University of Virginia Library

Illusionary Hope

pretend ignorance is to trick
us, to mislead us, to abuse our
trust in the fairness of the
game.

For one brief moment, it's
possible to entertain the
hopeful thought that all this is
sly and clever. After all, hasn't
director Sidney Lumet created
a parallel between the boys of
the school, who have trusted
Preston and been deceived, and
we, the audience, who have
trusted Preston and been
tricked? I'm afraid that this
hope is illusionary however. At
the end of the film the boys
revenge themselves on Preston
and kill him for abusing their
trust.

At the performance of the
film that I attended the
audience never showed the
least signs of attacking the
screen or the projection booth
for their revenge. Perhaps the
best thing would be to hang
out the sign of the barber in
Melville's The Confidence-Man
and leave it at that: "No
Trust."

(Now at the Paramount)