Perfectly edited montage sequence.The way Hitchcock uses his camera above Newman and the victim ,then he cuts to the woman with the kinfe from a lower angle to create contrast and suspence.
This scene is a great example Hitchcock's masterful skill,even in his inferior films.
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Definately the stand out scene of the entire movie for me.
share(Spoilers) People ask why didn't she just hit Gromek over the head, but she was faced with a two-headed problem--she might've bashed Newman, too. All the things that people find objectionable--the breaking knife, dragging Gromek across the floor, GASSING him, the scene's lack of music, make this scene memorable. They're missing the art. My favorite part is when Gromek is on the phone, just about to talk with the secret police, and BANG the pan of soup slams into him. I used slow motion to see how Hitchcock produced that weird abruptness. He'd inserted a shot that was so brief it was almost subliminal.
shareThat is an amazing scene, and I'm not even sure this is one of Hitchcock's "inferior" films. It's not one of his best, but it's still very good. It's amazing how Paul Newman's partner takes charge of the situation, and that scene is expertly directed and edited.
shareI absolutely agree. It is the highlight of the film, shockingly graphic and one of the most effective murder scenes in any thriller.
"Life after death is as improbable as sex after marriage"- Madeleine Kahn(CLUE, 1985)
Agreed; just to give an idea of how hard it actually is to kill somebody and how brutal you have to be to do it--especially since I doubt Gromek had any such scruples AND he also probably had training in self defense.
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This scene rang a bell and I finally tracked down where Hitchcock and/or writer Brian Moore apparently got (wholly or partly) the idea - Fritz Lang's Cloak and Dagger (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038417/). Later on, Kieslowski would push the idea to its limits with A Short Film About Killing.
I totally agree. Hitchcock is my favorite director, but I thought this movie was pretty boring... except for that scene. LOVE how awkward and scared both Paul Newman and the German lady were, it seems much more like how I imagine it would be like for a regular person to commit a murder. Neither of them is cool and collected, they're scared out of their wits and slow to think. Why not just cut his throat with the other bit of the knife once he's down rather than go through all the bother of hitting him with a shovel, dragging him over to a stove and shoving his head in? Because they're not professional killers, they're just regular folks who probably don't know anything about how to kill someone.
Really a fantastic scene.
"He's already attracted to her. Time and monotony will do the rest."
I just saw the movie tonight for the first time. No offense to those who thought that scene was so good (apparently most everybody), but I found it hilariously cheesy. I get the intent of the scene, but I think Hitchcock failed to portray it the way he wanted. Other films since have successfully pulled that scene off, and perhaps they are inspired by this one. But for me, it was handled so awkwardly that it was just completely cheeseball, and made me laugh.
Newman is useless through the scene. He's so weak that all he can manage to do is stiffly hold onto the guy from behind for a long while until it's time to drag him clear across the room into the oven... where they hold him with their faces directly next to the opening but are unaffected themselves. And this is a farm that's so old and out of the way it has a pump system for water, yet it has a gas hookup?
Of course the woman is meant to be the opposite of a trained killer, but she's so over-the-top goofy and inept it's beyond ridiculous. Does her kitchen only have one knife? So she won't swing the shovel at the guy's head for fear of hitting Newman, but has no problem stabbing at the guy's shoulder right next to Newman's fingers?
And maybe the silliest thing is that the guy doesn't ever scream, even when he gets the window open briefly. The cab driver would have heard him through the closed window anyway.
By the way, one thing that I didn't catch was why one of the first things Newman does after flooding the kitchen with gas is to pick up the guy's lighter and ignite it..?
You're right about that. Lack of music in the scene added to its effect on audience. Especially that shivering hand as the gas overcomes the stasi jerk.
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