Chapter 5 of 27 · 3'42"
On the stand, Vole recalls how he first met the woman he is accused of murdering: an afternoon at the pictures and a lonely widow who invited him home for tea. "She seemed to be very lonely, had no friends whatsoever," he says, and the kind detail doubles as his defence — he had no idea she was rich.
Janet Came With the Collection
It is Vole's flashback testimony: he meets Mrs French at a cinema, where the two sit in the cheap seats and chat about the Jesse James film. Afterwards she invites him home for tea. He brings her a centrifugal eggbeater as a gift and gets on well with her. From then on he visits about once or twice a week, and she keeps a bottle of sherry for him.
On the surface this is a sweet story about a lonely widow and a kind young man. Underneath it is Vole carefully building his defence: every warm detail is also evidence that he had no motive. "At this time you had no idea that Mrs French was well-off?" comes the question, and his answer is the whole point — "No. Absolutely not. We were sitting in the cheap seats." He stresses she "had no friends whatsoever," which explains why a rich widow would pour her affection and her silver onto a stranger. He even gifts her an eggbeater, presenting himself as a harmless inventor rather than a fortune hunter. The scene ends on his quiet line, "It's so weird to think of her now, lying in that living room, murdered" — grief, or a performance of it, that the film deliberately leaves open.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“That chap is Jesse James. They've led him into an ambush. It's not at all cricket.”
She judges a Western ambush by the rules of cricket, which instantly dates and places her.
Informal
“I get restless so I go out. Then I find I've no place to go so I go to the movies.”
The plain chain of actions quietly reveals a lonely, rootless life without ever saying so.
Informal
“It's so weird to think of her now, lying in that living room, murdered.”
The quiet participle at the end snaps a warm memory back to the present murder.
Neutral
“I assure you she's been moved by now. To leave her would be unfeeling, unlawful, and unsanitary.”
A triple list turns a grim remark into black comedy, with the last item stealing the scene.
Formal
Up next · 06a hot potatoThe scene: Leonard Recounts the Night of the MurderTo show he had no idea Mrs French was wealthy. If he had been a fortune hunter, the cheap seats prove he met her as an ordinary stranger, not as a rich target.
Yes. Vole says she "had no friends whatsoever," went to the movies to pass the time, and lived with only her housekeeper Janet. That loneliness explains why she welcomed a young stranger so warmly.
An old British phrase meaning unfair or dishonourable. Mrs French uses it about the ambush in the Jesse James film, but it carries the sense that someone has broken the rules of decent play.
Mrs French's Scottish housekeeper. She is stern, dislikes visitors in her kitchen, and is the one who later finds Mrs French dead and becomes a witness.
Yes. He is the inventor, manufacturer and sole distributor, so he presents it as a gift. That scene makes him look generous and harmless rather than like a man chasing her money.
