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tie for him, “Hey, you know. I’ve got an idea. Why don’t you quit work
early tonight and we’ll go out to dinner and catch an early show.”
Although his mother begs off, “Oh, you don’t want to go out with me,”
Bud gallantly insists, “You tell Mr. Muller that you want to leave early
tonight, that you’ve got a date . . . with your son” (The Oedipal subtext
is manifest). Then Bud leaves for school, but not before looking in the
mirror one more time and changing the tie that his mother has just picked
out for him.
Bud gets the shock of his life — the camera zooming in on his
startled face — when Dorrie strolls into English class not only alive, but
lovely as ever in a lavender dress, an unusually “cool” color for her
character that suggests she may not be quite as passive or pliable as Bud
thinks. Now Bud’s fate appears to be sealed. It’s too late to retrieve the
“suicide” letter he sent Ellen. However, when he walks out of the post
office past the poster of a serviceman and young woman walking happily
arm-in-arm (“There’s something about a soldier”), his eyes gravitate to
the top of the Municipal Building located kitty-comer across the street in
downtown Lupton. Framed against a brilliant cloud-scalloped blue sky, it
houses the marriage license bureau and, as the camera pans swiftly to the
ground. Bud’s prayers are answered. (This POV shot and the succeeding
rooftop sequence foreshadow Hitchcock’s Vertigo.)
Since the marriage bureau is conveniently closed when Bud
brings Dorrie there at noon, he suggests that they go up to the roof to kill
some time before it opens again. While both Bud and Dorrie are wearing
light-colored suits, Dorrie is also wearing a “borrowed” brown belt,
“new” white gloves, and an “old” green blouse. “Look at that sky!” Bud
exclaim ̰