Lamb to the slaughter
A. Hitchock - R. Dahl
ETUDE DU FILM
 | Scene 1: Introduction |
Consignes: Pay attention to the place and characters
Alfred Hitchcock' s figure and the music represent a gimmick. The scene takes place in a grocery store.The characters are A. Hitchcock with a cart (or trolley)and a policeman. A.Hitchcock has just been given a ticket by the policeman. This is absurd! You can't be given a ticket for speeding up or "blocking an aisle" with a cart!
Conclusion: The film must be a detective story related to food, full of irony and humour…
shots and movements: a pan to the right, a tracking-in to a close-shot on Alfred Hitchcock.
| Scene 2: Opening sequence to "Hello, Love!" |
Consignes: Pay attention to the soundtrack, describe the scene. (Movements and attitudes of the characters)
The perfect housewife getting home ready for her husband after a hard day's work. This looks and sounds like a stereotyped American family.
Conclusion: The wife draws the curtains as we hear a car stop, so one can see what is going to happen inside… A hint, a clue for the viewer.
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| Scene 3: to "What's wrong, Darling? Please tell me!" |
Consignes: List all the differences between the wife and her husband - acting, clothing, and looks and words - expressing contrast: whereas, while, unlike, contrary to, instead of, on the one hand…
What are their plans for tonight? What is your conclusion?
The wife does all the talking, she smiles, she insists on his taking off his coat. She is expecting a baby.
The husband is a policeman. He looks away, walks away from her, turns his back on her, doesn't pay attention to her, won't look at her: he must be fed up with her. There must be something wrong…. He may have some bad news for her….
Instead of having dinner out at their friend's, Molly, she will cook him some meat from the freezer.
She just cannot stop talking, whereas he remains quiet.
| Scene 4: to "Try and Stop me!" |
Consignes: Listen to the dialogue: what is the bad news?
What is Mary's reaction? How does she feel about it? What does she do then?
The husband sounds a little ironic and threatening: "I hope you won't blame me too much…""I want to leave you" (x2) ; "I want a divorce" ; "there's someone else I want to marry", "I love her and she loves me"… "I am leaving you…"
He intends to leave her, although she is pregnant.
The wife is too amazed, surprised, astonished, stunned to react, to answer back. She is speechless, wordless. She is unable to speak. She can't breathe. She walks away to the garage as if she were an automat, a sleepwalker, as if she hadn't heard the news.She gets into the dark garage, gets a leg of lamb out of the freezer, walks back to the kitchen and starts unwrapping the frozen leg when she notices her husband's busy with collecting papers. She realizes he meant what he told her, and denies it: " you can't" (x4); "I won't" (x4) She will not let him go ; she doesn't want him to leave her. She acts like a child, a childish reaction: she loses her temper, they quarrel.
He challenges her: "Try and stop me!"
Question: What do you think she is going to do ? (to prevent him from leaving her, to make him change his mind…) Justify.
| Scene 5: to the first phone call, just as she picks up the phone. |
Consignes: Describe the scene as precisely as possible, in close relation to the soundtrack
As if she were an automat, Mary walks up behind her husband and hits him on the back of his head with the leg of lamb….
Then she walks back to the kitchen as if nothing happened ; pretending nothing happened…in order to cook the lamb in the oven…However, after a while, she decides to check on him: she realizes he is dead when the music stops: she can't hear his heart beating any more.She doesn't look scared, frightened, terrified, although she is a murderer, a criminal.She has self-control!
She sits at the table: What questions can she be asking herself?…
She eventually comes to her senses when she watches the oven: no matter what happened, she's going to cook dinner!The leg of lamb is the crime weapon: she'll cook it so that it should disappear…
Question: What is she going to do? Who is she calling?
| Scene 5: second viewing |
Consignes: what were Hitchcock's clues to help the viewer understand what is going to happen?
The darkness in the garage, the light from the freezer, the strange noises from the freezer, the dramatic music conveyed a spooky atmosphere.
| Scene 6: to the second phone call. |
Consignes: Check Mary's alibi. Is it a good one? Why? Did she forget anything?
She phones Molly to call off tonight's invitation pretending Patrick, her husband, is too tired to go out. She goes to the grocer. When she gets back home, she "sets up" the crime scene, as if there had been a break-in: she knocks the furniture over, she spreads papers on the floor, moves cushions around…
She wants the police to think….She expects them to believe… They are expected to believe….
Eventually, she calls the police!
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