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Why doesn't the police investigate the events at Townsend's house?

posted 8 years ago by ErlandGadde
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If I remember correctly, Lester Townsend tells Roger, when they meet at the U.N. building, that he is not married, or that his wife is dead.

Then, when Roger becomes the prime suspect for the murder of Townsend, why doesn't the police investigate Roger further, finds out about his drunken driving and accusations against the Townsends, which makes the local police go to Townsend's house with him and talk to a woman claiming to be Mrs Townsend? Since there is no Mrs Townsend, this would force the police to make further investigations, possibly casting doubt upon Roger's guilt. But nothing of this seems to happen.

[–] movieghoul 8 years ago

Very simply because the police view ROger's story as pretty nutty and see no reason to investigate further. THey would not know that Mrs. Townsend is dead but would accept at face value that the woman who identifies herself as Mrs T is in fact.

[–] ErlandGadde 8 years ago

But that's not reasonable considering the timeline.

Normally, a conversation like this between police officers should occur:

Murder investigator: Hello. I'm investigating the murder of Lester Townsend. I understand you arrested our suspect, Roger Thornhill, for drunken driving the other day?

Local police: Yes, he was really nuts... blah blah blah... he made us go to the house and there we met Mrs Townsend, who said...

Murder investigator: What!? You met Mrs Townsend!? There is no Mrs Townsend! She died years ago!

Wouldn't that throw the murder investigation in another direction?

[–] movieghoul 8 years ago

But it's such an open and shut case that ROger killed Townsend, is it necessarily true such a conversation would take place? Possibly the Professor and his team could use their influence to keep the investigation to a minimum.

[–] ErlandGadde 8 years ago

I would say that a thorough investigation would have been considered necessary. You have a middle aged reasonably successful businessman with no previous criminal record who suddenly stabs a U.N. employee with a lot of other people around. Any investigator would want to know more what is behind this. Perhaps Thornhill is just a hired killer? And he is on the run, therefore an investigation about his background could give clues about where to find him.

But maybe you're right about the Professor's manipulations. There is scene where we first meet the Professor and his colleagues, but I don't remember if something is said in that scene about a cover-up. Someone who watched the movie recently who remembers?

[–] kiwi-78000 8 years ago

"I would say that a thorough investigation would have been considered necessary. You have a middle aged reasonably successful businessman with no previous criminal record who suddenly stabs a U.N. employee with a lot of other people around. Any investigator would want to know more what is behind this. Perhaps Thornhill is just a hired killer? And he is on the run, therefore an investigation about his background could give clues about where to find him."

I think you're right about a police investigation needing to be carried out. The problem is that an apparent multitude of witnesses had id'd Thornhill as Townsend's killer, so the initial impetus would be on the apprehension of Thornhill. Thornhill, meanwhile, was focused primarily on eluding the police, not to mention the distraction of an encounter with a very seductive spy named Eve. Once Thornhill was in the custody of the authorities, the Townsend related inconsistencies could begin to be sorted out, but not likely before then.