The more I watch the film, the more I wonder if it's the beginning of his confession, post mortem/en absentia. This intro and the flashback voiceover are from his point of view, the only POV given by any of the film's characters.
"No, I don't like to cook, but I have a chicken in the icebox, and you're eating it."
Interesting interpretation....
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π JimHutton (1934-79) and ElleryQueen π
Thank you. I also think the film's opening from black (with his voiceover) adds to that sepulchral affect. When he quotes from Dowson's poem (which Waldo refers to as "Brief Life"), during the prerecorded broadcast "Out of a misty dream Our path emerges for a while, then closes Within a dream.", it's a metaphor for his experience knowing and loving Laura.
"No, I don't like to cook, but I have a chicken in the icebox, and you're eating it."
I'm not so sure that he really loved Laura. He was so self-centered that I think he just used her to look better in society. I doubt that this man had the ability to love anyone.
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π JimHutton (1934-79) and ElleryQueen π
Well, let's say his possessiveness of Laura . . . which in his mind might've meant "love" or what he thought it was . . .
shareI'm not so sure that he [Waldo] really loved Laura. He was so self-centered that I think he just used her to look better in society. I doubt that this man had the ability to love anyone.Right --- the movie definitely gives this impression, though there are often intimations of his fondness for her, and of his genuine enjoyment of her wit, intelligence, and personality.
Spoilers - I think a dead narrator is a great idea, possibly stolen by American Beauty. For who would suspect that the narrator, and indeed a dead one, would be the murderer?
shareI've never understood how a man who is DEAD ξ at the end of the film could be telling us his story as a narrator. Be that as it may, I like Webb's voice, and somehow it works -- if you don't question it too much.
I read someplace (probably here) that in an original treatment of the script, different parts of the movie were to be narrated by Waldo, Laura, and McPherson. Apparently, it was whittled down to only Waldo's narration.
In defense of dead characters as narrators, I'll say just two words: Sunset Blvd.
You're correct about the original structural treatment, and the novel was similarly structured. But since that idea was ultimately jettisoned for the film, the remaining narration as it exists is something I've always taken to indicate what Waldo is typing in his bath - a memorial to Laura for publication in his column - when we first meet him.
Preminger's workmanlike direction doesn't impart this idea (which is merely my assumption) as other directors with greater senses of visual communication might have. For example, they could have faded in on a closeup of Waldo's typing hands as we hear his words, before panning and tracking into the living room where McPherson was waiting.
Poe! You are...avenged!
For example, they could have faded in on a closeup of Waldo's typing hands as we hear his words, before panning and tracking into the living room where McPherson was waiting.
Yup, the novel is broken up into several parts (each part with a few chapters, if memory serves me right) and each part has a different narrator. I think that maybe the detective has two parts. I can't remember now.
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π JimHutton (1934-79) and ElleryQueen π
The First 3:43 minutes of the movie:
Waldo's Opening Narration.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rYA19CNIsI