A mistake I just caught last time I watched this...

[Matthew]

I must have seen this movie about 25 times or more throughout life...yet the last time I watched it, just the other day, I saw something that I've never thought about until now.

Okay so the cop, Buster, had established that 1. Paul Sheldon was helped out of his car by someone. 2. Annie Wilkes quoted directly from one of Paul Sheldon's books during her trial; therefore Annie Wilkes is a big Paul Sheldon fan. 3. According to the man at the drug store, Annie Wilkes purchased typing paper, which is not one of her usual buys. So with all this, Buster had enough evidence to suspect miss Wilkes of keeping Paul Sheldon at her house. Here's the mistake he made: He went there alone.

Now I'm not a cop, and I know very little to nothing at all about police procedures, but I'm going to go ahead and make the assumption that if you're a cop, you wouldn't ever proceed to a suspect's house without some sort of back-up. Hmm...haha. I know you'll probably say, 'It's just a movie' and I know that movies have to excuse factual material sometimes to be more exciting but I just thought I'd point that out.

[GNTLGNT]

Just a guess, but it's a small town/rural area-woman living alone...miniscule law enforcement staff, nothing huge flashing on the old threat radar...one good old boy coppice man ought to be able to do the job...

[king family fan]

interesting thought.Good eye.

[JohnDalglish]

I'm going to go ahead and make the assumption that if you're a cop,

Hi,

But we all know what as-u-me does, don't we?

Long days and pleasant nights

[Anni M]

it was a small town, they probably all knew she was nucking futz and he should have known better to take back-up if he had these suspicions. It's like the director didn't know how to deal with the sheriff character, gave him 4 scenes, then whacked him
That part almost blew the whole movie for me.

[blunthead]

Hi,

But we all know what as-u-me does, don't we?

Long days and pleasant nights

Asinus. You? Me?

The sequence in question in Misery has never been a problem for me, I think because, for me, the direction did not fail to sustain the suspension of disbelief. I think the sheriff's persona was one of an experienced, smart, cautious lawman up in years in a very small town--we understand he's therefore virtually alone--and so, laid-back. But he has no reason to think his visit to Annie is accompanied by so much danger. But we do. That's the underlining horror of his situation and fate. He's just performing a kind of routine duty on someone he doesn't realize is psycho looney tunes. He's simply suspicious, at the very beginning of a potential investigation and...Boom!

It's like in The Shining when Scatman goes to The Overlook. He doesn't know what we know. Suspense is when the audience knows or senses something a given character doesn't.

[Howtodo12]

Ha I always think of stuff like that. Im a girl who's into guns and nothing bothers me more than when someone has a gun and shoots at the bad guy 20 times, never reloading when it can only shoot 7 at a time... But I find errors all the time. You do have a point. His mistake haha.

[Matthew]

Well the situation in The Shining is a little different...in the book, Danny used his 'shining' to call Dick for help and Dick was compelled to go to the hotel to rescue Danny and his mother, and he couldn't get the help of any law enforcement or tell them anything because they would've wanted to know why he felt they were in danger and if Halloran told them, they would think he's crazy.

And in the movie, I think it is implied that Jack and (or) the hotel ghosts were 'shining' to lure Halloran there....and the force of the 'shining', or however you want to describe it, was so strong that he couldn't refuse....or something like that. Not entirely sure....the movie is more difficult to understand than the book. That's Kubrick for ya. Haha

But in the movie version of 'Misery', that cop Buster could've called for some kind of help...

[Ben Staad]

Coming from a very small town myself this isn't strange at all. We had at the height of the police force two full time officers and one part time officer. When I moved away in "93" they reduced the force down to one officer who worked by himself. No backup other then the state police who were stationed about forty minutes away.

i may be rambling but I thought this was a believable scenario. Given the fact that Annie was never (as far as I can recall) considered dangerous around town and the sheriff was just following a hunch why would he need backup.

[Alexandra19]

What GNTLGNT and Blunthead said.
That scene never bothered me either, unlike the part when Paul unlocks the door and visits the house during Annie's absence : we clearly see him leaning on his feet while coming back in his wheel chair to leave the kitchen. It didn't prevent me from being scared that he didn't manage to go back in his room before the bitch arrives, though.