Analyzing the characters in the movie is a very interesting thing. Shelby Carpenter, played by Vincent Price, is a typical "dismantling the white party." He used his fairly handsome face and skillful words to win the favor of women. This set of his was indeed very successful. He got money from Ms. Ann Treadwell, a rich middle-aged woman. She even got the love of Launa, a professional woman who was very successful in her career, and gave him her personal approval. For such a person, love or friendship, which is very important to many people, is not important to him. The pursuit of maximizing personal practical interests is his most important life goal.
The middle-aged woman, Ann, is actually very aware of her shortcomings and strengths. She knows that her shortcomings are that she is old and yellow, and physically lacks attractiveness to men. The advantage is that it is rich. She also knows that having money can make those handsome men love her, and she doesn't care if the other party pretends to love her for her money, just make her feel happy.
The actor Mark McPherson (played by Dana Andrews) was not a flattering character at the beginning of the film, or more accurately he was not a very characteristic character. Compared with Shelby Carpenter's rhetoric, he looked bad at talking. Compared to Waldo Lydecker's charming gentlemanly demeanor and sense of humor, he looks even more rigid and boring. But as an ordinary audience, you will gradually like this role, whether you are a man or a woman. He fell in love with the heroine through other people’s discussions about the heroine, and then looked at the portrait of the heroine. At this time, his professionalism as a policeman didn’t know where he went, forgetting that the heroine might also be a murder. The suspect in the case. Yes, this is a very simple guy, but his charm is also reflected in this simple character. Think about it, compared to the complex personalities of the other three main characters in the movie and the dark side of their human nature. His simplicity is really a very good character. It also gives him an extraordinary charm.
The heroine's character is also the same innocence and innocence, because of his innocence, he fully accepted Waldo Lydecker's help for her career, and never thought about the other party's concealed love purpose behind this kind of help. Because of her innocence and innocence, she accepted Shelby's proposal to him, who was useless except for rhetoric. It is precisely because the male and female protagonists are equally innocent and innocent characters, so their final combination has an extremely strong appeal to the audience.
Waldo Lydecker is a tragic character. He has a charming gentleman's demeanor and an outstanding sense of humor, (although this sense of humor is sometimes a bit mean.) He has a certain social reputation and influence. She helped the heroine's career with all her strength and made her a successful professional woman. But unfortunately, he did not win Launa's love. It may be because of the disparity in age, and more likely that he is not tolerant of people (as can be appreciated from his harsh sense of humor). Or some other reason.
It is precisely because he is not tolerant enough to others, even almost mean character, which caused the reality that he has no friends. (Just as the heroine said when she first met him), it also made him feel a strong sense of loneliness. So he can't bear Launa's "marrying as another woman", which will make him fall into the reality of a strong sense of loneliness again. But his tragedy goes beyond this. A strong sense of loneliness is just the psychological source of his crime. The motivation for his crime is too strong possessiveness and disregard of human moral bottom line (killing is also not allowed by moral bottom line and legal bottom line). Because he is too possessive, he will have the idea of "If I can't get her love, I will never let others get it." But the irony is that after "killing Luona", he didn't get the slightest happiness, but felt even more lonely.
Regarding the ending: According to the director himself, he shot two endings for this movie (although there is no remaining film to prove this) The other ending is that launa discovered the gun that Waldo committed the crime, but Launa covered it up for Waldo This criminal evidence, but ultimately died from this gun.
Both are great endings, it's really hard to choose. In terms of the overall structure of the movie, the first ending should be better, because the cover-up of evidence for Waldo was originally from Laua's good-hearted nature. Waldo eventually killed her, which is also in line with his personality. Plus the wonderful parting kiss between Launa and Mark (personally think this kiss is definitely one of the greatest on-screen kisses!) and the phrase "Bye, my love, Bye, my Launa" before Waldo's death Lines, oh! What a classic tragic ending!
Now there is an obvious question in this ending-why Mark left the murder weapon on the scene. But I really put my feelings into this movie. It has been a long time since no movie can make me like this. So emotionally, I can only accept the happy ending now and let this be illogical. Fool me once, I am willing!
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