Body Double (1984)

Director: Brian De Palma

Struggling actor Jake Scully is loaned a flat by a total stranger who keeps appearing in his life. He sees a strip show in the house across the way and becomes obsessed with the woman. He then finds that a porn star does the same dance, and gets into a film with her. Then he witnesses the murder of the woman that he peeped on in the first place by another peeping tom. Its all very convoluded and slightly stupid, and I’m still upset that I wasted my time.

Double law:

1. It was billed on TV (Film 4 in England) as a movie they tried to ban. I don’t know where or by whom.

2. The whole idea is that the man is set up to see the murder and give evidence that draws attention away from the real murderer. Of course, if you were the killer this would be a ridiculous amount of preparation that might not pay off, but whatever.

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The Third Man (1949)

Director: Carol Reed

This murder mystery is set in post World War II Vienna. Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), an American writer arrives in Vienna to hunt down an old croney, Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to find that he has arrived on the day of his friends funeral. He is determined to find out what has happened to Lime and is soon embroiled in a murder investigation that keeps getting murkier and murkier.

That post war law:

1. Post war Vienna is cut into four segmants and each one is administered by a different state (UK, US, France, and Russia). The center of the city is run an international coalition of all four.

2. There was an inquest (not shown only mentioned) over the death of Harry, but evidence was not heard from the porter and a third unknown man. The Porter is told by Martin that “it was his duty to give evidence,” but the porter adamantly did not want to testify.

3. Search and seizure. A member of each police force show up to search Anna Schmitt’s (Alida Valli) room (as it is in the center of the city). They give her reciepts for everything confiscated.

4. Ms. Schmitt is found with a forged passport. We are told this is because she is a Czech and “the Russians could claim her.” We later see a police interrogation of her.

5.SPOILER WARNING: As it turns out Harry is still alive, but the police are after him for some nasty crimes. He is living in the Russian part of the city, because (for political reasons) he is safe from arrest there.

6. Harry claims crime money is “free of income tax.” He should consult with Al Capone on that one.

7. Harry also claims that while the government “talks about people and the proletariat,” it doesn’t care about the people. This is a statement both of a political nature and one used as a justification for Harry’s criminal acts.

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