10 More Subtle Signs Movie Characters Weren't Telling The Truth
9. "Slugworth" Is The Devil On The Kids' Shoulders - Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
When each of the five Golden Tickets is discovered in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, the winning children are individually approached by a man purporting to be Mr. Slugworth (Günter Meisner), one of Willy Wonka's (Gene Wilder) competitors.
Slugworth offers each of the children a large cash reward if they can sneak a sample of the Everlasting Gobstopper out of Wonka's factory, though it's revealed at the end of the film that Slugworth was actually an imposter the whole time.
As it turns out, he's Mr. Wilkinson, an employee of Wonka's who presented the deal to the children to test their morality, with only Charlie (Peter Ostrum) passing the test.
But there's a subtle nod that Wilkinson isn't who he says he is, indicated solely by how his scenes as "Slugworth" are blocked. Note that he's shown standing on the left-hand side of the other four children as he whispers in their ears.
Traditionally, a voice whispering from your left shoulder is associated with the Devil and a Faustian bargain, that you're being offered a dishonest deal.
Tellingly, however, when Wilkinson offers the deal to Charlie, he faces him head-on, rather foreshadowing that he will be the single one not to be seduced by the offer.