The Tap has been placed in Harry's saxophone.
Re-watch the scene at the convention when Harry confronts Martin stett (Harrison Ford).
As they are talking a man very quickly walks past them. when the man is out of shot Harry is for a split second distracted by him. Almost as if something has registered in his sub-conscious.
Now play this scene back in slow motion. The man is carrying a Saxophone.
The tap is in the phone. At the convention Harry's rival demonstrates his device that allows a call to be made to a subject's phone, then after the subject phone's receiver is replaced it acts as a microphone, allowing the room to be monitored by the previous caller without the subject's knowlege. The device was demonstrated at the convention but not mentioned again.
That's what I think, anyway ;-)
Well, you aren't right.
shareThe location of the bug is not important. At the convention we learn that there are hundreds of way to tap a room. Earlier in the movie, we learn that access to Harry's appartment can easily be gained.
Anyone could have done anything.
What would be frustrating for Harry is knowing that his rival is likely involved, and that he can't figure out how he did it.
It's clear that Francis Ford Coppola wanted us to discuss where the bug is. And he gave us 3 choices. The sax (we see the man with the sax), the phone (we see the demonstration), the glasses (we see a shot of the couple adjusting the glasses or checking it for bugs). It could be all 3. But it was never the intention of Coppola for us to find out in which of these 3 places the bug really is.
shareIt could be all 3.
If you had cared to read the whole thread, you would know that it could be neither the sax nor the phone.
Personally I am sticking with the OPs theory simply because I like the subliminal appearance of the Sax at the convention. That is a real nice touch, everybody should check it out.
Ok so there maybe some truth in the fact that techinically a "Sax tap" would be unable to achieve the recording we hear, but thats just splitting hairs.
Those of you who think the mic's the saxophone, you'll love this: I think it's not in the saxophone; instead it's in...
The NECKSTRAP.
Think about it. As a saxophone player, I know that if something is in your saxophone, you'd know it. Even if the mic was tiny and didn't affect his playing enough to notice, he could look down in that tenor saxophone and be able to see it. Trust me. But, on the other hand, if the mic was hidden in the folds of his neckstrap -- I used to have one similar to the one Harry was wearing and it's certainly possible -- then he wouldn't have found it. Watch the last shot again. Everything has been torn up in the apartment and everything appears to have been inspected -- except Harry himself. And look -- he's still wearing the neck strap. Doesn't this make perfect sense? And it fits since when Harry is recorded in his workshop by Moran, how's it done? He got Harry to unknowingly put a mic on his own person: that simple ink pen. I believe they got him the same way in the end. They hid a mic in his neckstrap and not only did Harry unsuspectingly put it on, but he forget to inspect it after he knew he'd been recorded.
Thank you, thank you. Hold your applause please. I bet Coppola would be proud.
As I see it, the two most likely locations for the bug was in Harry's glasses (we see how small Moran's pen bug is - it fits inside a pen), or on the inside of a wall placed there from inside the adjacent apartment - thus making it impossible for Harry to find. But how did Meredith get the bug into Harry's glasses? Was she sent there to switch one of the arms of the glasses with the bug inside, beside stealing the tapes? Possible but not probable.
The bug in the wall makes more sense, since that's how Harry bugged the hotel room. Hence the irony. Also, when Harry stops at one of the booths at the convention, on display was something called an "Eavesdropper Wall Sound Detector", something that could be used to bug someone without being detected even if the room being bugged was torn apart.
See I don't trust happiness....never did and never will
Couldn't possibly, he isn't wearing a neckstrap while he's playing.
I had several explanations... but they all fall through. This really is a brilliant film. Thirty years later and we are still wondering.
Remember the device that Moran demonstrated at the convention? You dial someone, add a certain tone just before the last digit (he used a harmonica), and it turns the target's phone into a listening device? Caul couldn't find anything because there was no physical bug, just a re-purposed, normal-looking telephone.
sharei didnt read all the replies, but a bunch put in question how they would get the bug in his apartment. I think it's important to note the first time we see Harry alone, he's talking to his landlady about how she could get into his apartment. Thus, making it simple to get into his apartment to place the bug anywhere. I also think there's significance in seeing the saxophone as a symbol for the bug etc. as it's the only thing Harry does not destroy in his apartment.
shareIn the DVD special features there is an interview with FFC and also on the Director's narration that he himself admits that he doesn't know where the bug is, also he suspected and disproved that it was in the small buckle of the sax-strap that hung around his neck.
My theory was that the surveilence bugging was in the telephone, even though Caul took that apart as well. At the convention his creepy East-coast competitor, "Bernie" Moran, demonstrates an ability to listen into conversations in a room with an ordinary telephone from anywhere in the world. He demonstrates that by dialling a number from anywhere in the world, pausing before the last digit and playing a single note from a small harmonica, then conclude by dialling the last digit, you are able to listen in to conversations without the phone ringing on the receiving end. Don't forget, Martin Stett was at the Convention "looking" for Harry and had the means and opportunity to purchase the technology for the remote phone tap. Later during the film (after the tapes are stolen) Harry tries to phone "The Director" unsuccessfully and is told by the receptionist that Martin will phone him back then abrubtly hangs up while Harry is trying to say that they don't have his number. Martin phones back, Harry asks him how he happened to have his number,and Martin says that they did their own background checks before hiring him.
Although the film's Director, FFC, doesn't mention this aspect in the commentary or the featurette, this is only my theory of how it was done and is based only on my observations. Feel free to comment.
I am now off to watch Mr. Hackman in "Enemy of the State", a nice companion piece to this film don't you think? Perhaps I may be able to gleen some clues from that film :)
ciao et cheers
et tu Brute!
Locked my wire coat-hanger in the car - good thing that I always carry spare keys my pocket :)
I've always enjoyed this movie without watching it too closely, but now I will.
I seem to remember a closing shot of Caul sitting, playing his saxophone, with the camera zooming out through the window.
Is it too early for long-distance microphones pointed through the window? That would mean not hiding anything at all, just aiming a mike at the window from across the street. Saxophone music wouldn't be that hard to pick up, would it?
The tap is the telephone. They used the method shown by Allen Garfield at the convention, when he blows the harmonica into the his end of the phone, and it triggers the phone on the other end to act as a microphone.
shareI've always thought that it was ultimately not that relevant where the bug actually is- what matters is that they've placed an untraceable microphone on this guy who is intensely private, and is supposed to be the best in the surveillance business, thereby ruining both his cherished privacy and, perhaps, his professional reputation.
If you think about it, it plays in very neatly to his Catholic guilt- the bug is God, always listening, and privy to our most private moments.
It's "the Moran S-15"
You just dial the target's phone number, pause before the last digit, blow the harmonica tone into the phone, press the last digit. The phone will not ring in the target's house. Instead, the receiver will be turned into an actual room microphone thus enabling surveillance to take place.
-"fuzzy"
I don't think the tap is in the sax. The tap isn't in his house at all. At the convention they talked about a way to use telephone lines to listen into peoples homes. The first call Harry gets activates the tap on the other end of the line allowing them to hear through Harry's telephone.
shareglad that some actually listened to what was being said!
During the presentation for the Moran S15 they tell you the tap has it's own NiCad source and is undetectable on the line. Leading us to believe the tap is on the LINE not the instrument.
I think the call the first time is to ensure he is home. They record just before the second call so they can prove to Caul that he IS bugged. Since he's improving along to the music, it's highly unlikely that this is recorded at another time. I think the lack of ringing in the playback was an oversight.
As for the person who said that Caul isn't wearing a neckstrap? You need to watch the ending again. He's clearly wearing a white leather neckstrap. I have one just like it in black. They'd some how have to take it apart and put it back together with a bug now inserted as you cannot replace the whole thing. It would be obvious to the owner.
Rewatch the scene in the lounge at the convention. You can hear music in the background. The man with the sax on the stand has a guard on the mouthpiece. There is no guard on the sax when it is sitting in Caul's apt. And while he is having the phone conversation with his landlady, look out the window behind him. Something is going on. But in general I'm against the theory of bug in the sax mostly because as a sax player I know that it would pick up the resonance of the instrument rather than the actual sound it produced.
But mostly I like that you DON'T know. Because the location of the bug is not the point. The point is Caul's paranoia finally being justified. He's tearing apart his whole life. The one thing that he really holds dear is gone.
Very good observation about the guard on the mouthpiece of the sax at the convention. I will have to go back to the scene and do some zooming in and check that out.
Although I will add that just because we don't see Harry's sax with a mouthpiece guard doesn't mean that he doesn't have one for his sax. It may well have been in place when the sax was taken from his apartment to the convention.
As for something going on in the background when we see Harry on the phone to his landlady that is the building opposite being demolished. This is referenced in the commentary by Coppola.
I don't know if this sounds irrational or not but considering the film's overall ambiguity can i assume that the bug is in itself Harry?
shareUh, for that matter, you can plant a bug and unplant it as well. Bugs can be easily found if you are looking for one, ESPECIALLY with Harry's expertise. He could get a frequency counter and find it that way. Whoever bugged Harry knew this and came in and removed the bug. Or they could have shot a laser or microwave beam at Harry's window. As far as the sax is concerned, Harry would know when he played it.
shareI rather doubt laser beaming taps were on the go in '74. However, allowing for the fact that they had to be installed in the victim's phone and that somehow harry wouldn't see it when the took his phone apart (it could have been in the body, not the handset), the harmonica bug seems like a good bet. I quote:
"This is a type of eavesdropping (spying) device that has been used with great success throughout the Cold War, and is still in use today. Known by other terms, such as "third-wire tap", "infinity transmitter", and "hookswitch bypass", a Harmonica bug turns a telephone into a microphone so that the occupants of the room the phone is in can be spied upon. The reason that it is most commonly referred to as a "harmonica" bug is that it is acoustically activated by a pitch pipe(s) or whistle(s) tuned to a specific frequency (or frequencies). (Variations also exist that are activated by application of a control signal.)
To operate one, the snoop must install the device in the victim's phone, and then call the target's phone when he/she wishes to eavesdrop. While the call is connecting, the snoop plays the activation note, so that the device in the target phone is activated before the phone can ring. At that point the phone line is open with the phone still on the hook. (In some cases, the phone may ring once, and the snoop may have to bluff a wrong number to get the victim to hang up again.)
That's why in some movies that show the old "dial" phones, a person will turn the dial a number or two and stick a pencil into it to keep it partially turned. (Gorky Park with William Hurt is one example.) This takes the phone offline, blocking all incoming calls."
But as others have said, it doesn't really matter. It's the fact that he was bugged, not how, that cracked Harry up.
Be seeing you
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