第40页

Melanie 初次受伤后进餐馆包扎。。。
 
What I particularly love about this scene is that the waitress (the bouncy Elizabeth Wilson in an early bit part as the owner's wife) brings a bottle of peroxide from the diner's rudimentary medical kit. It is this that Mitch holds in his hand like a magic elixir and applies with a cotton swab to Melanie 's wound. As a bottle blonde herself, she seems to gain strength from the peroxide, which operates on her like a transfusion of plasma. The dye theme appears in Hitchcock as early as The Lodger, where a serial murderer is stalking blondes: a young woman exclaims at the news, 'He killed another fair-haired girl. No more peroxide for yours truly!' Hitchcock treats blonde as a beautiful, false colour, symbolising women's lack of fidelity and trustworthiness. Melanie seems to soak up the peroxide just as the injured seaman (William Bendix) of Lifeboat quaffs courage from Constance 's silver-and-glass flask of brandy. One touch of peroxide restarts Melanie 's games CI loathe you,' she taunts Mitch with drawling erotic provocation), as well as her lies (she spins a tale of knowing Annie Hayworth from schooldays). Hitchcock has jokingly seated Melanie beneath a sign that says 'Packaged Goods Sold Here', which turns her into a Dionysian liqueur (Lacrimae Christi?) or a fancy, high-priced courtesan (cf. 'Don't squeeze the goods' in Frenzy and 'She 's a neat piece' in Jamaica Inn).