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** Freddie Riedenschneider is named after "Doc" Riedenschneider in ''Film/TheAsphaltJungle''.
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* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Taken from the poem "Antagonish" by William Hughes Mearns.
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* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Taken from the 1899 poem "Antagonish" "Antigonish" by William Hughes Mearns.
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** Freddy Riedenschnieder's defense of Doris Crane involves a truly baffling spiel about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
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** Freddy Riedenschnieder's Riedenschneider's defense of Doris Crane involves a truly baffling spiel about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
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* BigEater: Freddy Reidenschnieder.
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* BigEater: Freddy Reidenschnieder.Riedenschneider.
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->''"A movie about a barber who wants to be a dry cleaner"''
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->''"A movie about a barber who wants to be a dry cleaner"''cleaner."''
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A FilmNoir from infamous oddballs Creator/TheCoenBrothers, played so straight that Creator/JamesMCain could have written it without any changes. The film stars Creator/BillyBobThornton, Creator/TonyShalhoub, Creator/JamesGandolfini, Creator/MichaelBadalucco, Creator/FrancesMcDormand, Creator/ScarlettJohansson, Creator/RichardJenkins and Creator/JonPolito. Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh has an uncredited cameo in this film as a female inmate.
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A FilmNoir from infamous oddballs Creator/TheCoenBrothers, played so straight that Creator/JamesMCain could have written it without any changes. The film stars Creator/BillyBobThornton, Creator/TonyShalhoub, Creator/JamesGandolfini, Creator/MichaelBadalucco, Creator/FrancesMcDormand, Creator/ScarlettJohansson, Creator/RichardJenkins and Creator/JonPolito. Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh has an uncredited cameo in this film as a female prison inmate.
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[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/man-who-wasnt-5_403.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"I don't talk much, I just cut the hair."'']]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"I don't talk much, I just cut the hair."'']]
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%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1649956317057358300
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[[quoteright:258:https://static.tvtropes.
[[caption-width-right:300:''"I don't talk much, I just cut the hair."'']]
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* FrenchJerk: Jacques Carcanogues, the piano teacher that Ed takes Birdy to in San Francisco, has a reputation as being the very best of his profession, as many of his students have moved on to highly illustrious musical careers. [[InsufferableGenius He knows it too]]. He considers Birdy's musical abilities to be mediocre and totally lacking in creativity, and makes no bones about informing Ed of this fact in the rudest way possible, even suggesting her best career option would be to join a typing pool.
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* TheForties: The film is set in the latter part of the decade.
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A FilmNoir from infamous oddballs Creator/TheCoenBrothers, played so straight that Creator/JamesMCain could have written it without any changes. The film stars Creator/BillyBobThornton, Creator/TonyShalhoub, Creator/ScarlettJohansson, Creator/JamesGandolfini, Creator/FrancesMcDormand, Creator/MichaelBadalucco, Creator/RichardJenkins and Creator/JonPolito. Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh has an uncredited cameo in this film as a female inmate.
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A FilmNoir from infamous oddballs Creator/TheCoenBrothers, played so straight that Creator/JamesMCain could have written it without any changes. The film stars Creator/BillyBobThornton, Creator/TonyShalhoub, Creator/JamesGandolfini, Creator/MichaelBadalucco, Creator/FrancesMcDormand, Creator/ScarlettJohansson, Creator/JamesGandolfini, Creator/FrancesMcDormand, Creator/MichaelBadalucco, Creator/RichardJenkins and Creator/JonPolito. Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh has an uncredited cameo in this film as a female inmate.
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A FilmNoir from infamous oddballs Creator/TheCoenBrothers, played so straight that Creator/JamesMCain could have written it without any changes.
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A FilmNoir from infamous oddballs Creator/TheCoenBrothers, played so straight that Creator/JamesMCain could have written it without any changes.
changes. The film stars Creator/BillyBobThornton, Creator/TonyShalhoub, Creator/ScarlettJohansson, Creator/JamesGandolfini, Creator/FrancesMcDormand, Creator/MichaelBadalucco, Creator/RichardJenkins and Creator/JonPolito. Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh has an uncredited cameo in this film as a female inmate.
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* SexlessMarriage: After the doctor congratulates Ed on his wife Doris being pregnant, Ed's nonchalant reply is that they haven't had sex for years, causing the man's awkward reply of "Well, it's none of my business."
* ShoutOut: Nirdlinger is the name of the FemmeFatale in the novel version of ''Film/DoubleIndemnity''; in the film it becomes Dietrichson, which spoken resembles Diedrickson, the name of a prominently featured ME. Also, the layout of Nirdlinger's department store resembles the Pacific All Risk offices.
* ShoutOut: Nirdlinger is the name of the FemmeFatale in the novel version of ''Film/DoubleIndemnity''; in the film it becomes Dietrichson, which spoken resembles Diedrickson, the name of a prominently featured ME. Also, the layout of Nirdlinger's department store resembles the Pacific All Risk offices.
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* SexlessMarriage: After the doctor congratulates Diedrickson tells Ed on of his wife Doris being pregnant, Ed's nonchalant reply is that they haven't had sex for years, causing the man's awkward reply of "Well, it's none of my business."
* ShoutOut: Nirdlinger is the name of theFemmeFatale female lead and her husband in the novel version of ''Film/DoubleIndemnity''; in the film it TheFilmOfTheBook this becomes Dietrichson, which spoken resembles Diedrickson, similar to the pathologist's name of a prominently featured ME. Also, Diedrickson. Also from the same film, the layout of Nirdlinger's department store resembles the Pacific All Risk offices.
* ShoutOut: Nirdlinger is the name of the
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I don't doubt there was a reference to Night of the Hunter, but unable to remember it, all I can do is cut the Zero Context Example and add one I do know.
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* ShoutOut: A notable one to ''Film/TheNightOfTheHunter''.
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* ShoutOut: A notable one to ''Film/TheNightOfTheHunter''.Nirdlinger is the name of the FemmeFatale in the novel version of ''Film/DoubleIndemnity''; in the film it becomes Dietrichson, which spoken resembles Diedrickson, the name of a prominently featured ME. Also, the layout of Nirdlinger's department store resembles the Pacific All Risk offices.
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* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Doris hangs herself while in jail, and Ed ends up being executed for the murder of Tolliver, when it was actually Big Dave. (Though Ed did kill Big Dave in self-defense.)]]
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* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Doris hangs herself while in jail, and Ed ends up being executed for the murder of Tolliver, when it was actually Big Dave. (Though Ed did kill Big Dave in self-defense.)]]
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* DodgyToupee: Tolliver wears one when he first comes into the barbershop.
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* HopeSpot: Freddy Riedenschneider's defense of Ed (see ChewbaccaDefense above) seems to be working with the jury, as Ed admits...and that's when Frank comes up behind Ed, knocks him to the floor, and starts yelling at him.
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* HopeSpot: Freddy Riedenschneider's defense of Ed (see ChewbaccaDefense above) seems to be working with the jury, as Ed admits...and that's when Frank comes up behind Ed, knocks him to the floor, and starts yelling at him.him, which forces a mistrial, which means Ridenschneider is off the case, which means Ed is found guilty.
* {{Narrator}}: Ed Crane. Oddly enough, the least [[FirstPersonSmartass smart ass]] person in the world.
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* {{Narrator}}: Ed Crane. Oddly enough, the least [[FirstPersonSmartass smart ass]] person in the world.
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* TheNounWhoVerbed: The title.
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* TheNounWhoVerbed: The title.HopeSpot: Freddy Riedenschneider's defense of Ed (see ChewbaccaDefense above) seems to be working with the jury, as Ed admits...and that's when Frank comes up behind Ed, knocks him to the floor, and starts yelling at him.
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* TheNounWhoVerbed: The title.
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* ThirdPersonPerson: Freddy Riedenschneider often does this, saying, "Freddy Riedenschnieder can't do the impossible."
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* BlackmailBackfire: Big Dave soon put together the scheme, and beats Tolliver until he implicates Ed. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Tolliver endep up dying, and the police found his body with Ed's investment contract, and Ed is arrested. The police then speculate that Ed coerced Doris into embezzling the investment money, and when Tolliver found out, he was killed, so Ed ends up being sentenced to death.]]
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* BlackmailBackfire: Big Dave soon put together the scheme, and beats Tolliver until he implicates Ed. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Tolliver endep ended up dying, and the police found his body with Ed's investment contract, and Ed is arrested. The police then speculate that Ed coerced Doris into embezzling the investment money, and when Tolliver found out, he was killed, so Ed ends up being sentenced to death.]]
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* {{Blackmail}}: After Creighton Tolliver pitches to Ed the idea of dry cleaning, Ed decides to collect money by anonymously blackmailing Big Dave, whom he suspects is having an affair with Doris.
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* {{Blackmail}}: After Creighton Tolliver pitches to Ed the idea of dry cleaning, Ed decides to collect money by anonymously blackmailing Big Dave, whom he (correctly) suspects is having an affair with Doris.
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[[quoteright:287:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/man-who-wasnt-5_403.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:287:''"I don't talk much, I just cut the hair."'']]
[[caption-width-right:287:''"I don't talk much, I just cut the hair."'']]
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* AlienAbduction: [[spoiler: According to his wife Big Dave was abducted; she thinks he was killed by TheGovernment to cover it up.]]
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* AlienAbduction: [[spoiler: According to his wife wife, Big Dave was abducted; she thinks he was killed by TheGovernment to cover it up.up. She doesn't know that he was killed by Ed in self-defense.]]
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* {{Blackmail}}
** BlackmailBackfire
** BlackmailBackfire
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* {{Blackmail}}
** BlackmailBackfire{{Blackmail}}: After Creighton Tolliver pitches to Ed the idea of dry cleaning, Ed decides to collect money by anonymously blackmailing Big Dave, whom he suspects is having an affair with Doris.
* BlackmailBackfire: Big Dave soon put together the scheme, and beats Tolliver until he implicates Ed. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Tolliver endep up dying, and the police found his body with Ed's investment contract, and Ed is arrested. The police then speculate that Ed coerced Doris into embezzling the investment money, and when Tolliver found out, he was killed, so Ed ends up being sentenced to death.]]
** BlackmailBackfire
* BlackmailBackfire: Big Dave soon put together the scheme, and beats Tolliver until he implicates Ed. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Tolliver endep up dying, and the police found his body with Ed's investment contract, and Ed is arrested. The police then speculate that Ed coerced Doris into embezzling the investment money, and when Tolliver found out, he was killed, so Ed ends up being sentenced to death.]]
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* DownerEnding
* DeliberatelyMonochrome
* DeliberatelyMonochrome
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* DownerEnding
DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Doris hangs herself while in jail, and Ed ends up being executed for the murder of Tolliver, when it was actually Big Dave. (Though Ed did kill Big Dave in self-defense.)]]
*DeliberatelyMonochromeDeliberatelyMonochrome: A movie in black-and-white made in 2001. Deliberately as it is set in TheForties and it's a pitch-black FilmNoir.
*
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* SexlessMarriage: After the doctor congratulates Ed on his wife Doris being pregnant, Ed's nonchalant reply is that they haven't had sex for years, causing the man's awkward reply of "Well, it's none of my business."
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Not to be confused with [[Film/TheManWhoWasntThere1983 the 1983 comedy film]] starring Creator/SteveGuttenberg.
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[[quoteright:287:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/man-who-wasnt-5_403.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:287:''"I don't talk much, I just cut the hair."'']]
->''"A movie about a barber who wants to be a dry cleaner"''
-->-- The pitch for the movie.
There is a totally emotionless barber named Ed Crane. It's 1949 and a bald man, Creighton Tolliver, has some sales pitch about "Dry Cleaning". Ed's wife, Doris, is having an affair with her boss, "Big" Dave Brewster. Ed decides to blackmail the pair to pay for a silent partnership. When Mr. Tolliver asks Mr. Brewster for the same amount of money for which he was being blackmailed, Mr. Brewster finds Mr. Tolliver and beats the whole story out of him. From there, [[BlackmailBackfire things spiral out of control]].
A FilmNoir from infamous oddballs Creator/TheCoenBrothers, played so straight that Creator/JamesMCain could have written it without any changes.
----
!!This film provides examples of:
* AmoralAttorney: The lawyer hired to defend [[spoiler:Doris]] is willing to spin ''any'' tale to get [[spoiler:her]] off the hook, so long as he thinks the jury might buy it. [[spoiler:When Ed makes a confession to him, he dismisses it out of hand, saying it's too cockamamie a story for anyone to believe.]]
* AlienAbduction: [[spoiler: According to his wife Big Dave was abducted; she thinks he was killed by TheGovernment to cover it up.]]
* ArcWords: "What kind of a man are you?"
* BigEater: Freddy Reidenschnieder.
* {{Blackmail}}
** BlackmailBackfire
* ContemplateOurNavels: "The hair. It keeps growing... It's part of us. And we cut it off."
* ChewbaccaDefense:
** Freddy Riedenschnieder's defense of Doris Crane involves a truly baffling spiel about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
** And from the second trial where he spouts weird, vaguely existentialist drivel about Ed being a "New Man" in this morally ambiguous modern world who thus presumably is not responsible: "He told them to look, not at the facts, but at the meaning of the facts. Then he said the facts had no meaning."
* DownerEnding
* DeliberatelyMonochrome
* DeliberateValuesDissonance:
** Ed casually calls Mr. Tolliver, who is gay, "the pansy", not really as a slur so much as an appellation.
** In addition, there are plenty of references to "Japs" and "Wops".
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Doris, because her affair with Big Dave will become public when her pregnancy is revealed.]]
* DullSurprise: Ed Crane, the character, has no emotions.
* FilmNoir: Played straight to the point it snaps.
* FilleFatale: Birdy. When driving back from visiting the teacher, Birdy makes a pass at Ed and attempts to perform oral sex on him, causing Ed to lose control of the car and crash.
* FlamboyantGay: Creator/JonPolito as Creighton Tolliver. He made a pass at Ed by sitting back on his bed, winking at him, and loosening his necktie. Most people today would consider that "relaxing," but apparently in 1940s America it was a blatant come-on. You couldn't be ''too'' flamboyant without getting arrested.
* FramingTheGuiltyParty: Category 2, in a way. [[spoiler:While Ed, Doris, and Riedenschneider are brainstorming Doris's defense, Ed states that he killed Big Dave. Riedenschneider doesn't notice (or doesn't care) that he just confessed to the crime, and mulls over how well accusing Ed of murdering Big Dave in a jealous rage would hold up in court. He rules it out for being too implausible.]]
* TheNounWhoVerbed: The title.
* IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou: Ridenschneider comes up with a theory about Big Dave being blackmailed to get Doris acquitted, but needs her to corroborate the story. Legally, he can't suborn perjury, so he insists that he's ''not'' telling her what to say.
-->"They called, they demanded money. Did Big Dave mention that it was something about his war service? I don't know, I wasn't there, ''you'll'' have to tell ''us''. Maybe he specified, maybe he didn't; I'm not putting words in your mouth..."
* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: [[spoiler:Just before his execution, Ed writes his life story for publication in a pulp men's magazine. He apologizes to the audience for the unnecessary digressions in the story we have just heard narrated, explaining he was paid by the word.]]
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: "Dry" Cleaning. [[spoiler:Subverted in that it doesn't, instead the salesman is murdered!]]
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Taken from the poem "Antagonish" by William Hughes Mearns.
* PhonyVeteran: "Big" Dave Brewster boasts about his heroic exploits in the Pacific theater of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII while it turns out he in fact served throughout the war in a administrative capacity in the San Francisco naval yard.
* ThePollyanna: Ed is perhaps the oddest version in film history, mixed with enormous amounts of apathy and stoicism. Even with all the bad things that happen, he never holds anyone up for blame and is unresentful of even the worst that fate hands him. Even at the end, he holds no ill will against the world.
* {{Narrator}}: Ed Crane. Oddly enough, the least [[FirstPersonSmartass smart ass]] person in the world.
* ShoutOut: A notable one to ''Film/TheNightOfTheHunter''.
* SmokingIsCool: Seriously, don't watch this movie if you've recently quit smoking.
* TheStoic: Ed Crane.
* TwiceToldTale: The similarities to Creator/AlbertCamus' ''[[Literature/TheStranger L'Étranger]]'' are undeniable.
----
[[caption-width-right:287:''"I don't talk much, I just cut the hair."'']]
->''"A movie about a barber who wants to be a dry cleaner"''
-->-- The pitch for the movie.
There is a totally emotionless barber named Ed Crane. It's 1949 and a bald man, Creighton Tolliver, has some sales pitch about "Dry Cleaning". Ed's wife, Doris, is having an affair with her boss, "Big" Dave Brewster. Ed decides to blackmail the pair to pay for a silent partnership. When Mr. Tolliver asks Mr. Brewster for the same amount of money for which he was being blackmailed, Mr. Brewster finds Mr. Tolliver and beats the whole story out of him. From there, [[BlackmailBackfire things spiral out of control]].
A FilmNoir from infamous oddballs Creator/TheCoenBrothers, played so straight that Creator/JamesMCain could have written it without any changes.
----
!!This film provides examples of:
* AmoralAttorney: The lawyer hired to defend [[spoiler:Doris]] is willing to spin ''any'' tale to get [[spoiler:her]] off the hook, so long as he thinks the jury might buy it. [[spoiler:When Ed makes a confession to him, he dismisses it out of hand, saying it's too cockamamie a story for anyone to believe.]]
* AlienAbduction: [[spoiler: According to his wife Big Dave was abducted; she thinks he was killed by TheGovernment to cover it up.]]
* ArcWords: "What kind of a man are you?"
* BigEater: Freddy Reidenschnieder.
* {{Blackmail}}
** BlackmailBackfire
* ContemplateOurNavels: "The hair. It keeps growing... It's part of us. And we cut it off."
* ChewbaccaDefense:
** Freddy Riedenschnieder's defense of Doris Crane involves a truly baffling spiel about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
** And from the second trial where he spouts weird, vaguely existentialist drivel about Ed being a "New Man" in this morally ambiguous modern world who thus presumably is not responsible: "He told them to look, not at the facts, but at the meaning of the facts. Then he said the facts had no meaning."
* DownerEnding
* DeliberatelyMonochrome
* DeliberateValuesDissonance:
** Ed casually calls Mr. Tolliver, who is gay, "the pansy", not really as a slur so much as an appellation.
** In addition, there are plenty of references to "Japs" and "Wops".
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Doris, because her affair with Big Dave will become public when her pregnancy is revealed.]]
* DullSurprise: Ed Crane, the character, has no emotions.
* FilmNoir: Played straight to the point it snaps.
* FilleFatale: Birdy. When driving back from visiting the teacher, Birdy makes a pass at Ed and attempts to perform oral sex on him, causing Ed to lose control of the car and crash.
* FlamboyantGay: Creator/JonPolito as Creighton Tolliver. He made a pass at Ed by sitting back on his bed, winking at him, and loosening his necktie. Most people today would consider that "relaxing," but apparently in 1940s America it was a blatant come-on. You couldn't be ''too'' flamboyant without getting arrested.
* FramingTheGuiltyParty: Category 2, in a way. [[spoiler:While Ed, Doris, and Riedenschneider are brainstorming Doris's defense, Ed states that he killed Big Dave. Riedenschneider doesn't notice (or doesn't care) that he just confessed to the crime, and mulls over how well accusing Ed of murdering Big Dave in a jealous rage would hold up in court. He rules it out for being too implausible.]]
* TheNounWhoVerbed: The title.
* IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou: Ridenschneider comes up with a theory about Big Dave being blackmailed to get Doris acquitted, but needs her to corroborate the story. Legally, he can't suborn perjury, so he insists that he's ''not'' telling her what to say.
-->"They called, they demanded money. Did Big Dave mention that it was something about his war service? I don't know, I wasn't there, ''you'll'' have to tell ''us''. Maybe he specified, maybe he didn't; I'm not putting words in your mouth..."
* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: [[spoiler:Just before his execution, Ed writes his life story for publication in a pulp men's magazine. He apologizes to the audience for the unnecessary digressions in the story we have just heard narrated, explaining he was paid by the word.]]
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: "Dry" Cleaning. [[spoiler:Subverted in that it doesn't, instead the salesman is murdered!]]
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Taken from the poem "Antagonish" by William Hughes Mearns.
* PhonyVeteran: "Big" Dave Brewster boasts about his heroic exploits in the Pacific theater of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII while it turns out he in fact served throughout the war in a administrative capacity in the San Francisco naval yard.
* ThePollyanna: Ed is perhaps the oddest version in film history, mixed with enormous amounts of apathy and stoicism. Even with all the bad things that happen, he never holds anyone up for blame and is unresentful of even the worst that fate hands him. Even at the end, he holds no ill will against the world.
* {{Narrator}}: Ed Crane. Oddly enough, the least [[FirstPersonSmartass smart ass]] person in the world.
* ShoutOut: A notable one to ''Film/TheNightOfTheHunter''.
* SmokingIsCool: Seriously, don't watch this movie if you've recently quit smoking.
* TheStoic: Ed Crane.
* TwiceToldTale: The similarities to Creator/AlbertCamus' ''[[Literature/TheStranger L'Étranger]]'' are undeniable.
----
