I have a question about the movie "The Spanish Prisoner" by David Mamet...

*Spoiler Alert*

There's an article on-line called "The Spanish Prisoner- A Study in Film" ( http://members.aol.com/noesis/main.htm ) that explains that, contrary to what you are seen, the bad guys do get away with stealing the process in the end; David Mamet fooled viewers into thinking that they were watching a happy ending. Observe...

-The card that Joe Ross signed at 'the club' was in fact a membership card. It was not the same note that was presented to Joe at the police station.

-The minimum amount that can be deposited into a Swiss Bank account is $250,000 USD.

-The con could only progress if the suspicions raised by Jimmy Dell with respect to Joe's boss attempting to leave him out of the profits could be justified by Mr. Klein's (Ben Gazzara) actions as it pertained to presenting Joe with his lawyers. To have this happen right after Jimmy Dell plants the seed in Joe and lends credence to the fact that Mr. Klein was himself in on the con game.

-The lack of police tape around the crime scenes that were visited by Joe and the police detectives.

-The police station itself had a non-descriptive feel to it. Nothing stood out but there were aspects about it which could easily be overlooked in all the tension of the moment.

-The iron-gate elevator in which Joe was brought down in seems to be something that should never belong in a police station because it shows complete lax in security.

-The characterless office where Joe was shuffled into to met with Mr. Klein after being questioned seemed generic but menacing with posters strewn about the walls.

-The room where Joe was questioned was right behind the glass partition of the room where Susan was being interrogated doesn't seem to coincide with the general rule that these rooms are primarily for the police and witnesses to view suspects - not for suspects to view other suspects.

-The police detectives arrived at the George Lang's apartment with sirens blaring yet calmly walk to the crime scene, thereby giving Joe a chance to run. There was no accompanying back-up and uniformed officers are almost always the first people on the scene, like the two squad cars that roared by when Joe slipped into the subway station.

-On the way to the airport, the police were on the lookout for a suspect. We assume that it was Joe. However, we never see the picture of the person that the police are looking for. This is reiterated at the airport when the two tourists speak of the newspaper story they are reading because we never see what it is they were reading about.

-The sheer improbability that US Marshals would be on the very bus and ferry where all the pertinent action is a dead give away. It was all too coincidental - as if it was choreographed to fit into a nice package.

-Finally, when Susan was arrested and being led away she asked Joe if there was anything he could do for her situation. He looked at her and basically told her that she was getting what she deserved. The smile that crept onto her lips was the equivalent to the subtle scratch of the nose in "The Sting". It's as if she was saying that she'd let him have this moment of victory - after all, he should have something for himself since they took his formula.



... but WHY did they do all this (the characters)??? They didn't succeed in getting the tennis book back, the only thing with Steve Martins fingerprints.

Anyone got any ideas?




Peace,

Some of these points I suspect are related to the minimal set decorations, which has been a feature of several Mamet films, like House of Games.

So, the hypothesis here is that the Japanese tourists weren't Marshals, but part of a scam to steal the formula? Interesting. I'll have to watch it again.