Object #1: The Cymbals - The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

Using Hitchcock may as well be cheating when it comes to this blog. The man used objects like no other, popularizing the entire concept of the MacGuffin (see TvTropes' page for a bevy of them) so much so that it's impossible to mention one without the other. 

MacGuffin: an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

I'm certain that I'll be discussing more of these eventually, the classic is the Microfilm in North by Northwest, the rope from, uh, Rope, and my personal favourite, the Maltese Falcon in The Maltese Falcon. What do you know? One post in and I've already explained my profile picture!

Anyway, today's object happens to be a MacGuffin, a Hitchcock MacGuffin so we know it'll be a good one. The reason the cymbals pictured above are important is relatively complex. But do you know what? You don't need to know why. All you need to know is that when these cymbals crash in a crowded Royal Albert Hall concert, someone will die. A foreign Prime Minister will be assassinated for all the reasons one imagines a foreign Prime Minister would be assassinated for. 

Before I go on I'll link the scene here, it's very low quality so be warned (but then again it's Hitchcock so come on, you will understand what's going on!).The Assassin hides in one of the balcony boxes. Our heroes Ben (James Stewart) and Jo (Doris Day), American tourists entangled in the sinister plot, know the importance of the cymbals. Jo stays on the bottom floor, as Ben goes upstairs to confront him and stop the assassination. And oh boy is it tense, believe me it's tense! In typical Hitchcock fashion we have obstacles, a police officer who won't let Ben pass to the balconies.

Screenshots courtesy of blu-ray.com

 We don't hear anything but the music. The choir singing dramatically, and that's the word in a nutshell, dramatically. This is drama! We see Ben talk to the police, we don't need to know his exact words, we understand the meaning. Hitch cuts to Jo frequently, keeping the focus on her for her payoff later in the scene. He also cuts to the choir, the women dressed in white, the men in black. It's so simple but so effective, White - life, Black - death. Look at the man holding the cymbal in the first screenshot, the man who holds life and death in his hands, dressed in white and black.

Hell, look at the Prime Minister's suit! What's he wearing? The same outfit as the cymbal player, but with a red sash across the shirt. Red - Blood! Seriously Hitchcock is the master of details like this, so glaringly obvious in retrospect but in motion, in the heat of the scene you don't care. All you want is for Ben to stop the assassination. 

The music builds, we see Ben try different doors for different balconies, cuts to the choir, cuts to Jo watching in disbelief and dread, the assassin standing, raising his gun, the cymbal player standing ready. We get this great shot:

Symmetry - the audience, the band, the cymbals, with only the conductor moving events onwards. The emphasis is on the music, the oh so dramatic music. The gun slides slowly from behind the velvet curtain, like a snake ready to strike. Turns slowly, a cut to Jo who looks from the gun to the target, reminding us of the link between the two people.The Assassin looking down a barrel of the gun, eyes so sinister, and the music swells.

And then we get it: Jo's scream. 

The Assassin is distracted. The cymbals crash. The PM shot in the arm, wounded but alive. The crowd in motion. Ben finds the Assassin, wrestles the gun from his hand. The Assassin stumbles, runs to his target, falls. A woman in the crowd screams. 

And that's it, the MacGuffin served its purpose. The cuts to Jo throughout all make sense now, as we needed to know her position and emotional state to understand how her scream changes events. This scene, is, in Hitchcock's own words, 'Pure Cinema'. And at the heart of the scene, our object, the cymbals. 

The only other thing I didn't mention going through the scene is the dramatic irony we as the audience received from Hitch at the start of the film: "A single crash of cymbals and how it rocked the lives of an American family." These words are presented overlain with the image of the cymbal player. Throughout the entire film we've known that the crash of these cymbals will happen, and will be important. By the start of this scene the dramatic irony is lost, Jo and Ben know the importance of the cymbals as much as we do, but it's been an underlying source of tension and intrigue throughout the entire film, building and building. And the payoff, well, I think you'll agree that it's pretty damned good?

P.S This image...I'm saying nothing.