MovieChat Forums > One Foot in the Grave (1990) Discussion > Who Will Buy? murder clue

Who Will Buy? murder clue

posted 13 years ago by hawk-275
3 replies | jump to latest

Anyone any thoughts on the identity of the murderer in Who Will Buy? I realize the irony in asking this question since Renwick was poking fun at the murder-mystery genre. However, I wondered whether he did tie-up this loose end? Albert the blind guy was said to have been found clutching a double-one domino, and it was implied that Pippa was suspicious of Victor due to the two unfortunate spots on his nose from his eating too much chocolate. Are we to assume that the double-one, or two spots, did not refer to this, but to the two large bendy dinosaurs winging their way to him, those which indirectly brought about his demise? Was it merely a reference to the way the dominoes tend to fall i.e. fate and happenstance? When Margaret visits she accidentally knocks his dominoes to the ground in the darkness and Albert says he will pick them up later.

It has been suggested that the locksmith, seen briefly, was the likeliest suspect, since he knew that the locks were shoddy, and possibly knew that cash in the amount of £100 might be kept in the flat. (Incidentally, so did Margaret, but she wouldn't have returned to the scene of the crime with flowers, unless she had earlier decided to put the old fella out of his misery and stage a break-in!) How would the domino clue link with any of this? Was this a red-herring/coincidence just designed to throw you off the bendy dinosaur finale? Has a domino been used as a device elsewhere and was Renwick simply paying homage to something, the way he so often does? Where does Mr Swainey fit in, he seems to know far too much? Who called him to tell him the news? Alas, it's only a story!

[–] tremas-1 13 years ago

Elementary, dear Hawk-275.
Albert picked a double-one "bone" to indicate that the person who killed him was his dominoes partner. A bone with two dots across from each other, separated by a divider (or "bar") suggests the image of two people sitting across a table from each other, playing –what else?– dominoes.
Mr. Swainey doesn't fit in the murder, other than Albert was one of the elderly people Swainey's welfare organization aided. A police sergeant phoned Swainey to tell him the news, likely because Albert was listed as a beneficiary of that organization.
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

[–] heat22000 12 years ago

Fun to play detective, but come on! Would even a sighted person have the presence of mind while being strangled to death to grab and hold onto a particular domino to leave an obscure clue? For me, that a police officer would reveal over the phone the details of the domino without any prompt is a moment to suspend disbelief in itself.

[–] tremas-1 12 years ago

TO: HEAT22000
As the Original Poster wrote, "it's only a story."
But it is not unlikely that the old man didn't die immediately after being throttled by his dominoes partner. After the assailant left, the old man probably regained consciousness briefly enough to reach for a dominoes "bone" that he could leave as a clue to the assailant's identity.
Perhaps the old man's larynx was broken and he realized that he could not name the assailant verbally. But, after finding the accusatory "bone," complications rapidly set in and the old man died, clutching his clue.
It is less likely that, as you point out, a police officer would reveal details of the old man's death to Mr.Swainey over the phone, but, to paraphrase the OP, "it's only a movie."
(I can picture Gregory House, M.D., doing a forensic review of this case.)