I almost had to change the channel because Jean Arthur's crying started getting on my nerves. I love watching old movies, but too often they have women crying like they're children. Did women actually act like this back then, or did writers just like writing women this way? I'm not against crying, just doing it in a very annoying way.
shareRealistic crying tends to kill a comic mood.
How many romantic comedies can you name where everybody always behaved in a way that you would expect to see in the real world?
I don't find women crying like five year olds to be funny at all. To me it's down right annoying.
shareUncontrollable, unstoppable, child-like crying? Funny.
There's nothing more boring than people "crying", or trying to...
It's awkward and merely adds a bit of cheap sympathy to a scene, whereas this at least had some comedic value, thus making it acceptable..
If you can't make your audience believe a scene is moving without throwing in some ridiculous crying, you haven't done your job properly.
There are of course exceptions to this, aside from comedy. James Dean in East of Eden, a note-worthy example.
"You're dumber than you think I think you are."
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I just re-watched that scene. She wasn't real crying at all in the scene. Step one to seducing him was to put on the negligee. Step two was to have him see her in it. Step three was the mating call that sounded like a female cat who's been caught.
shareI hope you turned it back. You would have missed a terrific movie.
shareI loved the film, but I agree, Jean's constant crying was irritating. I don't recall her ever crying in other movies she's done; usually she's a stronger character.
‘Six inches is perfectly adequate; more is vulgar!' (Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Re: An open window).
I love this movie, but if I could change anything, it's her crying at the end. She sounds like a tom cat on the back fence. A little bit goes a very loooong way. I wish Stevens had seen that. It's the only off note in the movie.
That just goes to show you. You go someplace and there you are.
More like a queen in heat. The poor woman is just so frustrated, trying so hard to do the right thing. And then she sees the wall is gone and all the contradictory impulses hit at once and it's just too much for her, poor thing. She cracks.
Yeah, I guess you could say that she's crying like a five-year-old if you want to pretend that she's all upset and frustrated over nothing, or that women are children. Personally I have more respect for Connie and for the deviousness of Mr. Dingle. No one cries like that until they hit puberty because, wow, do you want it and, golly gee, is it way harder and more complicated to get than anybody wants to pretend it is, even today when (supposedly) there are no rules (which makes it even harder to figure out what's going on). Or in 1942, when supposedly all the old rules were going by the wayside. And so along comes Connie, the Modern Woman, who has those things, and many others, all figured out and under control. And along comes Mr. Dingle to prove her absolutely wrong in every category.
Far from being a mistake I think Connie's crying is the point of the picture, and darned funny besides, at least for those that have been there (though maybe not in quite such an over the top fashion, or over such a nice, clean-cut young man :-) )
I just watched it on TCM and had closed captioning on; it indicated that by the end of that last scene, she's fake-crying. With this context, you can see the twinkle in her eye, returned by Carter as he moves toward her to "comfort" her. It gives a different spin on the whole crying issue, almost a resolution--she becomes self-aware enough about it to turn it into a joke (and a pretext for getting the ball rolling on the consummation of the marriage).
shareBINGO!!! It was a mating call.
shareCharles Coburn's "rather annoying performance" won him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor!
"I told you a million times not to talk to me when I'm doing my lashes"!
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I was merely pointing out the irony. You're overeating.
"I told you a million times not to talk to me when I'm doing my lashes"!
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It did get a little tired, I agree. Just too much at a certain point. I docked it a full point from my rating just for that.
shareOMG, I thought I was the only one thinking that! I HATE, HATE Jean Arthur's non-stop "crying" at the ending. Comedic "crying" is one thing, but that non-stop screeching that she did toward the end made me want to give her a couple of tight slaps! I kept wondering what did Joe see in her? First, she was insufferably anal, stuck-up, and humorless; then, she became a screeching harpie cheating on her fiancee. Ugh!
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