be essential to mak-
ing a good film. Clint Eastwood’s best films as director, Million Dollar Baby (2004),
Mystic River (2003), and Unforgiven (1993), feature exquisitely written scripts.
Most directors maintain enduring relationships with key production personnel.
As these relationships deepen over the course of several productions, the creative, col-
laborative work that results becomes richer. Steven Spielberg, for example, has used
cinematographer Janusz Kaminski for War Horse (2011), Munich (2005), The War of
the Worlds (2005), The Terminal (2004), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and others. Clint
Eastwood relied on production designer Henry Bumstead for eleven films, including
Million Dollar Baby (2004), Mystic River (2003), and Unforgiven (1993). Woody Allen
invariably relies on editor Susan E. Morse, as does Martin Scorsese with editor Thelma

The Immigrant (Mutual Film


Corp., 1917)
Charles Chaplin was the complete film-
maker. He wrote, directed, performed
in, edited, and composed the music for
his films. Many said that, were it pos-
sible, he’d have played all the characters
as well. He rarely worked from a com-
pleted script. He preferred to build a set,
dress it with props, and then explore
its comic possibilities, making up gags
as he went along. Performance, not
camerawork, was the centerpiece of his
films. Here, Charlie and his ­companion
(Edna Purviance) have no cash to pay for
the meal they’ve just eaten. The hulk-
ing waiter (Eric Campbell) suspects the
worst. Frame enlargement.

M01_PRIN1029_06_SE_C01.indd 4 02/01/12 1:57 PM


Elements of Film Structure 5

Schoonmaker. George Lucas relied on Ben Burtt as the sound designer for all six of
the Star Wars films. The continuities established by these professional relationships are
­vitally important to a director’s ability to get what he or she wants on the screen.

Time and Space in Cinema


The elements of cinematic structure, organized by directors and their production
teams, help to shape the distinctive properties of time and space in a film. A conve-
nient way of thinking about the arts is to consider the properties of time and/or space
that they possess. Music, for example, is primarily an art of time. Its effects arise
through the arrangement of tones in a musical composition that has some duration or
length. Movies, by contrast, are an art of time as well as space.
The time component of movies has several aspects. Running time designates the du-
ration of the film, the amount of time it takes a viewer to watch the film from beginning
to end. Most commercially released films are called feature films, which means that they
typically run from 90 to 120 minutes. Some films, however, are much longer. The Lord
of the Rings: The Return of the King (2004), in its theatrical release, was 201 minutes
long, and the director’s extended version on DVD runs even longer, 251 minutes.
Story time designates the amount of time covered by the narrative, and this can
vary considerably from film to film. In Fred Zinnemann’s western, High Noon (1952),
the story spans 1.5 hours, roughly equivalent to the running time of the film itself. Story
time, on the other hand, can span many epochs and centuries, as in Stanley Kubrick’s
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), which goes from the dawn of the apes well into the age
of space travel. Filmmakers also may organize story time through the use of flashbacks
so that it becomes fragmented, doubling back on itself, as in Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane
(1941), in which the story of Charles Foster Kane is told largely through the recollections
of friends and associates who knew him.
Internal structural time, a third distinct aspect of cinematic time, arises from the
structural manipulations of film form or technique. If a filmmaker edits a sequence so
that the lengths of shots decrease progressively, or become shorter, the tempo of the se-
quence will accelerate. A rapid camera movement will accelerate the internal structural
time of a shot. Regardless of the shot’s actual duration on screen, it will seem to move
faster. (The term shot designates the basic building block of a film. During production,
a director creates a film shot by shot. In this context, a shot corresponds to the amount
of film footage exposed by the camera from the time it is turned on until it is turned off.
Films are composed of many shots that are joined together in the process of editing. In a
completed film, a shot is the interval on screen between edit points.)
In Open Range (2003) and Dances with Wolves (1990), the editing imposes a
slow pace on the story by letting many shots linger on screen for a long time. Director
Kevin Costner felt that a slow pace suited those stately epics about an era when horse
and wagon were major modes of transportation. By contrast, contemporary action
films like the Mission Impossible series (1996, 2000, 2006) race at breakneck speed,
rarely pausing long enough for an audience to catch its breath.
A film’s internal structural time never unfolds at a constant rate. It is a dy-
namic property, not a fixed one. Filmmakers modulate internal structural time to
maintain viewer interest by changing camera positions, the lengths of shots, color
and lighting design, and the volume and density of the soundtrack.
Viewers experience internal structural time as a series of story events held in dy-
namic relations of tension and release. Viewers often describe films as being fast or

M01_PRIN1029_06_SE_C01.indd 5 02/01/12 1:57 PM


6 c h a p t e r 1   Film Structure

Filmmaker Spotlight

Stanley Kubrick
During his 46-year career, Stanley Kubrick made
only 12 feature films. Despite the relatively small
body of work that he left, however, he had an
extraordinary impact on the medium and is recog-
nized as one of its major filmmakers. A director of
legendary stature, he was renowned for spending
years planning a film and years more shooting it and
working on postproduction. Famous for doing many
takes of each shot and for the precision of his visual
designs, Kubrick honed a style that is unique and
unmistakable, and his films offer bleak but compel-
ling visions of human beings trapped and crushed
by the systems—social, ­military, technological—they
have created.
Kubrick’s reputation was that of an intellectual
director, keenly interested in a range of subjects and
whose films explored issues and ideas, yet he never
finished high school. At age 17 he dropped out and
began work as a photographer, working at Look
magazine for several years before completing two
The Shining (Warner Bros., 1980); A
documentary shorts for the March of Time newsreel Clockwork Orange (Warner Bros.,
company (Day of the Fight [1951] and Flying Padre 1971)
[1951]). Borrowing money from family and friends, Kubrick made some of the most imaginative
he then completed his first two features as director, and precisely designed films in cinema history.
Fear and Desire (1953) and Killer’s Kiss (1955). In a His passion for design led him to shoot 30 and
move that announced his conviction that cinema 40 takes of a shot until he had what he wanted.
was a medium of personal artistry and that he would The results were mysterious, haunting, and po-
control his own work, Kubrick produced, wrote, di- etic and included Jack Nicholson’s spectacular
madness in The Shining and visions of a violent,
rected, photographed, and edited these films.
authoritarian future in A Clockwork Orange. Frame
After another crime film, The Killing (1956), enlargements.
Kubrick made Paths of Glory (1958), a powerful
drama of World War I and the first of his films to all s­ ubsequent films. He next went to England to
pursue what would be his great theme, the domi- film Lolita (1962), from the controversial Vladimir
nation of people by the systems they have created Nabokov novel, and he then settled there, using
(envisioned in this film as the machinery of war and English production facilities for most of his ensuing
the pitiless chain of command). Influenced by the films. He was becoming a filmmaker whose work
moving camera of director Max Ophuls, Kubrick’s transcended national boundary.
sustained tracking shots became a signature ele- Dr. Strangelove (1963) is a modern classic, a
ment of his style. shrewd and superb satire of the Cold War and the
Kubrick’s next film, Spartacus (1960), was a policy of nuclear deterrence aptly named MAD
production on which he, uncharacteristically, did (Mutual Assured Destruction). Kubrick’s startling
not have complete authority (the picture b ­ elonged marriage of baroque imagery and popular music
to its star–producer Kirk Douglas), and as a result, (detonating atom bombs accompanied by the sen-
Kubrick was careful to work as his own producer on timental ballad “We’ll Meet Again”) became one

M01_PRIN1029_06_SE_C01.indd 6 02/01/12 1:57 PM


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Elements of Film Structure 7

of his trademarks, used famously in 2001: A Space the mind in The Shining (1980), which depicts the
Odyssey (spaceships pirouette to the Blue Danube ­hotel’s sinister influence on a mentally unstable care-
waltz) and A Clockwork Orange (lurid violence set to taker and his family and ends with one of the direc-
Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”). tor’s bleakest images of futility and alienation.
With Strangelove, these two films solidified Kubrick extended his pessimistic visions of hu-
Kubrick’s reputation as a social and cinematic man failure to eighteenth-century Ireland in Barry
visionary. 2001 (1968) is a visual feast whose Lyndon (1975) and the battlefields of Vietnam in
startling effects are married to a mystical and Full Metal Jacket (1985). His ­untimely death fol-
mind-bending narrative that takes humankind on lowed completion of Eyes Wide Shut (1999), a
a cosmic journey from the dawn of the apes to the haunting and mysterious evocation of erotic fan-
era of space travel. Controversial for its violence, A tasy and its emotional consequences.
Clockwork Orange (1971) depicted a brutal vision of Kubrick never made the same kind of film twice.
future society where the state learns to control the Each picture is uniquely different and uniquely reso-
violent impulses of its citizens. Kubrick said, “The nant and must be seen more than once before it
central idea of the film has to do with the ques- begins to yield up its treasures. Kubrick dedicated
tion of free will. Do we lose our humanity if we are his life to making films, and he believed that cin-
deprived of the choice between good and evil?” ema was an art. Few filmmakers gain the authority
By making the main character a thug and a men- to pursue this conviction without compromise.
ace to society, Kubrick aimed to give the question Kubrick’s achievements in this regard place him in
resonance. very select cinematic company. By showing film-
With dazzling Steadicam shots of a labyrinthine makers what the medium can achieve, Kubrick’s
hotel, Kubrick explored the effects of space on work remains a continuing inspiration. ■

slow moving, but in fact, the pacing of any given film typically varies as filmmakers
use structure to create narrative rhythms that alternately accelerate and decelerate.
While internal structural time results from a filmmaker’s manipulations of cinema
structure, viewers experience this type of time subjectively, and their responses often
vary greatly. One viewer may love the dramatic intensity and emotional lyricism of
The Bridges of Madison County (1995) or Monster’s Ball (2001), whereas another
may find the overall pacing of these films to be too slow.
Cinema is an art of time and space. The spatial properties of cinema have sev-
eral components. One involves the arrangement of objects within the frame (the
dimensions of the projected area on screen; the term also refers to the individual
still image on a strip of film). This is the art of framing, or composition, which is
discussed in the next chapter because it is a part of the cinematographer’s job.
The spatial properties of the cinema, though, go beyond the art of framing.
Cinema simulates an illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat screen. To do
so, it corresponds in key ways with the viewer’s experience of physical space in
daily life, and filmmakers create these correspondences in the design of their films.
Cinematographers control the distribution of light on the set to accentuate the shape,
texture, and positioning of objects and people. Film editors join shots to establish
spatial constancies on screen that hold regardless of changes in the camera’s position
and angle of view. Sound designers use the audio track to convey information about
physical space. The spatial properties of cinema are multi-dimensional and can be
expressed through many elements of structure. This chapter and succeeding chapters
explain these spatial properties and how filmmakers manipulate them.

M01_PRIN1029_06_SE_C01.indd 7 02/01/12 1:57 PM


8 c h a p t e r 1   Film Structure

Open Range (Touchstone, 2003) and Mission:


Impossible 2 (Paramount, 2000)
This Western, directed by Kevin Costner, has a slow pace because he wants to c­ oncentrate
on the characters and their situation rather than rushing over these for a­ ction or special
­effects. Costner also believes that a slow pace works well in Westerns where characters
travel by horse or wagon. Snappy editing and a fast pace would be as ill-suited to this
material as a leisurely pace would be for contemporary action films, such as the Mission:
Impossible series. Frame enlargements.

Structure and the Camera


Let us begin our understanding of film structure by discussing the fundamentals of
camera usage. The basic issues of camera position and lenses as discussed in this
chapter are actually part of cinematography. But it will be helpful to cover them
here separately as an introduction to the camera. These must be grasped before more
complex issues of cinematography can be examined in the next ­chapter. The cam-
era’s position, angle, lens, and the camera’s movement have a major impact on the
visual structure of every film. The reader seeking to ­understand cinema should begin
with a clear sense of the relationship among these characteristics and the differences
between them.

M01_PRIN1029_06_SE_C01.indd 8 02/01/12 1:57 PM


Structure and the Camera 9

Camera Position
The most basic way of classifying camera usage is in terms of camera position. This re-
fers to the distance between the camera and the subject it is photographing. Obviously,
the camera-to-subject distance is a continuum with an infinite series of points from very
close to very far. In practice, however, the basic positions usually are classified as varia-
tions of three essential camera setups: the long shot, the medium shot, and the close-up.
Each of these positions has its own distinct e­ xpressive ­functions in the cinema.
Filmmakers typically use the long shot to stress environment or setting and
to show a character’s position in relationship to a given environment. In Titanic
(1997), the majesty of the ship’s enormous size is conveyed with a series of long
shots that contrast the huge ship with the tiny passengers that crowd its decks.
When they are used to open a film or begin a scene, long shots may be referred to
as establishing shots. Many detective films, for example, begin with a long shot of
the urban environment, often taken from a helicopter.
In contrast to the long shot, the medium shot brings viewers closer to the char-
acters while still showing some of their environment. In The Phantom of the Opera
(2004), a medium-shot framing shows the Phantom (Gerard Butler) embracing
Christine (Emmy Rossum) while revealing details of the Phantom’s candlelit lair
underneath the opera house. Sometimes medium shots are labeled according to the
number of characters who are present within the frame. Accordingly, this shot from
The Phantom of the Opera would be termed a two-shot. A three-shot and a four-shot
would designate medium shots with larger numbers of people.
By contrast with long and medium shots, the close-up stresses characters or ob-
jects over the surrounding environment, usually for expressive or dramatic purposes,
and it can be an extremely powerful means for guiding and directing a viewer’s atten-
tion to important features of a scene’s action or meaning.
Once the filmmaker chooses a camera position, the camera is typically locked
down on a tripod or other type of platform in order to produce a steady image
without jitter. Alternatively, rather than locking the camera down, the filmmaker

An American in Paris
(MGM, 1951)
Longer, full-figure framings in
the dance sequences of classic
Hollywood musicals showcase the
beauty of the dance. The longer
framing allows the viewer to see
the performer’s entire body in mo-
tion. By contrast, contemporary
filmmakers “cheat” when they
film dance, using fast editing and
close-ups to create the impression
of a dance performance without
showing the real thing. Here, Gene
Kelly dances in an elaborate pro-
duction number designed around
the styles of Impressionist painting.
Frame enlargement.

M01_PRIN1029_06_SE_C01.indd 9 02/01/12 1:57 PM


10 c h a p t e r 1   Film Structure

There Will Be Blood (Paramount, 2007)


Medium-shot compositions can stress the relationship among characters while integrating
them into their environment. This medium shot, in widescreen, preserves the intimacy of
this moment between Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) and an orphaned child that
he has adopted. The widescreen frame enables the viewer to see a great deal of the train
compartment in which they are riding. Frame enlargement.

might work with a hand-held camera. In this case, the camera operator p ­ hysically
holds the camera, either on his or her shoulder or on a harness strapped to his or her
body. Long shots, medium shots, and close-ups can be filmed in this fashion. Going
hand-held enables a filmmaker to cover the action of a scene in a more flexible and
spontaneous way, but the challenge is to produce a smooth and steady image. (The
Steadicam can help to achieve this—it is discussed in the section on camera move-
ment.) All the shots in Jaws (1975), when the characters are at sea, are done with a

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (New Line, 2001)
Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) is a strong, spiritual presence as ruler of the domain of
Lothlorien, where the film’s heroes journey seeking refuge. Note how the close-up
­framing concentrates attention on her face. The framing is tight, and the focal plane
of the shot does not extend beyond her face. This gives the close-up additional punch.
The halo of light and Galadriel’s glowing, luminescent appearance were created digitally
in post-production. Frame enlargement.

M01_PRIN1029_06_SE_C01.indd 10 02/01/12 1:57 PM


Structure and the Camera 11

Jaws (Universal, 1975)


All the shots in the second half of Jaws, once the characters are at sea, are done with a
hand-held camera. They look remarkably steady, however, because the camera o ­ perator
used his body to absorb the rocking of the boat. The camera had to be hand-held
­because locking it to a tripod or other fixed platform would have induced seasickness
in the viewer. The camera operator was Michael Chapman, who went on to become
­cinematographer of Raging Bull and Taxi Driver. Frame enlargement.

hand-held camera. It was impossible to do otherwise—locking the camera down on a


rocking boat would have made the film’s viewers seasick!
The fact that filmmakers can choose among different camera positions illus-
trates a basic difference between cinema and theater. In theater, the spectator views
a play from a single fixed vantage point, a position in the auditorium, usually from
a distance. By contrast, in film, viewers watch a shifting series of perspectives on the
­action, and their ability to understand the story requires synthesizing the shifting
points of view as the filmmaker moves from one camera position to another, from
shot to shot. How viewers make sense of changing views of a scene supplied by differ-
ent camera positions is a major issue to be examined in the chapter on editing.
Camera Position, Gesture, and Expression By varying the camera-to-subject dis-
tance, the filmmaker can manipulate the viewer’s emotional involvement with the
material in complex ways. What the camera sees is what the spectator sees. As the
camera moves closer to a character, viewers are brought into the character’s personal
space in ways that can be very expressive and emotional.
People express emotion and intention in ways that go beyond the words they
speak. Posture, gesture, facial expression, eye contact, and vocal inflection express
feelings and help to define relationships. These signals vary by culture, but all mem-
bers of a society learn how to read the expressions and gestures of other people as
a way of inferring what they are thinking or feeling. By varying camera placement,
filmmakers can call attention to significant expressions and gestures and thereby help
viewers understand the meaning of the relationships and situations depicted on screen.
When a filmmaker cuts to a close-up, the director can emphasize and clarify a charac-
ter’s reaction, as well as bring viewers into the action and the personal emotional space of
the character. Depending on how the viewer feels about that character, this can give rise to
either positive emotions (e.g., compassion, empathy) or negative ones (e.g., fear, anxiety).

M01_PRIN1029_06_SE_C01.indd 11 02/01/12 1:57 PM


Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
identified Arthur Orton as her son, and stuck to it through thick and
thin. Hallucinations of that sort do occur. And one couldn't help
noticing Miss Fordingbridge's talk about spiritualism and so forth, all
tending to show that she had a sort of fixed idea that her nephew
would turn up sooner or later. That discounted the value of her
identification a good deal, but it didn't discredit it completely, of
course.
“Now go back a stage. The thing was a two-man job at Peter
Hay's. Therefore, whether the claimant or Fordingbridge was our
man, we had to find a second fellow for the accomplice's part. The
claimant we knew nothing about at that stage; and I proposed to
look into his affairs later. If Paul Fordingbridge was one of the
murderers, on the other hand, then, who was his accomplice? ‘Cui
bono?’ again. If the claimant could be kept out of the succession,
who was next on the list? Stanley Fleetwood's wife.”
Careless of the inspector's feelings, Wendover broke out at this
point:
“You won't persuade me you were such an ass, Clinton, as to
suppose that young Fleetwood helped in a murder merely for the
sake of cash or any other reason?”
“It wasn't my business to make pets of anyone, and exclude
them from suspicion merely because I liked them in private life,
squire. Many murderers are most amiable persons—Crippen, for
example. ‘A fair field and no favour’ is the only motto for a
conscientious detective.
“Before we had time to delve further into the Peter Hay case,
however, the Staveley murder occurred. There's no need to go into
the whole business; it's fresh in your minds; but I'll tell you the main
points that struck me when we'd finished our examination of the
scene of the murder.
“First, Staveley had banged his wrist and stopped his watch at
11.19. But, of course, that didn't prove he'd been killed at that
moment. Second, his clothes were wet under his rainproof; and,
he'd been shot through both rainproof and jacket, it must have
rained before he was shot. Third, since the car-tracks had gone back
on a dry road for a while before the rain came on and made them
clearer, Staveley was killed after the car had gone off; and the
people in the car weren't mixed up in the actual killing. Fourth, there
was only one cartridge-case to be seen—the one on the rock. There
was no cartridge-case at the groyne when I searched the place.
Besides, that track at the groyne belonged to the man in the car, and
he was cleared completely by the rain question. If I was right in my
inferences, then the murder must have been committed by one of
three people: the woman with the neat shoes, Billingford, or
someone who had left no tracks on the sand.
“The letter we found in Staveley's pocket showed the business;
and you worked up the case against them that Mrs. Fleetwood had
been to meet him on the previous night at the rock; and, as she was
acting in conjunction with a man, there wasn't much trouble in
inferring that young Fleetwood might have been on the spot also, as
soon as we heard that the Fleetwoods' car had been out all night:
You, inspector, jumped to the conclusion that the Fleetwoods were
at the back of the business; and you worked up the case against
them very convincingly. But, as I told you at the start, the case
wasn't sound. I wanted all the data I could get, of course, so I didn't
discourage you too much; and you eventually dragged out a lot of
interesting material about the events of the night.
“Meanwhile, we'd come to a blank end with the Fleetwoods and
had turned to Billingford. My impression was that he seemed
genuinely surprised by the news of Staveley's murder; but he might
have been acting, for all one could tell. What we did get out of him
was the general impression that Flatt's cottage was inhabited by a
gang of rogues. How many were there? Three, if one took Billingford
at face value; four, if one believed the story the claimant blurted out
when we questioned him at the cottage.
“Anyone could see that the fourth man was a dark horse. He
might be the murderer whom they were shielding, possibly. But
there was another explanation of his disappearance; he might be
someone well known to the local people, and whom it was desirable
to keep under cover. How would that fit in with things? Suppose the
claimant was an impostor; he wouldn't be very anxious to meet the
villagers more than he could help, for fear of dropping on someone
who might trap him and expose him. The less he saw of his
neighbors the better; and his disfigurement gave him a fair excuse
for keeping indoors in the daytime. Staveley was well enough known
to the villagers also; and perhaps he had good reason for not
wishing his presence known. If the fourth man was in the same
boat, then none of them would care to go shopping and so forth,
and yet supplies had to be got daily. Hence it might be convenient to
have a man like Billingford as the nominal host, to act as go-
between for them in their public transactions. That's how it appeared
to me. Naturally, I was curious about the fourth man, and I got you,
inspector, to set a watch and see if he could be recognised.
“That left me with a fair suspicion that these fellows were
hatching some devilment or other at the cottage. Then I noticed the
card-index; and I saw light to some extent. A card-index implies the
need for ready reference. The claimant, if he were a fraud, would
need to cram himself with all the available facts about the doings of
the real Derek Fordingbridge—just as Arthur Orton crammed up all
the facts about Roger Tichborne. And a card-index would be the
handiest repository of all the news they could collect. As you saw for
yourself, squire, that guess of mine was right.
“Assume that state of affairs—I had no certain knowledge then—
and things begin to fall into their places. I've given you my notion of
why Billingford was needed. What about the other three?
“The claimant was obviously needed to represent Derek
Fordingbridge; and he'd been cast for the part on two grounds. First,
his face was so much damaged that no one could swear to his
original appearance. He might quite well have been Derek or anyone
else, so far as that went. Then the loss of his fingers made him
invaluable also, because he couldn't be expected to write like the
real Derek nowadays, with a mutilated hand. All that was wanted in
addition was a good memory to cram up the immense amount of
facts that they needed in order to meet questioning.
“Then there was Staveley. What was he doing in the affair? Well,
obviously, he had a lot of information about the Foxhills people
which he must have picked up while he stayed there with the real
Derek on leave, and also some more facts which he must have
learned from Mrs. Fleetwood from time to time.
“And, finally, there was the fourth man. I suspected that he
might turn out to be a second information-mine; and when I heard
the report you gave me, inspector, about the fishermen and Sapcote
having recognised him as an ex-valet at Foxhills, I felt I was getting
on to fairly sure ground.
“Well, there were four of them to share in the loot if they pulled
it off. But a third's better than a quarter-share any day. If they had
pumped Staveley dry of his information, and had got notes of it all
on that card-index, what further need had they for friend Nicholas?
None whatever.
“And suppose they could involve the Fleetwoods in a murder case
and get them hanged, wouldn't that remove one possible set of
objectors to the claimant dropping into the funds? So I didn't
exclude the possibility that they knew—although they denied it—that
Staveley was going to meet Mrs. Fleetwood at Neptune's Seat that
night. When I say ‘they,’ I really mean the faceless fellow and Aird.
“There was a further long shot possible. I'm not sure if it really
entered into their plans; but I give it you for what it's worth.
Suppose they suggested a walk along the sands to Billingford that
evening, and arranged matters so that he would reach the rock just
after the murder had been committed and they had cleared out.
Wouldn't that have been a tight corner for Master Billingford? With
any luck he might have been hung for the murder, since he'd no
evidence but his own to rely on to prove he wasn't on the spot when
the shot was fired. And then there would be only two of them,
instead of four, to share out the loot if they got it.
“You see now how I was beginning to look at the affair. But I was
considerably worried by the woman with the neat shoe. Her part in
the business would have to be cleared up eventually; but for the
moment I had to put it aside.
“And then our friends made their second blunder—trying to prove
too much, as usual. Friend Cargill came on the scene, innocently
going down to bathe. He sat down on the groyne and proceeded to
dig up a .38 cartridge-case, which he presented to me like an honest
fellow anxious only to help the police. Well, all three of us had been
over that particular bit of sand and had seen no cartridge-case
before he arrived on the scene. Also, as I pointed out to you, squire,
an automatic ejects its cartridge-case sharply and jerks it well
behind you, especially on hard sand where the thing can jump
along. It was obvious that no one could fire a shot from Fleetwood's
position at the groyne and leave his ejected shell lying close under
the groyne, where Cargill assured me he'd kicked it up. So naturally
I began to look at Mr. Cargill with more than common interest; and,
as you saw yourselves, he's got a build rather like the claimant's, so
I wondered if they were related.
“Then our friend Cargill told us his yarn about meeting Derek
Fordingbridge in the war; and off he went to meet his dear old
friend. And later on he volunteered eagerly that he'd had a talk with
the dear old fellow. By that time I was more than a bit suspicious of
the dear old friend; and naturally some of that suspicion spilled over
on to Cargill. If the claimant was an impostor, then the man who
recognised him was a liar; and, as I had no use for aimless liars in a
case of this sort, I inferred that Master Cargill was one of the gang,
posted at the hotel for intelligence purposes—to keep an eye on the
Fordingbridge group. And that cleared up one of the main difficulties
I'd had—namely, how the murderer had known to use a .38
automatic so as to match the Fleetwood pistol. Of course, if you
assume that Cargill had taken the opportunity of rummaging in
Fleetwood's room, or had drawn him into talk about pistols, they
would be sure of their ground on that point. That had been a
troublesome point to me; for I didn't like to stretch coincidence to
the extent of assuming it was mere accident that made the
Fleetwood pistol and the bullet in the body both of the same calibre.
“It remained to check Billingford's story as far as possible, and
you know how the runnel helped us in that. What the facts of the
case proved beyond any reasonable doubt was that at 11.19 p.m.
Billingford was about three-quarters of a mile from Neptune's Seat.
With the sound of the sea in his ears, it's most unlikely that he could
hear a pistol-shot at that distance. And his tracks showed him
walking along quite steadily there. Then, at a point far nearer the
rock—a point that I suppose he may have reached about 11.35 p.m.
—the trail showed that he began to run. Now that fitted in with his
story. At that second point he might quite well have heard a shot
fired on the rock, just as he said he did. He couldn't possibly, on the
facts we established, have reached the rock before about 11.37 or
11.38; and by that time the murder was done and the murderer had
got away.
“By that time I felt fairly sure of my ground; and I got that
digging in the sand started, just on the off-chance that we might get
hold of the shell of the cartridge which really did kill Staveley. It
wasn't absolutely necessary for the case; but, if it turned up, then it
would help to confirm my notions. As it was bound to be below tide-
mark, there was no point in trying to locate its exact position, since
it might have been washed about by the waves in the falling tide
after the shot was fired. So I simply had the whole strip of sand dug
up and dumped down above the high-water mark for future
examination.
“Meanwhile, I'd been on the hunt for the dame with the neat
shoe—a No. 4, as you remember. There were several of the guests
wearing shoes of that size; but I picked out Mme. Laurent-
Desrousseaux first of all because she seemed likeliest. Staveley had
served in France; she was a Frenchwoman; she was at Lynden
Sands Hotel, where she most obviously was out of place and knew
no one. It seemed best to find out something about her.
“I talked to her. She was a bit lonely, it seems, and quite ready to
go for a walk now and again. I know my own length of pace; so, by
counting hers in a given distance and comparing with the numbers
of my own, I made a fair guess at her step-measurement. It fitted in
with the prints of the neat shoe on the sands. Gentle treatment did
the rest, as you saw. She told us her story quite honestly, and it
threw a good deal of light on the affair. I inferred from it just what
you yourself inferred later on, squire: the shot fired by Mrs.
Fleetwood at 11.19; Staveley's fall on the rock; and the bolt in the
car to the hotel. And, in turn, this checked Billingford's story quite
neatly, because he couldn't have heard the shot at 11.19, being so
far away. It was the second shot, about 11.35, that he heard.
“Now, let's reconstruct what really happened; and remember
that, although it was full moon, it was a cloudy night, and the light
was bad all through. We'll begin with Staveley leaving the cottage.
He's in a bad temper; been drinking as well as playing poker. He
gets to the rock and waits for Mme. Laurent-Desrousseaux. She's
late; and his temper gets worse. She arrives and tells him she wants
to get a divorce arranged. Between his temper and the chance he
sees of making her pay sweetly for the favour she asks he treats her
brutally, and sends her off both pained and angry. Then Mrs.
Fleetwood arrives, and that meeting culminates in the shot she fired
at 11.19 by accident. Then you get the talk between the Fleetwoods
at the car, overheard by Mme. Laurent-Desrousseaux; their drive
back to the hotel; and her hurry to get away from what she thinks is
the scene of a murder. That leaves Staveley on the rock, stunned by
his fall; and Billingford sauntering across the sands towards the
runnel. In the meantime, Aird and the gentleman without a face
have got out the boat belonging to Flatt's cottage and are rowing for
Neptune's Seat, which is just above tide-level.
“Down comes the rain. Staveley gets soaked; and perhaps the
chill revives him. He staggers up and puts on his rainproof. Then in
comes the boat, and they shoot him without having to land on the
rock at all. The ejector jerks the cartridge-case into the water, where
it sinks into the sand and gets covered up by the wash of the waves.
The murderer and his pal row off into the dark. Meanwhile Billingford
has heard the shot, and he, not knowing anything about this little
plot, rushes up—rather pluckily—to see what it's all about, and he
finds the body on the rock. That explains the two shots and the
general chronology of the affair.
“Now, by this time friend Cargill had made his second error. He'd
been keeping his eye on things at the hotel, and he'd got hold of
that envelope which Mme. Laurent-Desrousseaux addressed to
Staveley and dropped in the waste-paper basket. He thought he
could give me a fresh scent to follow up, and he was just going to
produce it when he realised that Mme. Laurent-Desrousseaux herself
was with us; so he suppressed it then and handed it over later on.
All it did was to confirm me in the idea that he was one of the gang.
“Up to that point everything seemed plain sailing. I had, as I
believed—and as it turned out in the end—got the thing cut and
dried against the gang at the cottage. The case wasn't complete;
but, short of getting some direct evidence from one of the two
actual murderers, I didn't see how I was to make it absolutely water-
tight. They'd been a bit too clever for a jury, I feared. And, of
course, the Peter Hay case was getting clearer also, once you could
assume that these fellows would stick at nothing.
“Then, out of the blue, came the shooting of Cargill. That
wouldn't fit in with the rest of the business. Cargill wasn't a pawn
like Staveley and Billingford. He was watching one end of the
business for them—keeping an eye on us for one thing; and,
besides, I was becoming more and more sure that he was a brother
of the faceless fellow, and possibly the brains of the gang. They had
a use for him; they wouldn't shoot him. But, then, who did?
“And at that point I took a long cast back and raked up again a
possibility I'd dismissed at an earlier stage. Suppose that both the
claimant and Paul Fordingbridge were wrong 'uns, what then?
Suppose friend Paul had been at some hanky-panky with the funds
he held in trust for his nephew. Then, whether the claimant was an
impostor or not, it would be very convenient for friend Paul if the
claimant left this vale of tears. And the claimant and Cargill were
much alike in build; and Cargill was shot after leaving the cottage.
There might be something in it. And when I found that friend Paul
carried a pistol in his pocket, and didn't care who knew it, by the
look of his jacket, I began to think furiously.
“I didn't blame Paul for carrying arms. In his position, with that
gang at the cottage in the offing, I think it was a wise precaution;
for he must have known that he was the main stumbling-block in the
claimant's road. But I don't think that he kept within the limits of
precaution. I think he decided to get ahead of them by knocking out
the claimant—and after that he would be able to live in peace as
heretofore.
“However, I never had time to probe that matter any further, for
the next business was the disappearance of friend Paul. I think I
have a fair notion how that was managed.
“They approached him and asked for an interview. He sent the
claimant a scrap of paper:

‘Meet me at the Blowhole to-night at 11 p.m. Come alone.’

The last two words give you the key to friend Paul's feelings
about them. One man he could keep an eye on, and he didn't
propose to have any more present. Of course, they filed that note
and used it again later, as you'll remember.
“Probably the claimant met him at the Blowhole and suggested a
walk over the open sands as a good way of avoiding eavesdroppers.
Paul would feel safer in the open. By the time they reached the old
wreck the claimant would have got him interested, or else his
natural fears would be dissipated. At the hulk the claimant obviously
turned, as though to go back across the sands, and Paul turned with
him. Then, from behind the hull, Aird stole out and did le coup du
Père François.”
“What's that?” Wendover demanded. “You talked a lot about Père
François and Sam Lloyd's ‘Get off the Earth’ puzzle, I remember.”
“If you happen to be in Paris late at night, squire, and a rough-
looking customer asks you the time or begs for a match, you'd
better look out for his friend—le Père François, they call him—who
may be coming up behind you with a long strip of flannel in his
hand. While the first man holds you in talk, the Père François lassoes
you with his flannel rope and pulls the two ends so that it catches
your throat. Then he sinks down suddenly and turns his back to you,
slipping the rope over his shoulder as he turns. This pulls you down
back to back with him; and when he rises to his normal height
again, there you are on his back like a sack on a coal-heaver's back,
with your feet off the ground. The first man then goes through your
pockets at his leisure, and if you choke to death before he's done, so
much the worse for you. You can't struggle with any effect.
“That I suspect, was how they caught friend Paul; and Aird just
carried him on his back to the quicksand and dumped him in. From
Aird's footmarks it was clear he'd been carrying a heavy weight; the
prints were deep and the feet almost parallel after he'd done his
Père François trick. See now what I meant by ‘Get off the Earth’?
Naturally there were no signs of a struggle, since all the struggle
was off the ground. And, of course, they'd take care to wear shoes
that left no clue—common type and largest size. And they got away
either in a boat or by wading along in the water, so as to leave no
tracks. I could see no way to bring the affair home to them. The
only sure method depended on our wringing evidence out of one of
them somehow; and I didn't see how it could be managed just then.
Also, I hadn't much of a case against Cargill beyond suspicion; and I
wanted him too, if it could be managed.
“The next thing was the arrival of the Fordingbridge lawyer; and
from him I learned that we might get on the track of any
malversations by Friend Paul if I went up to London. I wanted to
know definitely where I stood in that matter, because, if I was wrong
there, then the whole latter part of my notions would collapse. So I
made up my mind to go to town.
“But I was very uneasy. Now that Paul Fordingbridge was out of
the road for good, Mrs. Fleetwood was the only person between the
claimant and the cash. If she disappeared in her turn, then Miss
Fordingbridge would have welcomed her long-lost nephew with pure
joy and gratitude for his preservation, and there would have been no
one left alive to object to his coming into Foxhills and the rest.
Therefore, I was inclined to take some steps to see that she came to
no harm while I was away.
“The obvious thing to do would have been to warn her. But that
would have meant giving my case away to the Fleetwoods; and I
don't feel inclined to chuck confidences around if it can be avoided,
as I've pointed out before. Further, the police were not altogether in
good odour with the Fleetwoods; and I wasn't sure if I'd make much
impression on them by a mere warning, with nothing to back it. So I
hit on the notion of putting a man on to watch Mrs. Fleetwood; and,
as a further precaution, I fixed up that code-wire so that if I wanted
it I could have her arrested at a moment's notice, and then she'd be
safe in police hands and out of reach of the gang.
“I went up to London and found, as I'd expected, that friend Paul
had been playing ducks and drakes with all the securities he could
handle without exciting too much suspicion. He seems to have been
speculating right and left, most unsuccessfully. So I'd been right
about his motives, anyhow.
“But I couldn't get out of my mind the risk I was letting that girl
run; and at last—I suppose Miss Fordingbridge would say it was
telepathy or something—I got the wind up completely, and wired to
have her arrested. After that I felt safer.
“As you know, they'd been too quick for me. They fished out the
note that Paul Fordingbridge wrote to the claimant and they sent it
to her as if it came from Paul himself, after altering the hour on it.
She thought her uncle was in trouble; went to help him; dodged the
constable; and fell straight into the trap they'd set for her. You know
all the rest. And probably by now you understand why I was quite
content to let Mr. Aird have his full dose in the funnel of the
souffleur. There's nothing like a confession for convincing a jury, and
I meant him to hang if it could be managed. I didn't want to run any
risk of his getting off merely because it was all circumstantial
evidence.”
“Thanks,” said Wendover, seeing that the chief constable had
finished his outline. “To quote from that favourite detective story of
yours:

In one moment I've seen what has hitherto been


Enveloped in absolute mystery.

There's just one point I'd like to hear you on. What about
Staveley's resuscitation after his being killed in the war? Did you get
to the bottom of that by any chance?”
Sir Clinton hesitated a little before answering.
“I don't much care about pure guesswork, squire; but, if you'll
take it as that, then I don't mind saying what I think. Suppose that
is what happened. Staveley and Derek Fordingbridge went into
action together; and Staveley was under a cloud at the time. He'd
probably had enough of the war, and was looking for a way out.
Derek Fordingbridge gets killed in that battle, and is probably badly
damaged in the process—made unrecognisable we may suppose.
Staveley sees him killed, and grasps at the chance offered. He takes
Derek's identity disc off the body and leaves his own instead.
Probably he takes the contents of the pockets too, and puts his own
papers into the dead man's pockets. They were friends; and, if
anyone saw him at work, he'd have his excuse ready. No one would
think he was robbing the dead. Then he goes on—and simply hands
himself over to the enemy. He's a prisoner of war—under Derek's
name.
“He manages to escape, and the escape is put down to Derek's
credit. But, of course, Derek never turns up again; and naturally
people suppose that he must have died of exposure in his last
attempt, or been shot at the frontier, or something of that sort.
Meanwhile Staveley, once out of Germany, drops his borrowed
identity, probably changes his name, and disappears. I suspect he
was in very hot water with the military authorities, and was only too
glad of the chance to vanish for good.
“After the war, he evidently got in amongst a queer gang, and
lived as best he could. Billingford's evidence points to that. And
somewhere among this shoal of queer fish he swam up against our
friend Cargill. My reading of the thing is that somehow Staveley gave
away—perhaps in his cups—something of what I've given you as my
guess; and Cargill, remembering his disfigured brother, saw a grand
scheme to be worked by putting forward his brother as claimant to
the Foxhills property.
“It wasn't half so wild a plan as the Tichborne business, and you
know how that panned out at the start. So the three of them set to
work to see the thing through. Staveley, I suspect, got hold of Aird,
who had invaluable information about all the affairs at Foxhills in the
old days. Then they went to work systematically with their card-
index and noted down everything that Aird and Staveley could
remember which would bear on the case.
“That accounts for the delay in the claimant turning up. It
probably was quite recently that Staveley fell in with Cargill. And
evidently the delay points to the fact that Staveley wasn't the
originator of the notion, else he'd have got to work much earlier. It
was only when he fell in with Cargill, who had a brother suitable to
play the part of the claimant, that anything could be done. Then
they must have spent some time in unearthing Aird.
“Well, at last they're ready. They come down to Lynden Sands
with their card-index handy. Now, the claimant doesn't want to
appear in public more than he can help, for every stranger is a
possible danger to him. He might fail to recognise some old friend,
and the fat might be in the fire. Nor does Staveley want to show
himself; for his presence might suggest the source of the claimant's
information. Aird's in the same position. And when they learn that
the Fordingbridges are at the hotel, Cargill is detached there to keep
an eye on them. Thus they need a go-between; and Billingford is
brought down to serve that purpose. Also, as soon as the claimant
makes his first move there will be sure to be a lot of gossip in the
village, anecdotes of the claimant's history floating round, and so
forth; and Billingford will be able to pick them up and report them to
the rest of the gang. They'd have been safer to leave Staveley and
Aird in London; but I suppose they were afraid something might be
sprung on them and they wanted their references handy.
“Peter Hay, I suspect, they fastened on as being the most
dangerous witness. Probably Aird made an appointment for the
claimant, and they called at the poor old chap's cottage at night. He
evidently refused to have anything to do with them; and he was too
dangerous to leave alive; so they killed him. Then they went after
the diary—probably Aird knew about that, or else Peter may have let
the information out somehow—and they took Hay's keys to get into
Foxhills. The silver plant was an obvious muddle. They hadn't Cargill
at the back of them at the time, and they made that mistake on the
spur of the moment.
“By that time they'd got in touch with Miss Fordingbridge. Aird
would know all about her spiritualistic leanings, and they played on
that string. But soon they learned they were up against Paul
Fordingbridge; and they began to see that it would be easiest to put
him out of their road.
“Meanwhile Staveley took it into his head to work on his own by
trying to blackmail the Fleetwoods. And you know what came of
that. The rest of the gang thought they could kill two birds with one
stone—at least, the gang minus Billingford, for really I don't think
Billingford was much more than a tool.
“Now, inspector, how far does that square with all the
confidences you extracted last night from that precious pair of
scoundrels? Do I get a box of chocolates or only a clay pipe in this
competition?”
The inspector made no attempt to suppress the admiration in his
tone.
“It's wonderfully accurate, sir. You're right on every point of
importance—even down to what happened in the war.”
“That's a relief,” the chief constable admitted with a laugh. “I was
rather afraid that I'd

. . . Summed it so well that it came to far more


Than the witnesses ever had said!

And now I think I'll go back to the hotel and try to make my
peace with the Fleetwoods. I like them, and I'd hate to leave a false
impression of my character on their minds. Care to come along,
squire?”

THE END
Transcriber’s Note
This transcription follows the text of the Grosset & Dunlap edition
published in 1928. The following alterations have been made to
correct what are believed to be unambiguous printer's errors.

“Laurent-Desrousseux” has been changed to “Laurent-


Desrousseaux” (Ch. XI).
“tha” has been changed to “that” (Ch. XI).
“Stavely” has been changed to “Staveley” (Ch. XVII).
“coudn't” has been changed to “couldn't” (Ch. XVII).
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYSTERY AT
LYNDEN SANDS ***

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