"One Hour" by Dashiel Hammett- Scene Transitions

 

Scene Transitions help flow a story along, and without them reading would be like walking on a gravel beach; sharp and bumpy. In the short story by Dashiel Hammett, “One Hour”, there are a plethora of scene transitions that move the story along. The first transition that sticks out is the transition between the detective’s investigation at the Hall of Justice and Chrostwaite’s departure there from. “Chrostwaite spoke again, still regarding his knees. 'Damned nuisance!' he said. [...] He picked up his hat and gloves from the desk. 'Find 'em, will you? Damned nuisance going to jail!' And he waddled out.” (Hammett) In this scene it sets up the end of the investigation and Chrostwaites anger at the investigation, it also leads to the detective also leaving to restart the investigation, but with fresh eyes and with a suspect eliminated. The second scene that is a good transitional scene is the one where the detectives work leads him to Newhouse’s printing establishment. In this scene, the investigation transitions to a narrower lead and is shown when the detective does the following: “My next play was to canvass the vicinity of where the car had been stolen and interview the witnesses. Before starting on this angle, however, I decided to run around to the dead man’s printing establishment." (Hammett). Nevertheless, these where the two transitional scenes that I thought highlighted this week’s lesson and builds on the initial review that I did a few modules back.