MovieChat Forums > Topaz (1969) Discussion > Plot holes! Get your plot holes!

Plot holes! Get your plot holes!

posted 17 years ago by persuaden
8 replies | jump to latest

The movie cheats in order to put Devereaux in danger. We are told that Uribe, who had facilitated the photographing of the contents of the red case, had been tortured, revealing Devereaux as a spy. To me, it is not credible that Uribe would have known that. It is not credible that Uribe would have been aware of Devereaux' existence at all, given that they never met.

Oh, I know. Devereaux' friend bumped into him while running away to hand off the film. How incriminating!

[–] rexshard93 17 years ago

Remember, this is a film that Hitchcock didn't get enough time to work on it properly. Some of the Scenes were written hours before the shooting.

As for the plot hole, I don't think its exactly a flaw. Roscoe Lee Browne portrayed a "French" character infront of Rico Parra and Uribe. During a conversation, Andre acted infront of Rico Parra like he had no idea about the incident that happened at Hotel Theresa. One of Rico Parra's men told Rico that he saw Andre outside Hotel Theresa. Andre is from France. Rico knew that. So he immediately jumped into conclusion.

[–] ecarle 17 years ago

Exactly.

It is a matter of Hitchcock's wonderful penchant for "visual directness" (very apparent in "Topaz," it almost returns to silent movie visual exposition), that we are meant to remember Rico Parra's chief henchman vis-a-vis his red hair (which no other Cuban in the film has).

That henchman chases Browne and sees him knock into Andre, and the henchman himself falls on Andre and Hitch gives us a medium shot of the red-haired man looking into Andre's eyes, excusing himself, and moving on.

Later in the film, in Cuba, we see the red-haired Cuban (we are meant to remember him from New York BECAUSE of his red hair)...and he sees Andre in the crowd at the speech. Thus, the connection is made: Uribe to Browne to the red-haired man to Andre. It's really rather nifty.

Hitchcock kinda dug on his "League of Red-Headed Men" at the end of his career. There are three actors in a row who Hitchcock requested to dye their hair in variants of red:

The Cuban in "Topaz"
The Killer in "Frenzy" (though his hair also has a Butterscotch blond look at times)
Bruce's Dern's anti-hero in "Family Plot."

Hitchcock believed that red hair was distinctive on the screen and "drew attention" to a character. Particularly a male one.

[–] Hancock_the_Superb 17 years ago

But isn't Barry Foster's hair naturally that color? It looks strawberry blonde in the other films I've seen him in too.

"Great, but why do they always use so much blood? Ruins the realism, don't you think?"

[–] ecarle 17 years ago

Not so much to me. "Ryan's Daughter", for instance, and "Inspector Clouseau."

[–] Hancock_the_Superb 17 years ago

I thought his hair was actually redder in Ryan's Daughter than Frenzy (he was, after all, playing an Irishman). Maybe my memory's just playing tricks on me?

Stone, you can watch me or you can join me. One of them is more fun.

[–] c7c7c7r 16 years ago

Four actors in a row--in Torn Curtain, the guy who helped Newman & Andrews escape. Quote from the movie "He'll have red hair (which is not his own)"--the actor who said that played the highway cop in Psycho.

[–] ecarle 16 years ago

I've been away from this thread for some time. I may be ready to concede on Barry Foster's hair...though, whikle Foster may not have colored his hair for "Frenzy,' I read that Hitchcock wanted Foster to curl it more, so as to look like real-life sex killer Neville Heath, and...

...yes, that's right about the red-headed guy in "Torn Curtain."

Let's face it, red hair IS distinctive, and particularly so on a man. Hitchcock probably "locked that thought" into his head in the last decade of his filmmaking career. It becomes a "plot point' in "Torn Curtain" and "Topaz" and adds character to Foster(maybe) and Dern (definitely) in Hitch's two final films.

[–] BeaSouth (3567) 3 years ago

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