Just saw it, I can try to answer 2, 3 and 4.
2. After activating the fire alarm, he hides to the side of the door. It then shows some servants running around the house looking in rooms, I assume looking for where the alarm was tripped. It does show one server open a door in the kitchen and run in, which is probably the room that Robert Cummings' character is hiding in. At this point he would escape (though it doesn't actually show him escaping)
3. Yea the ice cream soda seemed random. In the scene before that with her one of the guys goes in the room to check on her, and he does mention that they gave her a hearty breakfast. It cuts from that scene after that, so I assume she then requests for an ice cream soda.
4. When Priscilla Lane gets to the SoL, she telephones the FBI and tells them she followed him to the SoL. It then shows a scene with Robert Cummings in a room with a few cops/FBI receiving a call that said she followed the guy to the SoL.
"Every great film should seem new every time you see it." - Roger Ebert
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Doghouse-6
10 years ago
The ice cream soda could be considered "random" in terms of plot, but it was one of those wryly humorous touches that make Hitchcock films so colorful.
He's inserting a banal detail of everyday life into an extraordinary situation, which in turn makes it surprising: she's being held captive, but treated well, and for her captors, it's just another day at the office. They're happy to get her an ice cream soda, but there's no reason they should have to pay for it out of their own pockets. They're just working stiffs, even if they are Fifth Columnists.
Poe! You are...avenged!
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