It’s clear from the conversation that this woman has no previous relation to the young man but she dotes on him regardless, treating him like one of the children playing outside. A motherly figure enters and informs that him that two of his “friends” showed up and asked for him.
The camera pans to a stack of bills next to him and underneath he has a lot of money but doesn’t care about it. We go to a shot of a young man sleeping in a room. This tranquility is broken by the next shots: canted images of a doorway followed by a window – a darkness hiding under the innocence. We cut to children playing in a street – an image of innocence. Despite having a “canted” interior, Uncle Charlie has a childlike presentation that immediately makes him endearing. In spite of not knowing him anymore than as a tenant, the landlady treats him like a child and takes care of him.
He lies on a bed surrounded with money, suggesting both his wealth and lack of concern with it. The establishing shot of children playing on the street suggest innocence, but this idea gives way quickly as we cut to canted angles closer to our subject. A landlady (Constance Purdy) babies Uncle Charlie and looks after him.Uncle Charlie’s money lays on the floor.Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) lies in bed.The object of these men’s investigation is unknown. This shot dissolves to a view of two detectives eating underneath the Pulaski Skyway in New Jersey. A waltz is characterized as being a triple time A rhythym characterized by three beats to a bar,so it makes sense that this shot of the couples dancing will be be used 3 more times during the film’s run-time, each occasion marking one of 3 pivotal movements in the narrative: the start of the mystery, the mystery’s reveal, and the final conclusion. The title card opens on a shot of couples waltzing to the “Merry Widow Waltz”. It’s from this scene that we dissolve into the view of two detectives looking for a subject. The opening sets up the waltz that will serve as the movie’s key refrain, set to pop up at the key moments of the film. Two detectives, Graham (Macdonald Carey) and Saunders (Ford) look across for a missing subject.The waltz refrain dissolves to a view of the Pulaski Skyway.The “Merry Widow Waltz” plays as the title sequence goes on.
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