This movie seems a little resistant to just-so explanations but it sure has a lot to say about class and gender. Lots of subspeciation of humanity into a bunch of fucked up little weirdos who can’t relate to each other.
Everybody’s alone and lonely but boys kill each other over it. The lack of humanity among the wealthy mirrored in our alien psychopath protagonist learning to walk among them.
The tailoring was gorgeous until the final act.
Super stylish movie. It’s easy to see the older production and that it’s a genre flick and think the movie is straight camp but it’s also a formalist treasure.
Disorienting chiaroscuro in the pool scene — surely Wilder had seen this before directing Sunset Boulevard. Claustrophobically snooted key-only lighting during the pervert psychiatry session. Everything about the famous Lewton bus sequence (not just pioneering but one of the best-executed fake outs I’ve seen).
The above scenes are standouts for sound design,…
