Let's Start the Conversation

In San Francisco, renowned surveillance expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) & his recording engineers Stan & Paul tape the conversation of Mark & Ann as they walk through busy Union Square. Their circuitous route through the noisy public space complicates the assignment. Harry must use three simultaneous tapes, each of which captures only a portion of the conversation. Harry returns to his sparse, impersonal apartment to discover that his landlady has bypassed his elaborate alarm system to leave a gift for his birthday. This is extremely annoying to Harry, as he values his own personal privacy above all else. He eases his spirits by spending the evening alone playing his saxophone.

The next day, in his warehouse office, Harry synchronizes the three tapes, isolating Mark &Ann's voices from the surrounding sounds. He reconstructs almost all of their innocuous-sounding conversation. Harry delivers the tape to  the Director, Mr. C's office. The Director is the high-level businessman who has commissioned the recording. When Mr. C's assistant, Martin Stet meets Harry & insists on taking the tape himself, a mistrustful Harry refuses to relinquish the recording. He returns to his office to listen to the tape again. This time, noticing an inaudible whisper, he uses specialized equipment to discern the words; "He'd kill us if he got the chance." Being a devout Catholic, Harry visits his church & confesses to a priest his fear that the tape will be used to hurt Mark & Ann.

After a surveillance conference held the following day, Harry invites several acquaintances & their two female companions back to his office to drink. Once there, Bernie, one of Harry’s rivals in the surveillance racket pushes Harry to reveal how he accomplished his most famous job, a Washington, D.C. welfare scandal. Then Bernie tells the group how the welfare scandal resulted in the deaths of three people. Harry explodes in anger & throws everyone out. Meredith, Bernie’s flirtatious assistant/showgirl insists on staying. She successfully seduces Harry. Later when he awakens from post-coital bliss, Meredith & the Director’s tape are gone.

Harry has realized that Ann is Mr. C's wife. Afraid of what Mr. C. will do to Ann for her affair with Mark, Harry, relying on Mark's taped comment about an appointment at a hotel that afternoon, rents the room next to theirs. Soon, he hears an argument between Mr. C. & Ann. He then sees a bloody handprint on the adjoining balcony window. Horrified, he tries to escape the noise of the argument by turning up the television & burying himself under the bedcovers. Hours later, he arises & breaks into the adjoining room. Everything appears perfectly clean until he flushes the toilet, which overflows, flooding the room with blood.

Harry races to Mr. C's office where reporters are busy questioning Ann about her inheritance now that Mr. C. has died, supposedly in a car crash. Harry realizes that Mark & Ann were not in danger, but rather planning a murder. After returning to his apartment, Harry sits & plays his saxophone to unwind. He receives an ominous phone call warning him that he is being watched. He then hears a recording of himself having just played his saxophone. Undone by the thought that his secure domain has been breached, Harry searches for bugging devices, shredding the curtains, disconnecting the wiring, even pulling up the floorboards until his apartment is completely destroyed by his paranoia.

Finally, Harry is left alone, playing his saxophone amid the wreckage.



Presented here is a tribute inspired by Coppola's 1974 film. (for previous The Bug, go here.)

The Bug - Tapping the Conversation, WordSound WSCD018, 1997.

decryption code in comments

Harry's Theme
Invasion of Privacy
Countdown to Elimination
Those Tapes are Dangerous
Bug Party
The Lift
Fake Auto Crash
Room 773
Seduction & Betrayal
The Director
Amy
Nightmare Messenger
Twenty-four Hour Surveillance

Enjoy,
NØ