I'm just watching it now for the first time, and I ADORE Bette Davis. However, in the early scene with her and Glen Ford talking at the top of the lighthouse, that damn foghorn blows so loud every damn third sentence or so. Playing this movie at night when others are sleeping is a problem! And, even if I were alone, that damn horn blew too often!
shareI'm watching this movie again, and I CAN NOT BELIEVE how long this f'img scene is, with all the foghorns bliwing. I have to turn on the Mute button so as not wake others. I have yet to see this film during the day, and actually COUNT how many times that damn director had that foghorn blow.
shareever heard of an invention called headphones? :)
shareYes....but it's the principle. Why over-power dialogue with that insidiously invasive sound? If you hit the mute button, you also miss important dialogue.
I love realism in film, but not to the point of inflicting torture on the audience. The horn blew too often, and it was an offensive sound.
Very funny to read this.
I had no idea about how lighthouses work with foghorns as I don't live near the ocean.
Do they turn on the horn whenever there is fog and it goes on regularly?
The foghorn in this film is a diaphone type. At the time of this film it was turned on and off manually. Later in the '60's and '70's, this was automated using lasers or other photo-electric sensors to detect the fog.
Foghorns are now mainly obsolete due to modern navigation systems such as GPS.
The pattern and timing of the foghorn sounding would identify its location.
The foghorn blows 12 times during the lighthouse scene. It blows another 13 times during the final two scenes of the film.
shareThis film was made in 1946 to be shown IN A THEATER, therefore the problem of watching it alone at night and wishing not to wake up other family members was not taken into consideration. I should think that would be pretty obvious.
shareAs a native of San Francisco, the sound of a foghorn evokes for me a very different mood, and I certainly would not equate it with torture. There were a many a night when I drifted off to sleep to the forlorn blare of a foghorn. So it does not present a problem for me in the film. I believe the director probably viewed it as atmospherics, the kind that paint for the audience a picture of a setting to which they are not accustomed.
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