I’ve seen GB1 maybe, oh I don’t know, perhaps over 200 times since the 80’s. And just last month seeing it for the umpeeth time I noticed something I had never noticed before.
The gag when Louis keeps locking himself out of his appartment.
When he does it again when he has his party and meets Dana in the hall and invites her over, if you listen very carefully you can hear someone at the party lock the door behind him when it shuts on Louis.
The humor in this movie is so subtle and nuanced I love it. No wonder it’s considered a masterpiece.
This is extremely subjective, but TO ME it doesn’t sound like the door being locked.
I compared it to a couple of other instances…
In the first lockout, it does sound like there are two distinct sound effects.
“I thought it was the drugstore” door bumps closed “Oh, are you sick?” door locks
In the second, after Venkman’s “No kiss?”, Louis steps out and it simply closes behind him and immediately locks.
In the party scene, he steps out, it closes behind him. If it works like it did in the Venkman scene, it is locked right then.
A sound effect CAN be heard after Louis says “You made a date tonight?” BUT that same sound effect can also be heard after the “You’re missing a classic party!” line, at a time when Louis is standing there holding the door open.
I think what we’re hearing is the foley sound for Dana’s paper sack that she’s eating from. Notice that it continues to make noises as she goes into her apartment.
So why are there two sounds in the first instance? Unsure. One of them COULD be Dana’s cello case bumping the hall wall, I suppose.
Plus, if he has already been shown to lock himself out of his empty apartment on two occasions, what purpose would it serve to CHANGE the joke on the third, and have it be caused by some off-camera person?
Speaking of things like this, I didn’t notice until one time some time ago, that after Ray says 'Listen. You smell something?" Peter actually sniffs the air.
Exactly. I always thought that was the whole joke… he’s the “Keymaster”, yet he can never open any doors - including the Tavern on the Green (he tries several doors and can’t open any).
You know I didn’t make that connection, and they literally have a big epic shot of him coming to the door and it just BLASTS open, and if that’s not a metaphor I dunno what is.
Then again, the GATEKEEPER was on the other side of that door. She could have psychically opened it as invitation.
I didn’t catch the Keymaster/Gatekeeper innuendo until reading the Supernatural Spectacular novelization in 1985 (I was 15) and hit this passage:
“It was the moment. Vinz Clortho, Keymaster of Gozer, rushed to the joining as he and Zuul merged. She was the Gatekeeper and his key was ready. They sank down in the embrace that had been foretold and blew the roof off the building.” ~p.219 [stress added]
But we should probably stop hijacking this thread.
Did anyone else give a listen and think that sound effect is a partygoer locking out the host so they can eat all the Nova Scotia smoked salmon and room-temperature brie they want?
But the joke was never changed, just added to IMO.
The fact that someone actually locks a door that can’t be opened from outside in the first place AND on the host at his own party means people really don’t like Louis
I hadn’t noticed that before. Your topic reminds me that I once lived in a place with a door that locks when it closes, just like Louis. The building I lived in was 8 stories tall and I lived on the 5th floor. It was a pain in the butt when I locked myself out a few times forgetting my key. I ended up having to go down to the 2nd floor where the head resident lived. He then had to go to the office to get a key. Which was in the building next to where we both lived. So it took forever to get my door unlocked. I imagine Louis probably had to do a similar thing to get his door back open the first 2 times it happened to him.
