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Reed masterly uses different cinematographic techniques to make how the audience sees the film just as important as what they see. In the beginning of the film, Martin is looking for Harry’s apartment. When he is outside Harry’s building, Reed makes use of the full shot to illustrate how small and powerless Martin is in this new environment. As the film progresses, Reed uses full shots for other purposes such as juxtapositions between old and new Vienne as seen in the shot below.

           

Reed makes very good use of close ups as well. Most of the close-up shots of Martin occur when he is in tight areas or when he seems to be feeling trapped.

 

Not only is he trapped due to his lack of knowledge of how things work in this foreign land, he is also literally trapped within the frame of the camera. This really emphasizes how much of a predicament he finds himself especially once he learns the truth about Harry. Reed also ingeniously uses a close-up shot of Harry as he is dying on the steps after being shot.

 

At this point Harry has run out of places to hide not only from the police but from the camera as well. Unlike the scene where the audience catches their first glimpse of a living, breathing Harry hiding in the dark, out of sight from the camera, he is trapped by the camera and by death.

One of the most notable techniques that Reed uses in The Third Man is the Dutch angle. It seems as if there are more Dutch angles in the film than there are regular shots. Reed uses the Dutch angle to signify that something is abnormal about certain characters or situations. In the following shot of Harry, Reed uses a Dutch angle which signifies that Harry is a crooked character.

He is a criminal who does not care about how his actions affect other people as long as he can make a quick buck. Based on the company he keeps and the way he acts towards Martin, he may be homosexual. This is another reason why Reed uses a Dutch angle to portray Harry. He is not just off morally, but his sexual orientation is not straight hence the not straight angle used to portray him.

A Crooked Character

Considering the time period during which Laura was made, it is surprising how many scenes in the film have a homosexual undertone. One of the most obvious scenes in which the audience is presented with this is the opening scene where Mark meets Waldo. In this scene Mark is just beginning his investigation of the murder of Laura by questioning Waldo. Although he is bathing, Waldo allows Mark to come in and question him.  Not only is Waldo bathing in front of Mark, he then proceeds to gets out of the tub in front of Mark.  This does not seem like something that most men from the 1940’s would have been comfortable with.

There are other hints throughout the film which suggest that Waldo is homosexual. One of them is Waldo’s art collection. When directors wanted to signify that a male character was not heterosexual, they tended to portray them as art collectors. Waldo’s art collection is seen in his apartment and brought up again when he requests back the décor he lent to Laura. One of these items was a vase, and the other was a grandfather clock which was part of a pair.

Another hint that Waldo is not a typical American man is his cane. Whenever Waldo goes somewhere public he always has his cane as if to signify that he is lacking in some way or flawed. This flaw being that he is not heterosexual.Towards the end of the film, there is another obvious hint that Waldo is not heterosexual. As he is speaking to Laura about Mark, he describes Mark as handsome and muscular. Men living during this time period would not have viewed other men in this way and definitely would not have openly stated it to others.

By the end of the film it is revealed that Waldo was the one who tried to kill Laura. In many film noirs homosexuals are often portrayed as villains. However, if they are not the villain, then they are presented as an obstacle that delays the protagonist in their quest. Sadly this has created a very negative public opinion of homosexuals which is still afflicting them in society to this day.

The grass is greener on the other side

Hitchcock creatively uses lighting to illustrate Charlie’s knowledge of her Uncle Charlie throughout Shadow of a Doubt. In the beginning of the film, scenes tend to have more light which symbolizes the blissful ignorance she has toward her Uncle Charlie. She seems to worship him and thinks that he can fix everything that is wrong with her family. This changes when she goes on her date with Jack which occurs at night. This is the first night time scene so it may signify that she has been kept in the dark about her uncle until this point. This is when she begins to doubt her uncle and decides to figure out what he is hiding. After digging through his trash to try and find the article that he has been trying to keep hidden from her, she makes a run to the library. On her way to the library she almost gets hit by a car which shows that the truth about her uncle may kill her. When she first arrives at the library, it is closing and dark which reflects how Charlie

has been closed off to any negative thoughts about her uncle and has kept herself in the dark. After the librarian lets her in, Charlie goes straight to the newspapers to search for the article. As she is searching for the article, the lights in the library come on.

The illuminating of the library happens simultaneously as Charlie is able to shed light on her uncle’s past. Although the beginning scenes of Charlie are well lit to signify her innocence, the meaning of light changes throughout the course of the film. These two shots demonstrate how Hitchcock used light to represent knowledge and truth as the story progressed and darkness to represent naivety.