MovieChat Forums > The Long Night (1947) Discussion > The Aztec Brooch

The Aztec Brooch

posted 14 years ago by Local Hero
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So why does Jo Ann (Barbara Bel Geddes) tell the white lie about the brooch? Joe is opening up to her and she to him, and she mentions that she has lied before but she's not a liar. It's right then that she says the brooch is special, and she gives it to him (a parallel to the teddy bear she "gave" to him before).

Is it just a quick moment of panic-- in this intimate moment, he asks her about the pin and she doesn't want to hurt his feelings, so she fibs? Or is it just an instinct-- she blurts out the story the Vincent Price character has told her about the brooch because she has let the idea become a romantic fixation in her head (in other words, she seems to lie only because she's so emotionally honest, blurting out that it means so much to her and forgetting where it came from)?

[–] Jason_Radley 11 years ago

I think you're wrong on both counts. Jo-Ann willingly speaks about the brooch, and with such relish that she evidently believes what Max told her about it; that she gives it to Joe is a sure sign that it is dear to her. That Joe later conflates the brooch with Jo-Ann's admission that everyone lies is more a sign of his confused and suspicious mind than an indication that she was deceiving him.