Julien was in LOVE with Robert Flemming! That's why he killed all those women. They caught Robert's eye and became Julien's rivals. He was an obsessive closet case.
shareWell...duh. But it was 1947--they couldn't even hint broadly at this fact.
shareThat is a funny reading of the plot and not altogether illegitimate. The narrative of the film tells us that Fleming and Wilde not only worked together in adjoining offices ("the door between our offices was never locked"), but they also apparently lived together in the Fleming mansion. Recall the scene when Lucille Ball’s character insists that Wilde not move out because she is moving in. She describes them as “two celebrated bachelors” and that she “feels as if I’m barging in on you two.” Indeed. Coded homoeroticism is common in films from the 40’s and 50’s. Thanks for pointing it out here.
shareIt could be the case, but if Hardwicke's character was in love with Sanders', would he have framed him for murder? Surely, he would have selected someone else?
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
It made Sanders' character more dependent on Hardwicke's.
Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.
Julien was in LOVE with Robert Flemming! That's why he killed all those women. They caught Robert's eye and became Julien's rivals.
Exactly.
shareYep. The Production Code wouldn't allow Sirk & Co. to make it too explicit, of course, which I think explains the introduction of that confusing element in Julian's motivation--that Fleming apparently had met only one or two of the women Julian murdered. But homosexual love and jealousy certainly make a more convincing motivation than the lame one the screenwriter offers up, namely that Julian was also in love with Sandra! What about the other eight women he killed before she came along?
Then there's what I think is the dead giveaway; the unmistakable clue the writer gives us in his choice of Julian's last name, the same (down to the final "e") last name as the man who had been for years Britain's most "notorious" homosexual: Oscar Wilde. As the inspector might say, "Coincidence? Given the other evidence pointing in that direction, I doubt it!"
"But homosexual love and jealousy certainly make a more convincing motivation".
I don't quite follow here - if most of his victims had never even met Fleming, how could he have been jealous of them? I guess one could argue that he was eliminating 'potential' rivals, but then again the ones he offed were only a fraction of the number of girls who auditioned... so why them in particular?
"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan
Interesting in this day and age we try hard to find "gay" in everything from the past. Not saying it isn't there but nine out of ten times it just is not. 😙
shareAnd did you catch the way Julian often held his cigarette, between his thumb and several fingers rather than between the index and middle finger the way most people do? It has an effeminate look.
And reading poetry was another way of coding for homosexuality in old movies.
Exactly! The "Wilde" was what clued me in immediately. Who could deny this after "Moryani" then the photo and bracelet with "Wilde" having access?
shareHe might have been gay, but Robert didn't know some (or all) of those women. He didn't know Lucy (the murder victim from the early part of the movie), for example.
Unless he was murdering women whom he thought MIGHT catch Robert's eye...
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Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen =
I was stated in the movie that Julian was in love with Sandra. So much for the gay angle.
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