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

[Matthew]

'Why would he need backup.'

Well, not to persist to argue but that particular 'hunch' that he was following was very serious. He suspected Miss Wilkes of keeping this man at her house, a man involved in a horrible accident and whom was believed by everyone else to be dead. And he found that newspaper article about Annie Wilkes revealing to him that she was a Paul Sheldon fan because of the quote. Not to mention the other articles about the infant deaths connected to Miss Wilkes that people may know about.

Being a small town like that I wouldn't expect the old man to bring a SWAT team there but he probably should have had at least one other person.

Although, the best argument I can think of for the old man not bringing back-up is this: Why would this woman do something irrational like hurt or kill him when ppl are going to be wondering where he is and why he hasn't come back. So from Buster's perspective, I suppose he figured Miss Wilkes wouldn't do something stupid like that....but of course, he didn't know Annie Wilkes plan.....

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

'Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition' LOL

Long days and pleasant nights

[Tyrotoxic]

It was just a wee woman who kept to herself mostly, living out in the woods.
WHAT HARM COULD HAVE HAPPENED?
Oh.....right. X)

[Coconut]

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.....

I completely agree. It's not like the sheriff had a mountain of evidence with him. However, his one flaw, if anything, was not informing anyone where he went. I'm assuming he didn't because noone came looking for him when he didn't return. Sometimes we want to believe the characters know everything that we do. There was nothing unusual about his solo investigation.

[Aericanwizard]

I've only seen the film once, but read the book a few times, so forgive me if I make assumptions based upon the book.

I tend to agree that if he suspected Annie was nuts (a fair assumption, given the town's view of her as "the Dragon Lady"), then he should have taken every precaution.

However, the town knew that Annie didn't like snooping neighbours, and that she was particularly paranoid. Sending multiple officers for a routine questioning (a kind of "keep your eyes open and let us know if you see/hear anything) could have been construed by Annie as overly aggressive (and although she had to know that killing a cop will bring further "aggressive" action, her logic wasn't always sound). It was probably a case of an undermanned police force, but it could have been a desire to keep Annie from doing anything drastic as a response to what she saw as "neighbours being too nosy". This tactic backfired, but I can see where the police would have wanted to avoid doing anything that might make Annie "snap".

Long days and pleasant nights.

[trippismydog]

I Love the movie! But there is something I have been wondering about and I wondered of you all had noticed this. After Annie kills Buster she puts the wheel chair and the top of the stairs and leaves. As far as I can tell-Buster is left where he fell,with the damage done to Paul's legs how does he get past the body and up to the top of the stairs? I love the movie- Kathy Bates is great as Annie!