MovieChat Forums > Design for Living (1933) Discussion > 'THE STORK BROUGHT US'

'THE STORK BROUGHT US'

posted 16 years ago by awaywithwords
10 replies | jump to latest

I was pleasantly surprised by DESIGN FOR LIVING (1933)--and by Ben Hecht's script--but I was taken aback when I found one of the seemingly biggest punchlines to be a clunker.

Near the end, Tom & George crash the ritzy party Max is throwing--not in honor of his new bride, but for Mr. Eaglebauer, his all-important advertising client--a misplaced sense of priorities, to be sure. Our two party crashers sneak upstairs to Gilda's bedroom ("Let's begin with the boudoir!") where we are treated to a brief but poignant scene as the two jilted lovers pause silently and solemnly, standing for a moment over her elegant, inviting and very empty four-poster bed to reminisce. An exasperated Gilda then enters and the boys hide behind the proverbial screen. Max is in hot pursuit--not to take Gilda to bed, mind you, but to have her fulfill her intended role as hostess to impress Mr. Eaglebauer. Gilda makes a defiant stand and refuses to join the party, throwing herself on the bed. Max dashes back downstairs to slavishly attend to Mr. Eaglebauer. Tom & George comically emerge from behind the screen. A stunned Gilda exclaims: "Well, dear me. Look who's here." They approach and Gilda, asks: "How did you get in?" Tom looks to George confidentially and says: "Shall we tell her?" George replies: "I would. We have nothing to conceal." Tom then leans in to Gilda and says: "THE STORK BROUGHT US."

Now, from the set up and delivery, it is clear that line was intended to deliver a big joke. But I, for one, was disappointed. I was absolutely certain another punchline was forthcoming: "WE CAME DOWN THE CHIMNEY"--which would reference, or act as a "callback to Gilda's earlier jokes about fearing that once she had left first Tom & then George, said jilted lover would then haunt her like a ghost moaning down the chimney.

Surely, I must be missing something, I thought, so I did some quick "Wiki" research and--lo and behold--under "Storks," subheading "Symbolism," I found the following entry: "In Western culture the White Stork is a symbol of childbirth. In Victorian times the details of human reproduction were difficult to approach, especially in reply to a younger child's query of "Where did I come from?"; "The stork brought you to us" was the tactic used to avoid discussion of sex.[citation needed] This habit was derived from the once popular superstition that storks were the harbingers of happiness and prosperity, and possibly from the habit of some storks of nesting atop chimneys, down which the new baby could be imagined as entering the house."

Well, I don't know about you (hence this posting)--but although I was well aware of the "stork delivering the baby" euphemism--I was completely ignorant of the role played by the home chimney in the whole scenario.

Turns out Hecht's punchline was very clever indeed!

[–] sandcrab91 15 years ago

Ha, thanks for posting that. Never would have known. :)

[–] c-partridge 15 years ago

I was brought up in UK in the 1930s. Victorian values still prevailed. A direct question about one's origins always brought one of two responses: "You came down the chimney" or "A stork brought you."

Did other cultures use this euphemism?

And how did Hecht learn it? From the British community in Hollywood? - But he detested English values and attitudes; and was unlikely to have much association with the cricket-playing upper-class British expatriates in Los Angeles...

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Tom_Cruises_Testicles 13 years ago

The Stork is actually very common in childrens cartoons. Looney Tunes and even Pixar have made short comic stories about stork's delivering babies so its a fairly familiar concept in America.

[–] toshguy 13 years ago

I'm from Europe and I've heard the stork thing from American cartoons and movies, so I'd always assumed it originated in America. Until now. By the way, I also thought the joke was bad because I didn't realize that storks dropped the babies through the chimneys.

I'm here, Mr. Man, I can not tell no lie and I'll be right here till the day I die

[–] ARoggen 10 years ago

In the area of France on the border, Strasbourg, Alsace, etc., which throughout history has sometimes been Germany, Switzerland, and/or Austria, Storks, big white ones with black, live on roofs. That is where that saying and connection comes from.

Just google Alsace and Stork

http://www.butterfield.com/blog/2013/10/24/white-alsace-storks/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alsace#Symbolism

[–] ksf-2 9 years ago

you can frequently see storks on the roof of hospitals which have maternity wards.

in san diego, one such hospital had said stork, but the infant had fallen out/been stolen. for several months, you would see various other objects hanging from the stork's bill until the infant was replaced.

[–] nutsberryfarm 9 years ago

huge fan of storks.

🎍Season's greetings!🎅🌲

[–] cyninbend-149-610489 9 years ago

That makes sense, TY. While we knew the stork reference growing up in California, probably from cartoons and films, it could never have originated there because there simply were no storks! None for many years. I finally saw some one spring, flying along a wash (a mostly dry riverbed where, if there is an unusual amount of rain, water can flow there and on to a river and the ocean without endangering anyone.) in Santa Clarita when I was 40 years old. I was sure we did not even have storks in California until then. They were like mythical animals! I was so excited to see them--had to get a book to look them up...turns out they are there, but not many... I guess not in cities? Probably not enough to generate a myth about them. Before that, I'd only seen them on front yards, cardboard ones announcing the birth of a baby....

Seeing them nesting in chimneys would have blown me away. Like seeing a dragon... you grow up hearing about storks, dragons, unicorns that you never see, so which are real and which just not in America, or just not in the West?

I had a condor fly over my car when the T-tops were off one afternoon at the beach, just as condors were disappearing from the wild. It cast a shadow from bumper to bumper. We were sure (jokingly...sort of...sort of not...) that we had just seen a pteradactyl or whatever those flying dinosaurs were called. Or a dragon... Never in a million years expected to have a bird large enough to cast a shadow over my whole car fly overhead! California does not have such things! We were never scared of anything bigger than a rattlesnake or a black widow spider, unless camping in the high country above Yosemite, where you take measures not to attract bears.

Anyway, storks had been in the class of unicorns and dragons. Till I actually saw them.

[–] mdonln 9 years ago

awaywithwords says > Tom & George crash the ritzy party Max is throwing--not in honor of his new bride, but for Mr. Eaglebauer, his all-important advertising client--a misplaced sense of priorities, to be sure.

Though they faded into the party scene right after the wedding night scene, I did not get the sense it was soon after the wedding. I imagine some time had passed. It was not the day after. We know this because Tom and George were in China during the wedding. It would have taken time in those days to travel such distances, usually by boat.

from the set up and delivery, it is clear that line was intended to deliver a big joke.

That line didn't seem at all odd or out of place to me. It seemed kind of obvious they were being funny when they said the stork brought them but it wasn't meant to provide a big laugh. I think it was a clear sign for Gilda that they were all being their old selves and getting along again. It was to put her at ease immediately; no explanations necessary. Remember, the last time she saw them, Tom and George were at odds and Gilda ducked out on both of them. Their relationship was strained, to say the least. The audience would be expecting some sort of discussion but that would be time consuming and awkward.

The other reason for that particular line has to do with the reason they were there in the first place. She specifically asked how they got in. The stork line is in line with how they got into the house. When the butler opened the door and asked if they were expected they answered no 'not exactly 'expected' but anticipated, hoped for, and dreamed about.'

Since he used the word expected instead of invited, they answered in terms of a woman expecting a child. Something that would come following a marriage of some length and the consummation of that marriage. At that point they knew Gilda was probably anticipating, hoping for, and dreaming about them so they came to and had to be delivered to her and her alone. Think about it, if she would long for George when with Tom and vice versa, both of whom she loved; it's clear she'd long for both of them when with Plunkett. She didn't marry Plunkett because she loved him or wanted to be with him; she did it because she couldn't and did not want to choose between Tom and George and did not want to have them hating each other over her.

Their visit though was an investigation. They came in search of clues about how she was getting along in her marriage. That's why they decided to start in the boudoir. They knew by they she'd be miserable with Plunkett and they could tell if they were already in separate rooms; living separate lives. They were right.

Turns out Hecht's punchline was very clever indeed!

I agree the line was clever. It effectively served many purposes.

Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]