Abstract
Abstract “The Manxman (1929): Written on the water: Hitchcock’s dissolving ink” deals with a complex shot from The Manxman, in effect, two shots joined by an overlap dissolve. The dissolve moves from the heroine’s suicide attempt by drowning to the courtroom where her “crime” is later being judged. Formally, this dissolve visually blends a dark image of the water to a close-up of an inkwell in which the judge is dipping a pen. The photogenic confusion of these two images, disparate in location and context, provides a powerful crystallization of the film’s themes: the oppression of the heroine’s desire by a male code of law represented by the judge, and the subsequent drama of subterfuge and guilt joining the heroine, her husband, and the judge. The dissolve displays Hitchcock’s mastery in editing together significant details at the end of the silent era.
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