Summary
The door buzzes and Brandon goes to answer it. Mrs. Wilson warns Phillip not to spend too much time at the piano and to make sure he gets enough to eat, as Brandon lights a cigarette and offers to answer the door. “Now the fun begins,” he says to Phillip and goes to answer the door. Phillip examines the chest with a pained expression, but quickly snaps into social niceties, greeting the first guest, Kenneth, a blonde fellow they know from school. Kenneth tells them that he is cramming for exams, and that he always has to get started “before everybody else.” Kenneth realizes that he’s the first one there, and the men go and look out the large windows of the apartment.
Brandon tells Kenneth that following the party, he will be driving Phillip up to Connecticut, where he will be locked up so that he can practice piano in anticipation for a debut recital at Town Hall. Kenneth is glad to hear it, and Mrs. Wilson brings in a bottle of champagne on ice, now with flowers in her hair. Brandon compliments her on it and pours Kenneth a drink. Kenneth comments on the size of the eating surface, saying he’s honored to have been invited to such a small farewell party for Phillip. Brandon assures him that they are “killing two birds with one stone,” and that the party is for David also. Kenneth seems momentarily anxious, asking if David is going to be there. Brandon assures him that he is, and that Janet Walker will also be there. Kenneth seems concerned that Janet will be there, and Brandon questions him about his concern. “Janet and I are all washed up, didn’t you know?” Kenneth says, and Brandon and Phillip both feign ignorance. The door buzzes again, and as Kenneth begins to tell the two men that Janet and David have some kind of special connection, we hear Mrs. Wilson greeting Janet at the door. As he goes to join her, Brandon says rather curiously, “I have the oddest feeling that your chances with the young lady are much better than you think.” Kenneth looks confused.
Janet enters the room and greets the two men affectionately, complimenting Brandon on how he smells (a gift of cologne that she gave him last Christmas). Janet becomes startled when she sees Kenneth is in the room. They greet each other, and both are temporarily confused, making awkward smalltalk as Brandon pours Janet some champagne. Kenneth asks Janet what she is up to, and she informs him that she is working on a column on “how to keep the body beautiful.” When Phillip asks what magazine she is working for, she tells him “an untidy little magazine known as Allure.” Janet then notices a painting on the wall, remarking on how it’s new to the apartment, and Brandon tells her it’s by a “new young American primitive.” Janet makes a joke and beckons Brandon into the hall, where she scolds him for having invited Kenneth to the party, saying, “Sometimes your sense of humor is a little too malicious.” Brandon feigns ignorance, but certainly already knows what Janet tells him, that she used to be involved with Kenneth, but they have since “called it quits” and she is now “practically engaged” to David, Kenneth’s best friend.
Brandon apologizes, but tells Janet that it’s difficult to keep up with her romantic life, revealing that they were once lovers. After him, she moved to Kenneth, and then to David. When he asks Janet why she moved from Kenneth to David, she tells him that it’s because David is nicer. Brandon calls her bluff, and remarks on the fact that David is “certainly richer,” which understandably only makes Janet more upset. She scowls at him and goes back into the living room, making light conversation as though nothing has happened between them. The group discusses the imminent arrival of Rupert Cadell, their house master at school. Kenneth reveals that Rupert now works in publishing, and Janet becomes excited, suggesting that perhaps he can give her a job. Phillip assures her that “Rupert only publishes books he likes, usually philosophy.” Evidently, he doesn’t cater to a large market. Brandon jokes that Mr. Cadell operates under the radical assumption that people can not only read, but think.
Kenneth then brings up the fact that Rupert Cadell and Brandon were very close in school, and that Brandon would spend a lot of time with him. Brandon explains that Rupert has an unusual irreverence for social conventions. Brandon begins to say, “For example, Rupert thinks murder is a crime for most men,” and Phillip finishes his thought, “But a privilege for the few.” Suddenly, the door buzzes, and Brandon goes to answer it. It’s Mr. Kentley and another woman, whom Mr. Kentley informs him is his sister-in-law; Mrs. Kentley is ill. Mrs. Atwater, David’s aunt, explains to Brandon that she is visiting New York. Mrs. Wilson begins speaking at length to Mrs. Atwater, who seems annoyed to be addressed so freely by a housekeeper.
Mrs. Atwater goes into the living room and immediately mistakes Kenneth for David. As Brandon corrects her, the camera pans to Phillip’s hands, which are bloodied, and we realize that his champagne glass has broken, the stem and the glass itself having separated and cut up his hand. He slowly walks over to the drinks table and puts the broken glass on the table discreetly. When Mrs. Atwater is introduced to Janet, she becomes overjoyed about seeing David’s girlfriend, and tells her that she just read Janet’s horoscope before coming over. “The stars are very kind. They indicate a marriage very soon, to a tall, fair-haired man, with a very lovely father!” Mrs. Atwater exclaims, looking knowingly over at Mr. Kentley. Apparently, an engagement between Janet and David is imminent. Brandon introduces Phillip to Mrs. Atwater, who notices the cut on Phillip’s hand. Brandon becomes concerned as well, and asks him what happened. “Nothing! The glass was cracked and it broke!” he insists and offers Mrs. Atwater a glass of champagne, which she enthusiastically accepts.
Mr. Kentley requests a glass of scotch with water, and asks if David has arrived yet, which stops Brandon on his way to fetch the drink. “I expected him to come with you,” Brandon says, but Kentley insists that David said he would meet them at the apartment. Brandon walks away as Mr. Kentley and Janet take a seat beside one another on the couch and discuss David. When Mr. Kentley says that David was playing tennis rather than studying when they called to check on him, Janet informs him that David doesn’t have to study because he’s so bright. When Janet asks after Mrs. Kentley, Mr. Kentley tells her that as usual, his wife is sick, this time with a cold. Mr. Kentley then tells Janet that Mrs. Kentley wants David to call when he arrives at the dinner party, and Janet suggests that perhaps she ought to call Mrs. Kentley to tell her that David has been detained. When Brandon returns with Mr. Kentley’s drink, Janet asks him where the phone is, and he tells her it’s in the bedroom. Finishing her drink, she hands Brandon her glass to refill, and as Brandon walks away he hears Mr. Kentley remark to Janet, “What a charming young man, I wish David saw more of him.” Brandon pours Janet some champagne and gives her glass to Kenneth to bring to Janet. Kenneth questions Brandon why he wants him to deliver the champagne to her while she’s on the phone in the bedroom, smirking and saying, “Then you want David to walk in,” but Brandon insists that that is not his aim, and the two men smile at one another.
The camera pans over to Phillip and Mrs. Atwater, as Mrs. Atwater tells Phillip about himself based on his horoscope. She supposes that he wants to know if his concert at Town Hall will be a success, and thinks on it. From his birthday, she deduces that he is born under the astrological sign of Cancer, a “moon child.” Asking to see his palms, she asks him if he knows the hour of his birth, but he tells her he does not. She looks at his hands, commenting that they are “good hands, strong, artistic!” When he asks her about the concert, she examines his palms, declaring that his hands will bring him great fame, as the camera zooms in on them. We see Phillip slowly pulls his hands away, palms still open. The camera then pans up to his face as he looks at them and considers the murderous deed his hands have committed. He sits at the piano and begins to play as the camera zooms out to show the whole scene.
The camera pans over to the doorway as Phillip plays, and we see Rupert Cadell watching from the doorframe. Cadell walks over beside the piano and tells him that his touch has improved. Phillip stops playing and Brandon anxiously greets Cadell, introducing him to Mrs. Atwater, Mr. Kentley, and Janet. Cadell already recognizes Janet, having heard about her from Brandon. He then walks over and greets Kenneth. “It’s awfully good to see you again,” Kenneth says, and without missing a beat, Cadell slyly responds, “Why?” Brandon pours Cadell some champagne, telling him that the party began as a party for Mr. Kentley so that they could look over “those first editions,” before it turned into a going-away party. It’s a farewell for Phillip, Brandon tells Cadell, who notes that Brandon always stutters when he is excited. Brandon responds, “I guess I’m always excited when throwing a party.”
Suddenly, Mrs. Wilson beckons Mr. Cadell over to show him the chicken they will be eating for dinner. Cadell greets her affectionately, and Mrs. Wilson tells Brandon to start carving the chicken for dinner. As she exits the room, Mrs. Wilson informs them that she “found it!” but Brandon doesn’t know what she seems to have lost. Janet comes to the table and expresses disappointment that David is so late. Mr. Cadell then questions Brandon as to why they are eating dinner off the chest, and Brandon simply says that he has turned the dining table into a library, which seems to satisfy Cadell. Cadell then discusses the fact that Brandon has long had a fixation with chests, that his favorite story in school was the Legend of the Mistletoe Bough. Mr. Kentley approaches them and helps Cadell recount the story of the mistletoe bough, in which a young bride-to-be accidentally locks herself in a chest until she dies in it and turns into a skeleton. Mrs. Atwater approaches the table and she and Janet discuss a recent film they both saw at the Strand. The women discuss male celebrities. Mrs. Atwater makes what she thinks is a controversial statement when she says that she likes James Mason just as much as Erroll Flynn. Janet prefers Cary Grant. Mrs. Atwater references the fact that Cary Grant is born under the sign of Capricorn and tries to recall the name of his most recent film. Cadell recalls seeing Mary Pickford in a movie and makes a joke about her being a particular astrological sign, a joke which pleases Janet, but goes right over Mrs. Atwater’s head. Mrs. Wilson brings out more food and the dinner begins.
Analysis
This section introduces us to a slew of supporting characters, as they file into the macabre dinner party. First is the somewhat affable and simple-minded Kenneth, who is still dealing with the sting of having been left by Janet. Janet herself is glib and fast-talking, clearly close to Brandon in spite of their shared romantic history, and ambitiously eager to become a successful writer. While she gives the impression of frankness and honesty, like Brandon she is very skilled at keeping secrets under a veneer of social poise. She feels betrayed that Brandon has orchestrated such a tense scenario by inviting Kenneth to a party that includes David, his best friend and her current lover. Then there is Mr. Kentley, a straightforward and serious man, and his snobby sister-in-law Mrs. Atwater. Finally, the guest of honor is Rupert Cadell, an iconoclastic intellectual, whom Brandon refers to as a true “radical,” and proves himself to be a wittily brusque man, who does not waste time or suffer fools. Cadell’s temperament disarms those around him; he always tells the truth.
The characters at the dinner party have been selected carefully to add to the diabolical drama that Phillip and Brandon have dreamed up. In a way, Brandon’s greatest dream is to become a god-like fixture at the party. The party as an event is an opportunity for him to exercise utter control over a particular setting, and to put one over on the guests all the while. His idea of the perfect murder is not just getting away with it, but also weaving the murder into a night of his devising, allowing him to feel like a grand puppet master, pulling the strings and controlling the people in his life. A murder itself is dramatic enough, but Brandon is so enlivened by it, that he’s driven to create a complicated and awkward social drama around the murder, to heighten the intensity. His pathology is not only his cold-blooded capacity for murder, but its connection to a grander megalomania, an insatiable power hunger that drives him to toy with fate.
The revelation that Brandon and Janet were once romantically involved only makes his whole plot and motive all the more unsettling and uncanny. It is undoubtedly strange for someone to be so remorseless about a murder, and additionally to have no apparent motive for committing it. The realization that Janet and he were once lovers, and his unusual interest in her romantic life, seems to give some clue as to why he might murder David, but also makes his whole scheme all the stranger. Brandon is seemingly without human empathy and emotion, and he pursues his scheme with a mercilessness that pushes him from common murderer to terrifying sociopath.
The moments of suspense in the movie are all the more terrifying because they are bracketed by normal, socially conventional, and often comical scenes. The characters are three-dimensional and have very plausible relationships to one another. At times the personal dramas between them seem to take on an importance that overshadows the central murder, but just when the viewer is pulled into a subplot, we are reminded of the horrifying secret an the dinner table. As Mrs. Atwater enters the room and mistakes Kenneth for David, the camera pans quickly over to Phillip, who holds a broken champagne glass, which he evidently broke in a fit of anxiety over his terrible misdeed. The image of Phillip’s hands, bloodied from the broken glass, is not simply horrific because it is bloody, but because it is such a disruptive and violent image in the midst of what is otherwise a very staid event. It calls to mind the fact that the objects of a dinner party—silver utensils, candles, glasses, etc.—can so quickly turn into violent objects, capable of great harm.
The broken glass is a symbol of a conventional object suddenly rendered violent, which has obvious parallels with the murderous rope that Brandon so casually stores in the drawer in the kitchen. The film is fixated on such objects, and on the moments in which civil behavior cracks, and violence bursts through. While the guests have tense personal histories and unusual connections, they keep up a facade of politeness and kindness, preparing for a dinner party. The image of the broken martini glass cuts through—literally and figuratively—this composure, just as the hidden rope does. The terror of the film is that so much is hidden beneath the social equilibrium, so much that threatens to break, to strangle, and to cut.
