MovieChat Forums > Suspicion (1941) Discussion > Use of the Expert Convention

Use of the Expert Convention

posted 10 years ago by atlasmb
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The story includes the local murder mystery "expert" (the character Isobel). This seems to be a convention in many murder mysteries and suspense stories. Another example of this is "The Bad Seed", where one character is an expert on theories of inherited psychology. In most of these cases, the expert can supply technical knowledge for the audience or an extended academic lesson that would be too unwieldy coming from the mouth of anyone else. Many times, the expert has a morbid fascination with crime, death or mental illness, allowing the director to introduce aspects of horror.

I think it is even more interesting when there is a surrogate expert--an "amateur" who has a fascination for the horrible, or an eye for recognizing it in others. The precocious child often fills this role. Hitchcock uses that technique in "Strangers on a Train".

There must be many movies that use this convention. Can anyone else name some?

[–] tseybert 10 years ago

"Shadow of a Doubt" sort of does it, but it's spread out among two groups of characters. The first is the amateurs, Henry Travers and Hume Cronyn.

The second is the cops chasing Joseph Cotten.

Janet! Donkeys!

[–] atlasmb 10 years ago

In "Shadow of a Doubt", I think the niece Charlie somewhat fills the role--the young innocent who, nonetheless, sees what the elders do not. They live in a small town that is separated from the outside world so they are naïve and uninformed. And trusting.