大侦探
民国初年,大珠宝商沈达先生无病暴亡,悲痛至极的沈少爷终日守候在父亲灵前。深夜,一把带着黑帖的匕首飞入沈府灵堂,帖上写着:沈少爷,断指团三日内来取人心!第二天,沈府老管家请来函大侦探杜义甫和他的女儿石楠。第三天,在外埠上学的沈小姐赶回来奔丧。在父亲生前的朋友、商会孙会长的劝说下,沈少爷陪妹妹到墓地凭吊父亲,结果遭到匪徒的枪击。在医院,沈府上下围着死去的沈少爷恸哭不已,而孙会长却用充满怀疑的双眼死盯着沈少爷苍白的面孔。这一切都被化装成医护的杜义甫看在眼里,于是,他求助军界朋友王营长,以绑票形式将孙什么关押。几天之后,杜义甫从逐渐康复的沈少爷口中得到重要线索。原来,沈达先生有一颗稀世之宝--八窍珠。沈达死后,沈少爷不发现宝珠已被人偷换了,他意识到父亲的死定与宝珠有关,就把自己的怀疑告诉了孙会长,从此,灾难接二连三落在他头上。杜义甫断定这是二桩窃取国宝的大案,除断指团外,还可能牵扯到政界的一些大人物,最为可疑的是财政厅长吴锡仁。吴锡仁有至双胞胎儿子,弟弟安邦是个善良的大学生;哥哥定国却是个纨绔子弟。此时,继指团的人盯上了吴定国。杜义甫推断吴锡仁很可能就是那个暗害沈达,偷换宝珠的人。事实果然如此,吴定国携宝珠潜逃途中被断指团杀死,石楠又从断指团手中将宝珠夺了回来,令双方始料不及的是,这却是一颗假宝珠。断指团被激怒了,他们暗杀了孙会长,绑架了沈小姐,并将吴锡仁押进租界区G国商人鲁斯的住所。深夜,杜义甫潜入鲁斯卧室截走了八窍珠。然而这次行动却导致杜家被抄,沈少爷再次失去宝珠,石楠为救父亲身陷囹圄,杜义甫险些丧命。一个神秘的电话使大侦探再次抓住有利战机,从鲁斯手中夺回了八窍珠。在归家途中,杜义甫遇上了一位白发老人,原来他就是16年前被害入狱的断指团创始人崔毅,而石楠就是他的亲生女儿。案子终于了结了,可等待大侦探的却是一张通缉令。杜义甫毅然将那颗宝珠沉入深潭,告别了义女石楠,从此出家隐居。
不安
Whenever I see La Paura I think of it as a companion piece to Eyes Wide Shut, or maybe it is the other way around. Adultery makes both films tick but in different ways. I think Phillip French was right on the money when he pointed out a Wizard of Oz thing in Kubrick's last work. Like Dorothy, Tom and Nicole go through fantasies and nightmares and at the end Dorothy's reassuring childish motto there's no place like home is ironically updated to the adult circumstantial adage there's no sex like marital sex. Kubrick's take is intellectual, he never leaves the world of ideas to touch the ground. He taunts the audience first with an erotic movie and then with a thriller and refuses to deliver either of them. He was married to his third wife for 40 years, until he died. Rossellini was still married to Ingrid Bergman when he directed La Paura; they had been adulterous lovers and their infidelity widely criticized La Paura is a tale, a noirish one. The noir intrigue is solved and the tale has a happy ending. The city is noir; the country is tale, the territory where childhood is possible. The transition is operated in the most regular way by car, a long-held shot taken from the front of the car as it rides into the road, as if we were entering a different dimension. Irene (Bergman) starts the movie we just see a dark city landscape but her voice-over narration tells us of her angst and informs us that the story is a flashback, hers. Bergman's been cheating on her husband. At first guilt is just psychological torture but soon expands into economic blackmail and then grows into something else. From beginning to end the movie focuses on what Bergman feels, every other character is there to make her feel something. Only when the director gives away the plot before the main character can find out does he want us to feel something Bergman still can't. When she finds out, we have already experienced the warped mechanics of the situation and we may focus once again on the emotional impact it has on Bergman's Irene. In La Paura treasons are not imagined but real, nightmares are deliberate and the couple's venom suppurates in bitter ways. Needless to say, Ingrid has another of her rough rides in the movies but Rossellini doesn't dare put her away as he did in Europa 51, nor does he abandon her to the inscrutable impassivity of nature (Stromboli). His gift is less transcendent and fragile than the conclusion of Viaggio in Italia. He just gives his wife as much of a fairy tale ending as a real woman can have, a human landscape where she can finally feel at home. Back to the country, a half lit interior scene where shadows suggest the comfort of sleep. After all, it's the fairy godmother who speaks the last words in the movie.
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