Spousal Abuse

You talk about original script, but you constantly complain about the "film." The original script is not "the film" so he's not a killer.

Also, I don't believe the stories of tacking on a happy ending. Why would Hitchcock set out to make the movie based on the original script, cast Grant, and then change the ending (thus changing the entire tone of the film) based on the studio? Why not just cast another actor and go with his original vision? If it IS true, then what a weak-willed jellyfish Hitchcock must have been, huh?

You think it's demeaning to call someone by a pet name? Yeesh. Stop watching Lifetime. Do you spell women with a "y" by any chance?

I am definitely a romantic because I always believed that Scarlet and Rhett would get back together...even before the lousy sequel was made BUT in this case.........
1. They would probably have a kid and she would mature and even with all her household help, she would get tired of also having a child for a husband. By that time, she would also be sick and tired of the monkeyface routine and what was considered his endearing "weaknesses" at first would be regarded with contempt. Since she would no longer look up at him with adoring eyes, he would eventually meet another young woman and proclaim that his wife does not understand him but that is his problem....she does. He will always need someone who will adore him as much as he does.
2. He grows up. Naaaaah
3. He eventually kills her. It could happen.
4. They continue in a co-dependant relationship. He has affairs and she always forgives or pretends not to notice.
5. She kills him. That could happen too... She would finally be fed up and fired by the flames of menopause she pushes HIM off a cliff.

To be honest, I didn't really pay attention to this movie and I haven't read the book, so I'm not qualified to comment, but I thought the studio-made ending was a bullsh** ending. I felt gypped. I definitely would have preferred Hitchcock and the book's ending. There's something I like about charming killers.

I never did it either. I'm not a nymphomaniac, I'm a compulsive liar.

Also, every time Johnny does something really sh*tty, he redeems himself after, making Lina forgive him and stay in love him. ble but unable to resist.

-For example, he leaves without a word but then comes back and proposes to her.

-He sells the chairs, but then buys them back along with a whole lot of other stuff. You can see when Lina finds out that Johnny bought back the chairs she eyes the necklace Johnny bought her with more interest.

-She finds out he's a thief, but then he's there to support her through her father's death.

-He speaks harshly to her and she thinks he's a murderer who no longer loves her. But then it turns out he didn't kill Beakey at the cliff after all, and he doesn't go to Paris because he's a 'married man.'

Lina has low self esteem, in addition to loving Johnny too much to leave him she would find the idea of divorcing Johnny going back to her parents embarrassing considering how they thought she was going to be a spinster. She also finds Johnny's attention flattering, he had girls throwing themselves at him but he chose to marry her, and I think that Johnny does love her. But as someone else said, he just loves himself more.

I don't want to read the novel, I don't think I could handle it. Johnny sounds way more horrible. At least in the movie Johnny always treated Lina herself well. When he did stupid stuff, it never really directly hurt Lina, and when he did do something that hurt her (selling the chairs) he bought them back. In the book, doesn't she go mad waiting for Johnny to murder her? Why doesn't she just LEAVE?


Songbird, you've got tales to tell.

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The irony in that response is how commonly exactly such rationalization is offered in defense of abusive spouses. He's not the problem; she is. It's not that he's insensitive, it's that she doesn't try to see where he's coming from. He's not cruel and indifferent, he's just misunderstood.

From "why doesn't she try harder" to "why doesn't she just leave, then", abused spouses for whatever reason often get blamed for their own abuse.

In the case of this movie, Grant's character spends her inheritance before it's secured, without consulting her; lies to her; hides the reality of his job situation; dominates her as a business partner; is indifferent to her security; infantilizes her at every turn. Yes, it's an abusive relationship.

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