WITHOUT A CLUE


Thom Eberhardt

(1988)

The question of genre(s)

Genre is a "type" or "kind" of film. Some are based on the emotion that the film maker wants to produce in the viewer: "horror", "comedy" etc. Others are based on content: "Westerns", "Science fiction" "Crime".

Some genres are subdivided. Crime films contain sub-genress like "mysteries" (or "who dunnits?"), trial films, "caper films" and so on. It is not always clear what is a genre and what is a sub genre. Monster movies might be seen as a genre or a sub division of horror films or perhaps action-adventure films. Supernatural films are potentially horror films or fanatsy films dependingon whether the supernatural element is friendly or not!

It is possble for a film to be in two genres - Some science fiction films can be horror films (e.g. Alien. Some films, like King Kong can be seen as action adventure as well as fantasy or monster films.

Genre rules

Within each genre there are "conventions", or aspects of the films which are expected or taken for granted in the different genres. For example in musicals the audience expects (and gets) singing in non performance spaces with full (invisible) orchestra in the background.

Although genre is clearly a concept in that some people like some genres but not others. So there are some aspects of ech genre that appeal to some people and not to others. Each genre has its own "high points" that are associated with the genre. These are often referred to as "set pieces", and are often the reason that people who like that genre go to it. So their "scopophiliac drive" is towards the "set piece". The set piece therefore is one point in the film that the director wants to make very powerful (i.e. "specularize" it). In some instances (bu not all) it is possible to identify the genre by what is specularized.

The Great Detectives

One subdivision of the crime film genre is the detective film. This may in itself be divided into two different parts: The hard boiled detective of the pulp fiction variety and the more intellectual detectives like Sherlock Holmes Nero Wolf Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and several others. Edgar Allan Poe’s (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849 ) short story “Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) is thought of as the first detective story. In it, a Frenchman named C. Auguste Dupin solves the mystery of some bizarre killings in Paris. The character later appears in two more of Poe’s stories: “The Mystery of Marie Roget” (1942) and “The Purloined Letter” (1944), His method was called “ratiocination” (Poe said it means intellect plus creative imagination). Poe lived for a while in NYC (in the Bronx


POE HOUSE IN THE BRONX

Dupin lives with a close friend who narrates the stories. The similarity between Dupin and his friend is very similar to that of Holmes and Watson about who we will have more to say shortly.

Poe was interested in many things including cryptanalysis (code breaking) and his story “The Gold Bug” is a real primer in cryptanalysis.

Following Poe, is Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930)

He was the 3rd child of 10 born to an Irish Catholic family living in Edinburgh, Scotland. Doyle was born to an artistic family His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was an alcoholic who married a well educated Mary Foley. His name appears as Arthur Ignatius Conan as his given names on his baptism certificate and Doyle and his family name. Michael Conan is listed as his godfather. (interestingly enough Poe was orphaned when young – his mother died shortly after his father abandoned the family). He was taken in, but not legally adopted by a family named Allen – which he used as a middle name) Doyle was educated in part in a Jesuit boarding school which he hated for its bigotry and corporal punishment.

Conan Doyle was sent to the Roman Catholic Jesuit preparatory school Hodder Place, Stonyhurst, at the age of nine. He then went on to Stonyhurst College until 1875.

From 1876 to 1881 he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, including a period working in the town of Aston (now a district of Birmingham) and in Sheffield. While studying, Conan Doyle also began writing short stories; his first published story appeared in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal before he was 20. Following his term at university, he was employed as a ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast. He completed his doctorate on the subject of tabes dorsalis in 1885.

He wrote a good deal and his works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and romances, poetry, and non-fiction.

James Barrie and Robert Louis Stevenson were friends as was Harry Houdini. Houdini and Doyle were friends based on Doyle’s interest in the supernatural. An odd situation given his deductive reasoning approach for a while but the friendship ruptured over Doyle insistence that he actually had powers which Houdini himself denied.

His writings involve two memorable characters: Sherlock Holmes who first appears in 1887 in the novel A Study In Scarlett and Prof. Challenger who first appears in 1912 in his story, The Lost World.

THE HOUSE IN EDINBURGH WHERE SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE' LIVED 1876-1880

Prof. Challenger

Professor Challenger was based on a real person — in this case, a professor of physiology named William Rutherford, who had lectured at the University of Edinburgh while Conan Doyle studied medicine there. Challenger first appears in The Lost World

Professor Challenger Stories:

1912 - The Lost World
1913 - The Poison Belt
1926 - The Land of Mist
1927 - The Disintegration Machine
1928 - When The World Screamed
1952 - The Professor Challenger Stories

The The Lost World appeared as a film for the 1st time in 1925, directed by Harry O Hoyt with special effects by Marcel Delgado and Willis H. O'Brien, both of whom would go on to make King Kong while Hammeras did some other giant monster films like The Giant Claw and The Giant Gila Monster

Doyle himself appears as himself in the film

The story clearly is the basis for many many monster films which followed and the viewer can easily see its impact on King Kong, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Unknown Island and so on

Dinosaurs are known from the early 19th Cent. In the 1950 a spate of dinosaur films appeared in which the dinosaurs are tied to atom bomb tests. In this film (and the story) it is far to early for this explanation for the existence of the animals. Rather this is almost an intellectual exercise as to whether such animals could still exist in some deserted part of the world. Something which still is tossed around as a real idea.

SHERLOCK HOLMES

Sherlock Holmes is a detective who solves cases (which are usually baffling to the police) with determined logic. The origins of the character are generally attributed to a physician teacher of Doyle’s named Joseph Bell. Bell was able to deduce a great deal about people by observing small details and stringing them together.

The Origin of Holmes

In 1882 he joined former classmate George Budd as his partner at a medical practice in Plymouth, but their relationship proved difficult, and Conan Doyle soon left to set up an independent practice. Arriving in Portsmouth in June of that year with less than £10 to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea. The practice was initially not very successful; while waiting for patients, Conan Doyle again began writing stories and composed his first novel—The Narrative of John Smith—which would go unpublished until 2011.

Sherlock Holmes appears in Doyle's first significant work, A Study in Scarlet (1887) which appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887. The model for Holmes was a former university teacher Joseph Bell. Conan Doyle wrote to him saying that he owed Sherlock Holmes to Bell, whose powers of observation, deduction and inference were well known to Doyle. Stories about Holmes which followed were published in the English Strand Magazine. Another Scot, Robert Louis Stevenson was able, recognized the strong similarity between Joseph Bell and Sherlock Holmes: Another influence was of course Edgar Allan Poe's character C. Auguste Dupin

Holmes became so popular and annoying to Doyle he finally killed him off, but the demand was so great that he had to bring him back

Doyle also had a strong interest in spiritualism, although he generally attacks supernatural arguments in his works like The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Sherlock Holmes novels:

1887 A Study in Scarlet
1890 The Sign of Four
1902 The Hound of the Baskervilles
1915 The Valley of Fear

Sherlock Holmes short story collections:

1892 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
1894 The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
1905 The Return of Sherlock Holmes
1917 His Last Bow
1927 The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
1928 The Complete Sherlock Holmes Short Stories

IMDB lists 244 films, games and TV shows in which Sherlock Holmes exists as a character. About 80 of which were made before Doyle died.

Agatha Christie follows with Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and more than 15 short story collections (especially those featuring Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple), and her successful West End plays. Christie's stage play The Mousetrap holds the record for the longest initial run: it opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in London on 25 November 1952 and as of 2012 is still running after more than 24,600 performances.

Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple

Agatha Hercule Poirot first appears in Christie's first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) He appears in 33 of Christie's novels and 54 of her short stories.

Her other well known character, Miss Marple, first appears in the short story "The Tuesday Night Club" in (1927 and was based on characters like Christie's grandmother and her "cronies".

These stories establish a specific character, the private detective as a character in crime fiction. They are not, like Earl Derr Biggers’ Charlie Chan (also modeled after a real Honolulu police officer named Chang Apana) police officers. They are often in contention with the police and are often shown to be smarter. Holmes has two major criminal enemies – Prof. Moriarty (who dies with Holmes) and Col. Moran (who appears in the stories after Doyle was forced to “resurrect” him. In addition Inspector Lestrade of the police force is generally at a loss as to how to solve the case, and either comes to Holmes for advice or tries to keep him off the case.

We can see the establishment of “kinds” of “good guys” into police and private detectives (who will ultimately be found in 2 varieties – the more sophisticated and intellectual detectives who solve mysteries by logic and generally not romantic; and the hard boiled detectives of the pulps who usually are street wise, often involved in physical confrontations, and generally interested in women from a sexual viewpoint. Occasionally some like Nick and Nora Charles tend to blend the two types and resolve the almost misogynistic vs womanizing detectives by being married (see also Mr. and Mrs. North)

This establishes a number of kinds of "good guys":

sworn officers (i.e. representatives of the government)
police and peace officers
uniformed
detectives
sheriffs, marshals
private investigators:
1. intellectural: C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot
2. "hatd boiled": Sam Spade, Mike Hammer
Since both police and private detectives may appear in the same story, the relationship between the two becomes a point of interest. Holmes has his Lestrade and the relationship is one of some respect and jealousy. Lestrade both recognizes Holmes talents and is upset by his own inability to solve cases that Holmes solves. Occasionally they wind up on the same case by chance, but on occasion Lestrade comes to Holmes looking for help. Lestrade often tries to find ways to get the credit for what Homes has discovered and deduced. In addition to these there are stories which move away from the traditional law and order films, such as spy stories which deal with secret agents and so on. These are often found in crime films dealing with sabotage and espionage. There is a question about whether films like the James Bond films fall into the "crime film" genre. Similar problems can be raised about pirate films. Do they each constitute a separate genre or are they sub divisions of the crime films?

WITHOUT A CLUE


Thom Eberhardt

(1988)

The film is a comedy mystery a blend which has been rather popular. Here there is an initial “joke” that sets the story off. One question to resolve is how does the humor get handled visually. Consider the initial revelation about Holmes and Watson. Why is the camera placed where it is? Camera placement is a variable. Any closer and the eye movement would have been too apparent; any further and it would not have been noticeable In the scene in the house at Baker Street, how does the sound play off against the image – (consider the violin playing and the explosion) What is hidden and what revealed? The film has many citations to other Holmes movies and part of the fun of the movie relies on the viewer being able to spot the citations from other Sherlock Holmes films. The dog which attacks Holmes at the Shakespeare Arms is, in effect the hound of the Baskervilles frm the book of the same name. One film (Dressed to Kill), for example deals with counterfeiting bank notes

One film (Private Life of Sherlock Holmes) deals with a lake in Scotland (like Windemere)

Other citations can be found

The film has a joke about the fact that the case is solved but through a wrong deduction. The number believed to be a biblical reference to “Valley of Death” the name of Reginald Kincaid’s last play, but it turns out to be the address of the theater. They wind up at the same place but for the wrong reason.

There are aspects of the film that deal with the source of statements. The same thing said by different people is taken different. When Watson attempts to convince Lord Smithwick of his deductive abilities, he is told they have no time for parlor games. When Holmes parrots the same thing at him, Smithwisk says "Amazing!" At the end of the film when Lomes and Watson discover they deduced incorrectly Smithwick again says "amazing" In the film Watson (Ben Kingsley) has created Holmes and his problems with him mirror Doyle's problems with the character. Holmes was seen by many people as real and do not regard him as the creation of Doyle. In the film Watson laments a similar situation. Holmes' statement that Watson may have created Holmes, but now "He belongs to the word" reflects that position.

Comedy may be visual as well as verbal. Many of the jokes in the film are verbal, but many would not work without the camera being complicit.

Delay (which builds some tension which is broken when we see the results) is done by not letting the audience see something, but hear it first. The explosion in the Baker Street apartment reveals the mess very quickly (sort of a joke), but then Holmes, whose face is hidden behind a newspaper is suddenly revealed covered with soot. Following that he himself sees this in the mirror.

The violin playing is both seen and heard. but suddenly Holmes stops and the music continues. The camera reveals the phonograph playing.

The camera is placed at a specific distance when Holmes announces "I declare this case closed" which is far enough away to allow the audience to see the look on Watson's face (closer would have been overkill) and not so far away that the look wouldn't register.

The relationship between what we hear and what see can generate humor as well. Watson, on the dock, discusses the lack of morals and ethics of the crooks who sat on the dock and waited for the ship. While there, having little or no ethics or morals, they stole shoes from the crates on the dock. While Watson discusses their lack of morals, Holmes, in the background is doing the very same thing.

Similarly, while the publisher discusses the damage that would be done to British literature by revealing that Holmes is a fictional character, the publisher reveals that the books on the shelf behind him are nothing but a hiding place for some liquor.

The film is full of reversals as part of the humor. Holmes and Watson shift places as to who is the smart one. Watson moves the phonograph and talks into the horn (which is usually where the voice comes out).

Holmes who is normally almost vitriolically misogynistic here has become a womanizer.

The film does handle the mystery part by sing devices from standard mystery films. There are nighttime shots of the street with low lighting, darkness in the theater. A nice touch is the idea that the mystery in the dark and the solution sheds light on what happened. In the opening sequence the film is in the museum in the dark. When Holmes reveals himself, light falls on the crooks and then Holmes turns on the lights - literally shedding light on the matter.

MIXED GENRE:
COMEDY/MYSTERY

Comedy, mystery, suspense and horror all are connected. All develop some kind of suspense and the release of tension may be through humor. Humor allows for the breaking of tension by breaking giving a release. There are many kinds of humor and many kinds of laughter. Consider just the number of terms for different kinds of laughter – snicker, guffaw, chuckle, (see Mary Poppins and song about laughter). Laughter is often seen as inappropriate (inappropriate laughter is sometimes seen as an indication of insanity). There is also laughter which is sometimes described as malicious, insane, hysterical and so on.

So there is a “happy marriage” possible between tension producing genres like mystery and horror and comedy.