You will recall that Mary showed her license to the police officer, who then informed her that it was no good. We the audience get a close up look at the license as if we're supposed to be able to tell on sight whats wrong with it. I mean, this is england, 1950. I wouldnt know a good and bad document on sight from that era, from that country.
In the close up of the license, what was wrong with it?
I'm not really sure but I think once he took down the serial number, it'd be over for her club. Though today, even with computers, it takes a while for this stuff to get checked so I guess she could have ran the place for a few months to a year without anyone finding out.
shareJeeze, can't people follow movies anymore? At least one not made for idiots and crammed with CGI. The license was a forgery and the audience was intended to be aware of this fact long before the scene in the new club. Richard Widmark calls Googie Withers to tell her that he has arranged for the license from a friend on the police. During the call, we clearly see that the license is being created by the same forger friend that Widmark had asked for money earlier in the film. The forger even asks for an extra hour to complete the job while Widmark is on the phone. When Withers meets Widmark at the police HQ, Widmark takes her money, leads a cop out of her sight and asks him for simple directions. He the gives the forged license to Withers, who is supposed to think that Widmark bribed the cop to obtain a valid license. None of this is subtle at all and it is intended to be made perfectly clear to the audience. As for the scene with the rookie beat cop in the club, I assume that the ink on a genuine license would not have run when wet as the ink on the forgery did. However, the viewer was intended to already know--since the film went to great lengths to infomr him or her--that the license was a forgery.
share"Jeeze, can't people follow movies anymore? At least one not made for idiots and crammed with CGI. The license was a forgery and the audience was intended to be aware of this fact long before the scene in the new club. Richard Widmark calls Googie Withers to tell her that he has arranged for the license from a friend on the police. During the call, we clearly see that the license is being created by the same forger friend that Widmark had asked for money earlier in the film. The forger even asks for an extra hour to complete the job while Widmark is on the phone. When Withers meets Widmark at the police HQ, Widmark takes her money, leads a cop out of her sight and asks him for simple directions. He the gives the forged license to Withers, who is supposed to think that Widmark bribed the cop to obtain a valid license. None of this is subtle at all and it is intended to be made perfectly clear to the audience"
That part WAS perfectly clear to me that the license was a fake. However, when one buys a forged document from a professional forgerer, one would expect that it wouldnt be so easy to spot on sight by even a police officer (at least not so suddenly). No, what I couldnt get was why they gave us a close up of the forged license as if we the audience too can see in that split second why its a fake. At a glance, I cannot tell.
I think the way the police officer reacted to the ink running was supposed to imply that a real document wouldn't be so shoddy.
That is how I read it anyway
------------------------------------------
What you just read was probably a bit of a rant. Sorry
Yes, the close-up was to show the ink was running. That was the tell to the officer that it was a forgery.
shareHey Philip don't be so abusive. The OP only addressed the question about how did the rookie Bobbie know it was a fake without checking the serial number which he was just about to take down when he saw the ink was running. But you did give a very good account of the subplot that led up to that moment in the film.
shareTHANK YOU. Must be the damn MTV generation.
shareI thought that the way the ink ran implied it was forged. Although why this would be the case I am unsure as even a genuine one in that time, the ink would run if something wet was placed on it.
Its that man again!!
The running ink is a stock device to reveal a forgery (see various Rockford Files episodes). I suppose the implication is that an authentic document (cash, stock certificate, in this case a license) has permanent high-quality printing, on a counterfeit the ink isn't even dry!
shareIt wasn't Mary's club licence, it was Helen's ...
Keep silent unless what you are going to say is more important than silence.share
Yeah, Mary was just a working girl in Phil's (the fat owner) nightclub while Helen his wife was trying to start her own independent club for which she needed the license.
The forger used poor quality ink which smudged when water spilled on it, an authentic document won't smudge like a cheap copy.
Also he took do down her license number if you remember correctly, so even if the ink hadn't smudged, the cop would have later found out the license was fake.
Harry basically screwed Helen over big time..
-----
wat are you lookin' at...
Remember that Helen gave the officer a glass of ginger ale, he then randomly sat the glass directly on top of the license sitting on the table. That's when moisture from the drink cause the ink to run. The license was obtained from Harry's forger friend.
share