The face of No.6, or is it No.1? In either way its the face of Patrick McGoohan who is being suffocated, which I find to be something of a disappointment as it breaks the continuity in the scene. As you can see the young man wearing sporting the striped jersey who is about to be suffocted by the Village Guardian is also wearing a hat and a pair of sunglasses. The face being suffocted wears neither. Oh I know both the hat and the sun glasses could have been knocked off in the struggle, but it would seem unlikley. But even if that was so, the moment for me is still spoiled by the face of McGoohan! Be seeing you.
I found Mr Anonymous's idea about #6 seeing himself an interesting thought. I had never recognised especially, that that face was #6, but then I never recognised the face beneath the mask of #1 either, until it was pointed out to me........ :-D
ReplyDeleteOne query though... I thought I read elsewhere in here that that face belonged to Mark Eden, and was an outtake of him being Rovered in 'It's Your Funeral'..... ?
Hello Moor,
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely correct about a previous blog regarding Mark Eden, and I can clear up your query for you. In 'Arrival' we see a young man sporting a striped jersey, and sunglasses about to be suffocated by the Village Guardian. Then this changes to Mark Eden sporting a pink blazer being suffocated by the Village Guardian, yet the face is that of Patrick McGoohan. I have always thought that that brief scene is something of a mess. So much time, trouble, and effort went into the filming of 'the Prisoner,' yet they were so lacksidasical in the cutting room.
Regards
David
Be seeing you
Hello David
ReplyDeleteIf you had seen the film Masque of the Red Death (as well as The Wizard of Oz) the appearance of the face of No.1 would not have been a shock in either Arrival or Fall Out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkW8b-gPeMg
Both would have been seen as natural cinematic story telling... just as Poe, Melville, Kabuki, Noh theater and the ancient Greeks considered the unmasking process to be a method of revealing what was underneath a characters actions... not just a continuity failure.
The circular nature of 'The Prisoner' was foreshadowed by the film 'Dead of Night.
Sincerely
Mr. Anonymous
Hello Mister Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI have seen the 'The Masque of the Red Death,' but read Edgar Allan Poe's story long before I watched the film. In fact I've written about Poe's story in parallel to 'the Prisoner' in my manuscript about 'the Prisoner, only in regard to the episode 'Dance of the Dead.' Because as you know at the end of 'The Masque of the Read Death' everyone in Prince Prospero's castle dies, only the Red Death it left standing so to speak, and originally at the end of 'Dance of the Dead' everyone at the Ball in the Town Hall was supposed to have died, everyone except No.6!
You are quite correct regarding the film 'Dead of Night,' and it's circular nature, which I have also written about in context with 'the Prisoner' in my manuscript. 'Dead of Night' being a favourite film of mine, as are the five short stories which the film is based upon. Hugo is particulally nasty, but not as bad as 'The Mirror.'
Regards
David
Be seeing you