The audience is not told that a dream begins. To understand that, one
must see the film through twice. But it is perfectly legitimate to
deceive us. Through our ignorance we share the young man's
hallucinations, entering into them as imperceptibly as he does. We think
it is the next morning. Poe would start the story just here, and here the
veritable Poe-esque quality begins.
After debate within himself as to means, the nephew murders his uncle and
buries him in the thick wall of the chimney. The Italian laborer
witnesses the death-struggle through the window. While our consciences
are aching and the world crashes round us, he levies black-mail. Then
for due compensation the Italian becomes an armed sentinel. The boy fears
detection.
Yet the foolish youth thinks he will be happy. But every time he runs to
meet his sweetheart he is appalled by hallucinations over her shoulder.
The cadaverous ghost of the uncle is shown on the screen several times.
It is an appearance visible to the young man and the audience only. Later
the ghost is implied by the actions of the guilty one. We merely imagine
it. This is a piece of sound technique. We no more need a dray full of
ghosts than a dray full of jumping furniture.
The village in general has never suspected the nephew. Only two people
suspect him: the broken-hearted girl and an old friend of his father.
This gentleman puts a detective on the trail. (The detective is
impersonated by Ralph Lewis.) The gradual breakdown of the victim is
traced by dramatic degrees. This is the second case of the thing I have
argued as being generally impossible in a photoplay chronicle of a
private person, and which the considerations of chapter twelve indicate
as exceptional. We trace the innermost psychology of one special citizen
step by step to the crisis, and that path is actually the primary
interest of the story. The climax is the confession to the detective.
With this self-exposure the direct Poe-quality of the technique comes to
an end. Moreover, Poe would end the story here. But the Poe-dream is set
like a dark jewel in a gold ring, of which more anon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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