Morris wasn't a bad guy

I disagree. As someone who liked the Doctor as the best character in the movie, let me say that Morris was a rat IMHO. The clincher --not that anything much is needed for convincing-- is that when he deserted her, he didn't even have the simple curtsey of writing her a farewell note (a lying one, anything really) to assuage her hurt feelings. Inexcusable.

>>>> "[H]e didn't come back into her life immediately after her father died,"<<<<<< -- probably because he was eying richer women, or more likely: he was across the country in California and didn't know he died. Also, he probably knew his chances to get her again were slim to none, and he probably returned when he was desperate at the bottom of the barrel.

>>>>> "If she was smart she could have kept him on a short leash and left her money to someone else when she died."<<<<<<<< -- I'm no expert, but I think the laws at that time gave the husband a lot of rights over her money. I guess she could disinherit him, but while they were alive, I wonder..... In any event, at that time divorce was considered a moral calamity, a no-no.

>>>>>> She was on the way to becoming an old, dried up cat lady.<<<<<<< -- Maybe, but as the father said: "you'll find some honest, decent man some day;" "You have many fine qualities;" that her fortune will make "it possible to choose [a husband] with discretion." " That seems OK to me.

So, you must not believe in the old adage, Better alone than in bad company. And you believe that Catherine would be happy to enslave Morris and have to work to keep him away from her money the rest of her life. That doesn't sound like a life Catherine would be willing to enter into.

Morris was gone a long time, he probably did live off of other women or other family while he was gone. He was never really employed, so I would think that he continued his practice of leeching off of others. Catherine's aunt finds Morris and has to convince him to come see Catherine. If Morris had a job or a future or any kind of love for Catherine it would have been his idea to seek out Catherine and no one would have had to make him do it.

In those years apart, if Morris had felt anything for Catherine, he would have been motivated to work hard and become a man who could support himself and his wife and family, but he wasn't.

Now that Catherine was free to do as she pleased why would she want to be saddled down with such a burden of trying to keep Morris in line. They would both come to feel only resentment for each other.

meg.

Anyone think he resembles Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility?

Morris was a bastard. Catherine had barely left the room ( to get the ruby buttons) and he was already sizing himself up as lord and master of her opulent and wealthy house. The way he drank catherine's fathers brandy and smoked his cigars while the man was away , had me fuming, and IMO revealed exactly the true weak and duplicitous nature of his character. Morris was a man who felt the world owed him something, and for which he had to do absolutely nothing in return.
I would rather live with a hundred cats in to my nineties than have to deal with such a weak willed and ridiculous man. The desperation in his final scene is about him realising, that having failed in life ie older, out of money and obviously out of luck, still parasiting off his sister, that he had just witnessed the exit of his very last ace. She played him a blinder, she played him like a man hence her smile in that final scene. Power, she was now mistress of herself.

ok, im ready now!

Sadly, I see that there are still Morris Townsends in the world.

I guess it's like looking at clouds. You see one thing and I see another. Peace.

Kapukirk said, “She was on the way to becoming an old, dried up cat lady” and “Isn't it better to have a relationship rather than for her to be alone with her father's money?”

Okay, Kapukirk, you need to look at your own unfortunate attitudes toward women. Why doesn’t anyone ever say of a man, “He was on the way to becoming an old, dried up cat man”? It is a male-manufactured myth that any women who isn’t getting regularly screwed by men is dried up and miserable. As far as the statement, “Isn't it better to have a relationship rather than for her to be alone with her father's money?” is concerned, are you crazy? Would you say of a man, “Isn’t it better to have a relationship with a selfish, unloving woman than be alone with a lot of money?” The idea that ANY relationship, with ANY man, however selfish he may be, is preferable to being a rich, independent woman, is another male-manufactured myth.



"The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power."
- Julius Caesar, act 2 sc 1

I saw it again last night.... I could almost agree with the "Morris wasn't a bad guy" argument except for one crucial point. When he deserted her, he COULD HAVE WRITTEN A LETTER explaining why he did what he did. The fact that she never heard from him, that he left her no message at all, even when she went to see his sister, really showed his true colors. A decent, honorable man would have at least written a letter explaining his motives and feelings.




"the best that you can do is fall in love"

Wikipedia says that the character of Morris was actually more villainous in the play, but that the producers wanted to make him more sympathetic in the movie because Montgomery Clift was trying to become more of a romantic lead and they didn't want to affect that.

Is anyone familiar with the play, book, or other versions? Can someone say how Morris was portrayed as more villainous? (What did he do or say that showed it?)