Question about the ending...
Did anyone else find this out of place? Was she really Psychic? Why did she smile and wink at the camera?
shareSPOILERS
As the print ads said "You Have to See It Twice"(but few did):
When Adamson is carrying the "unconscious" Madame Blanche downstairs, he says "time to go get another diamond for our chandelier."
So Blanche heard him.
It has been debated whether or not Hitchcock decided to have this line added later...William Devane clearly dubbed it in.
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.
shareYou're welcome!
shareYeah, but Devane had drugged her. There is no way she coulda have been conscious. The same drug knocked the bishop out twice instantly. But it didn't work on Barbara Harris??
share[deleted]
<< I agree. She's gotta be out at that time. >>
I was confused by this when I read a synopsis of the plot that says Blanche "fools" her boyfriend into thinking she's really psychic at the end.
I was thinking, "Uh...and how would she do that? She's never been in the upstairs of the house before."
"She's gotta be out at that time."
Two possiblities:
She WAS out, but she still heard the information and it came out of her subconscious when she awoke.
With the bishop, he was sitting still and the injection could be made "in just the right place." Blanche fights strenuously against Adamson and he makes the shot in her lower forearm. The drug simply may not have had the time to take effect...and Blanche may have "faked" her faint to the ground to maneuver her way out of the situation.
In any event, the line is clearly there("C'mon, Fran, let's go get another diamond for our chandelier") and that would be when/why/how Madame Blanche gets the information.
I watched closely at the ending the other day, it seems that Hitchcock made a point of showing Fran handing the syringe to her husband, and it looked like there wasn't much if any serum in it. Just a thought. So, Blanche might have been groggy, but not out, or being in a dire situation realizes she's not going unconcious and just fakes it to throw them off. and this his how she knew where the diamond was.
He showed the syringe as if placing emphasis -- "look at this" rather than her just hadning it over in a long shot.
Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...share
When I saw it the first time back in 1976 (for the sake of Karen Black, not so much Hitch), I just figured that somehow Blanche had overheard Arthur talking about where the diamond was.
Not only was Arthur carrying Blanche when she was supposedly "out" but there was also that intercom outside the hidden chamber that could very well have been "on" while Blanche was in there. If Arthur was discussing the diamond and its location, Blanche could very well have overheard him.
All of my musings, of course, happened AFTER I saw the movie and was thinking about how Blanche's wink signaled that she "knew" where the diamond was all along.
As the Trivia section for the movie explains, Barbara Harris' wink was actually an inside joke that Hitch left in. In which case: what was the original ending of the movie? Was Blanche proven to be a genuine psychic?
"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"