Suspense in the Cinema [antikvár]

1. Introduction Suspense is a familiar condition, brought on by life. Workaday existence can easily become a survival contest, waged in the cheerless shadow of world events. The communication media keep us in touch with matters we might be disinclined to touch with a ten-foot pole; yet curiosity and conscience, mixed in varying proportions, decree that we must be aware of such things. So the latest news is on tap, very properly. One of the tricks of survival is to avoid swallowing it in massive doses. The big trouble with day-to-day news is that it's a collection of unfinished anecdotes. It leaves questions hovering: will a war be waged? will a murderer be apprehended? will taxes increase? wiU tea stain the lining of the stomach and (as a letter to The Times once demanded) "if so does it matter?" Before the answers are known, days or even months can elapse, by which time other questions have arisen to claim priority in our crowded areas of awareness. Thus the chronic imbiber of news will live in perpetual suspense. "Welcome to Milltown, A Very Nervous Little Community" : so reads the sign that fills the screen at the beginning of The Ladies Man (1961, directed by Jerry Lewis). Doubtless a town in touch with the news. The camera rises above the sign, disclosing a sedate square and a solitary woman who makes her way along a footpath and crosses a 11