Mil Mascaras wrote:
Rick wrote:
I can buy into the darkening wardrobe notion on a purely technical level. It's just the sort of thing that costume designers and wardrobe people would think is very deep and helps to validate their existence. The sort of thing they'd run by the producer and director who would nod and say, "Sure, sounds good."
The rest of it, the "Saneman" sign and such, while interesting, I'd be much more likely to chalk up to happenstance. But what do I know?
Interesting post. I've read some stuff by Dillard before, trying to figure out where.


Happenstance? Perhaps. But maybe not quite that much of a stretch. I mean, the name on the wall could have been "Johnson" or "Davis". Saneman is a pretty unusual name. Think about it...the question had to have come up with the director and set designer - "What name shall we paint on the wall?" Somebody must have given it some thought.
I concur. It's just too unusual to be an accident. That stenciling was done on purpose.


   Gadfly wrote:
Ted Newsom wrote:
... I'd read the "Saneman" concept years ago-- surely not Professor Dillard? Where would I have read it? Was it published anywhere accessible?-- and now, of course, see it every time I watch the movie. It IS an "odd" name, and why, indeed, was it chosen over Smith or Jones or Llanwallaghouafnyx unless to underscore some point?

The theory and the movie would work better, I think, if the movie didn't have a visible werewolf until the very end... or even the on-screen gravedigger's death or Larry's footsie transformation. ...
Perhaps it was a leftover from the original idea where Larry didn't change into a real werewolf but only imagined he did? (In fact, since we've gone this far, maybe that's why we have the glimpse of Larry fighting with a man rather than a wolf during the scene where he kills Bela? Larry sees a wolf, but in reality ... well, it's a thought.)

That was my thought, too. Larry is a sane man before he goes into that antique shop. He's dressed like an American tourist - which, on some level, he is. Just a normal guy checking out a pretty girl. Once he buys that cane and hears that story, he's on the slippery slope into an insane world he doesn't understand.