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Footsteps in the Dark

123 statements
23 feature instances
1 referencing feature instances

Footsteps in the Dark	type	TVTItem
Footsteps in the Dark	label	Footsteps in the Dark
Footsteps in the Dark	page	FootstepsInTheDark
Footsteps in the Dark	comment	Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })Footsteps in the Dark is a 1941 mystery film directed by Lloyd Bacon, starring Errol Flynn.Francis Warren (Flynn) is a financial advisor who handles the investment portfolios and tax shelters of New York's wealthy. He lives in a mansion with his gorgeous wife Rita (Brenda Marshall) and surprisingly tolerable mother-in-law Agatha. What Rita and Agatha don't know is that Francis has a secret life: he writes detective fiction under the pen name of "F.X. Pettijohn". What's more, his latest novel Footsteps in the Dark includes thinly veiled caricatures of many members of the Long Island smart set that Francis socializes with. Agatha is talking about a libel suit, if only they can figure out who F.X. Pettijohn really is.But that's not all! Francis also is an amateur sleuth! He tags along with the police—who know him as F.X. Pettijohn—to crime scenes, ostensibly to do research but really to investigate their cases for them Jessica Fletcher-style, much to the irritation of Police Inspector Mason (Alan Hale). All this he does without Rita knowing, going so far as to sneak in through second-floor windows of his house late at night so she doesn't hear him come in.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })A man named Leopold Fissue comes to see Francis during Francis's day job as a financial advisor. The obviously shifty Fissue wants Francis's help in liquidating some uncut diamonds. Francis is suspicious, and when Fissue turns up dead on his yacht Francis is really suspicious. The police write Fissue's death off as a heart attack, but Francis doesn't buy it, and he follows the clues to a burlesque dancer named Blondie White who Fissue was dating.A rare comedy for Errol Flynn, who spent most of his time at Warner Bros. in action, cowboy, or war movies. Ralph Bellamy appears as Dr. R.L. Davis, a dentist who knows more than he's telling.
Footsteps in the Dark	fetched	2022-04-25T02:41:29Z
Footsteps in the Dark	parsed	2022-04-25T02:41:29Z
Footsteps in the Dark	isPartOf	DBTropes
Footsteps in the Dark / int_1300dc5c	type	Inspector Lestrade
Footsteps in the Dark / int_1300dc5c	comment	Inspector Lestrade: Police Inspector Mason, who grudgingly tolerates Francis's appearance at crime scenes. He spends a good chunk of the movie dismissing Francis's theory that Blondie killed Fissue with an undetectable poison, until the FBI calls and tells Mason that they were in fact investigating Fissue for diamond smuggling.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_1300dc5c	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_1300dc5c	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_1300dc5c
Footsteps in the Dark / int_18d15922	type	Title Drop
Footsteps in the Dark / int_18d15922	comment	Title Drop: Many references to F.X. Pettijohn's thriller Footsteps in the Dark.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_18d15922	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_18d15922	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_18d15922
Footsteps in the Dark / int_1b4ea159	type	The Alibi
Footsteps in the Dark / int_1b4ea159	comment	The Alibi: Francis zeroes in on Blondie White pretty quickly, particularly after seeing her fuse two matches together like the ones he found on the yacht. But she has a cast-iron alibi: she was getting her teeth fixed at the dentist. It turns out that Blondie and her dentist were in on it together.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_1b4ea159	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_1b4ea159	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_1b4ea159
Footsteps in the Dark / int_20d88961	type	Burlesque
Footsteps in the Dark / int_20d88961	comment	Burlesque: Blondie is the star of a burlesque show. She basically sings while wearing a corset.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_20d88961	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_20d88961	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_20d88961
Footsteps in the Dark / int_28ae9dbf	type	Pen Name
Footsteps in the Dark / int_28ae9dbf	comment	Pen Name: Francis writes murder mysteries under the name F.X. Pettijohn.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_28ae9dbf	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_28ae9dbf	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_28ae9dbf
Footsteps in the Dark / int_2b5ea43c	type	Bland-Name Product
Footsteps in the Dark / int_2b5ea43c	comment	Bland-Name Product: A note is formed out of a page from "World Geographic Magazine"—National Geographic, of course.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_2b5ea43c	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_2b5ea43c	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_2b5ea43c
Footsteps in the Dark / int_2de02182	type	Visual Title Drop
Footsteps in the Dark / int_2de02182	comment	Visual Title Drop: As opening title "Footsteps in the Dark" pops up onscreen we see...footsteps in the dark, namely two pairs of feet walking across some grass at night. It's Francis and Wilfred coming home from detective work.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_2de02182	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_2de02182	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_2de02182
Footsteps in the Dark / int_5f54a67b	type	Enter Stage Window
Footsteps in the Dark / int_5f54a67b	comment	Enter Stage Window: Francis routinely does this after his nighttime detective excursions, climbing a ladder to his second-floor bedroom so no one sees/hears him coming through the front door.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_5f54a67b	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_5f54a67b	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_5f54a67b
Footsteps in the Dark / int_60492b98	type	Have You Told Anyone Else?
Footsteps in the Dark / int_60492b98	comment	Have You Told Anyone Else?: As Francis makes some extremely accurate hypotheses about how Blondie and her accomplice killed Fissue, Davis says "Knowing so much about the Fissue murder, and Miss White's accomplice, I suppose you've told the police about it?" Francis answers that he hasn't. Subverted in that Francis does this deliberately to get Davis to unmask himself.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_60492b98	featureApplicability	-0.3
Footsteps in the Dark / int_60492b98	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_60492b98
Footsteps in the Dark / int_60b21fa3	type	The Lancer
Footsteps in the Dark / int_60b21fa3	comment	The Lancer: Mr. Wilfred, Francis's chauffeur. Wilfred also is his secretary who takes his dictation when Francis is writing novels, and he's also Francis's sidekick and lancer when Francis is out doing detective work and chasing bad guys.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_60b21fa3	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_60b21fa3	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_60b21fa3
Footsteps in the Dark / int_6293c185	type	Sequel Hook
Footsteps in the Dark / int_6293c185	comment	Sequel Hook: The film ends with Rita, who has found out about Francis's secret life, dashing out to investigate an ax murder with him. Plans for a sequel to this movie were abandoned when it did mediocre box office.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_6293c185	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_6293c185	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_6293c185
Footsteps in the Dark / int_71105dfc	type	Everybody Smokes
Footsteps in the Dark / int_71105dfc	comment	Everybody Smokes: It's 1941, so apparently the dentist will offer you a cigarette and smoke along with you while you sit in the chair in his examination room.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_71105dfc	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_71105dfc	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_71105dfc
Footsteps in the Dark / int_842426f3	type	Grande Dame
Footsteps in the Dark / int_842426f3	comment	Grande Dame: Agatha, Francis's snooty mother-in-law, who calls Francis a "traitor to your class" when she finds out he's F.X. Pettijohn.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_842426f3	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_842426f3	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_842426f3
Footsteps in the Dark / int_8470aa73	type	Roman Ã Clef
Footsteps in the Dark / int_8470aa73	comment	Roman à Clef: The book Footsteps in the Dark contains some thinly veiled caricatures of the people that Agatha socializes with. A particularly annoying Rich Bitch named June Brewster is "Jane Wooster" in the book.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_8470aa73	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_8470aa73	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_8470aa73
Footsteps in the Dark / int_8498284	type	Be a Whore to Get Your Man
Footsteps in the Dark / int_8498284	comment	Be a Whore to Get Your Man: When she becomes convinced that Francis is cheating on her with a stripper, Rita decides that Blondie must be offering Francis something she isn't providing. She winds up practicing stripper moves in her bedroom, only to be embarrassed when the butler intrudes.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_8498284	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_8498284	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_8498284
Footsteps in the Dark / int_a66b0789	type	Fingertip Drug Analysis
Footsteps in the Dark / int_a66b0789	comment	Fingertip Drug Analysis: When Francis is not killed by the poison Dr. Davis injected him with, Davis tastes it. Francis figured out what was up and switched out the poison with water while Davis's back was turned.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_a66b0789	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_a66b0789	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_a66b0789
Footsteps in the Dark / int_ad6593eb	type	Cut-and-Paste Note
Footsteps in the Dark / int_ad6593eb	comment	Cut-and-Paste Note: A variation on this in which Francis gets a note from the killer that isn't a cut and paste note, but rather a note in which most of the words on a magazine page have been scratched out, leaving only a few visible to form a threatening message. This backfires when Francis remembers where he last saw a copy of World Geographic Magazine, namely, in Dr. Davis's office.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_ad6593eb	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_ad6593eb	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_ad6593eb
Footsteps in the Dark / int_b9f8c6f8	type	Sleeping Single
Footsteps in the Dark / int_b9f8c6f8	comment	Sleeping Single: As usual per the 1940s, Francis and his smoking hot wife sleep in separate beds.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_b9f8c6f8	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_b9f8c6f8	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_b9f8c6f8
Footsteps in the Dark / int_ce40dbf7	type	Fake Action Prologue
Footsteps in the Dark / int_ce40dbf7	comment	Fake Action Prologue: Two men dressed in dark clothes creep across a lawn at night. One climbs a ladder to a second-floor window, sees a beautiful woman sleeping, climbs through the door—then puts on pajamas and gets in the other bed. It's Francis, coming home from his secret detective escapades.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_ce40dbf7	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_ce40dbf7	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_ce40dbf7
Footsteps in the Dark / int_dfe687c9	type	Alone with the Psycho
Footsteps in the Dark / int_dfe687c9	comment	Alone with the Psycho: Subverted in that Francis deliberately arranges to be alone with the psycho but has Wilfred bring the cops to Davis's dental practice at a pre-arranged time.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_dfe687c9	featureApplicability	-0.3
Footsteps in the Dark / int_dfe687c9	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_dfe687c9
Footsteps in the Dark / int_e3048d1b	type	Amateur Sleuth
Footsteps in the Dark / int_e3048d1b	comment	Amateur Sleuth: Francis. As is so often the case with this trope, the amateur (in this case an author of detective fiction) is better at the sleuthing than the cops are.
Footsteps in the Dark / int_e3048d1b	featureApplicability	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark / int_e3048d1b	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_e3048d1b
Footsteps in the Dark / int_ed503b22	type	Match Cut
Footsteps in the Dark / int_ed503b22	comment	Match Cut: From Blondie gyrating onstage as part of her burlesque act, to Rita doing the same in her bedroom, trying to come up with a way to seduce her husband.
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Footsteps in the Dark / int_ed503b22	featureConfidence	1.0
Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_ed503b22
Footsteps in the Dark / int_name	type	ItemName
Footsteps in the Dark / int_name	comment
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Footsteps in the Dark	hasFeature	Footsteps in the Dark / int_name
Footsteps in the Dark / int_name	itemName	Footsteps in the Dark

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hasFeature

Visual Title Drop / int_4fc83823

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