the professor is explaining with purpose. though newman is stealing it still he had to contest it to get the answer he wants! It was amazing hitchcock work. I cant find any other film where there is a discussion on the black board!
shareHow true . . . one of the best sequences in the movie . . . Newman handles it just right!
shareI think it is a great scene for several reasons.
One is that we understand what is going on without understanding the formulas on the board, at all:
Newman's goal is to trick and goad the Professor into "giving up" his secret formula...and to do it, Newman has to keep "acting dumb" and putting the wrong equations on the board, always leaving something missing(because it IS missing, because Newman doesn't know what it is) -- in hopes that the Professor will reveal the secret.
And just as the Professor DOES reveal the secret, we hear loud voices on the intercom -- first in German -- that are clearly unleashing everybody on campus to search for Newman and Andrews.
So suspense kicks in as Newman desperately tries to memorize the formula and the Professor hears the loudspeaker and realizes he has been had -- "You've told me...nothing," he says almost sadly.
Then the great Hitchcockian finish:
The professor slams down the outer blackboard.
Comedy: "I FORBID you to leave this room!"
Quick shot of a door slamming...Newman's already long gone.
Bim...bam...boom. Hitchocck.
I also love the very quick cutaway shot in this sequence to the Professor's flung cigar flying into a corner and bouncing off the wall, a visual of his arrogance and impatience.
PS. And those formulas on the blackboard? For all I know, they were for chicken soup!
I can think of one - the 1951 sci-fi classic, "The Day the Earth Stood Still". Watch it and you'll love the blackboard scene - it's similar to the one in "Torn Curtain".
shareA most wonderful shot during this sequence is when we hear the loudspeaker the first time we see the concentrating stare of the professor. The audience thinks that he's listening to the speaker while later we find out that he was thinking about the formulas. Ingenius.
shareI have to agree. Even the Hitchcock movies that I regard as lesser all seem to have scenes like this, that intrigue you intellectually (like this scene) or grab you viscerally (the murder scene.
In Topaz, for example, there is the scene where Roscoe Lee Browne approaches and then talks the Cuban associate into helping them, all shown from a distance and the only sounds being the background street noises. But it is a brilliant sequence, showing it all without having to be explicit.