I always got the feeling that Doll was really devoted to Dix in a way that never made sense seeing as how he always treated her. Is there something I'm missing here to explain this?
Corruption is our protection. Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption…is why we win.
Well, I guess that he didn't want her devotion for him get him into trouble or interfere with the jobs he was pulling, or maybe they were in a relationship once and it didn't quite work out.
sharei was really confused about the doll character. when she first entered the movie i thought she had come from hitting up men with her feminine wiles for a place to stay and that such was all she was interested in with dix (removing of the eyebrows as they're no longer neccesary, since she's secured a dwelling). it seemed as if dix meant nothing to her beyond that, because she never seemed to relate to him beyond formalities and superficial pleasantries. when he began sharing his horse dreams she got evasive and tried to change to a less personal topic, perhaps because such disclosure was at odds with the purely material reasons of her relationship to him and made her feel guilty. i was really confused as to why she went with him the second half of the film once he got injured. perhaps she felt guilty about using dix, which helping him would allay.
on the other side of interpretation, perhaps she really yearned for dix' affection. when she found another place to live and was on her way to leave, dix stopped her; at that moment, her demeanor became expectant, and when it turned out he just wanted to know her address in case of future contact, she seemed let down. this suggests that she hoped he might say something more personal to her. in this case, i think doll was motivated by a desire for something deeper with dix, yet put off by his emotional coldness towards her and his periods of bizarre and almost pathological elegy, such as when he went on the monologue about his childhood horse. in this case, the fact that her dialogue towards dix seemed so superficial could be seen as a result of an inability deal with his strangeness and subsequently resolve it with her deeper desires.
I'd definitely side with your second interpretation. To me there is little doubt that she yearned for his affection - and probably love and caring in general - only he never returned the overtures. Right in their first scene she couldn't take her eyes off him, until when she thought he was pouring her a drink he instead drowned the glass himself, and she turned away, embarrassed. Also, she didn't remove her eyelashes after securing a dwelling, they had come off from wiping her eyes before he even told her she could stay. When he daydreamed about his childhood, the farm and his family, her eyes lit up. Like she said, she'd never had a proper home, so this was a dream of hers, too. But then he added he was going to return one day to get all the city dirt off him. Ouch! That had to hurt. Later when she moved out she felt she had to, but secretly she hoped that he wouldn't want her to go. He recalled her on the doorstep (and again her eyes lit up)... only to ask for her new address, so she was let down again. In the end she got her will, but she practically had to blackmail him to take her along.
I think her dialogue seemed so superficial because she always shied away from articulating her true feelings, out of fear of rejection and abandonment. It's the kind of behavior you would expect from a girl who's probably been rejected and pushed around for most of her life.
do you have this movie imprinted on your brain? :-\
shareI was touched by these two characters. It was on a local station last night and I saw only that scene. Definetely, Jean Hagen pulls you into that character. One has to watch her performance to learn about the characters.
"Two more swords and I%
She's dumb and in love with him, in spite of the fact that he's a neanderthal.
shareWe know that she worked at what was referred to at the time, as a "clip joint". A nightclub that is a cover for a house of prostitution. Dix probably had a go with her a few times. She fell in love with him, but he just considers her a friend. He talks to her in a very condescending manner on several occasions. She isn't very intelligent, and I think Dix doesn't trust her to do or say the right thing. Given his criminal activities, that's a concern he would have with having her around all the time. When she recognizes Doc, she mentions reward money, without really thinking about what that implies. That gets Dix's attention, and he tells her to mind her own business. She's a bit of a liability in Dix's mind.
shareI completely agree with ciphoid_9's interpretation! I just watched it on TCM for about the 25th time and am always touched by their scenes. She never says she loves him, but to me it's unmistakable how she feels.
I see the hurt in her, too, when he refers to "city dirt". It's obvious that she sees herself as soiled; she's undoubtedly "been around the block and back again" yet is still vulnerable. We are told so much in that moment in which she wants to hear about his life and his family, and she admits she had nothing like that. She only gets a moment, and he apparently is too lost in himself to take note of her. From her actions, that's usual for Doll: being pushed aside. Both have been very damaged by life, and it's so sad that they couldn't find life away from the city. Doll has only as long as her looks last, and we see that her façade is fading. Angela made me think of what Doll might have been like. Angela will drift from man to man and could very likely end up like Doll.
I love this movie because of the insight into ALL of these people. They aren't just a bunch of crooks planning a heist. We're shown so much with such tiny bits of script. The more I see this film, the more I'm enraptured by it.
(W)hat are we without our dreams?
Making sure our fantasies
Do not overpower our realities. ~ RC
I love this movie because of the insight into ALL of these people. They aren't just a bunch of crooks planning a heist. We're shown so much with such tiny bits of script. The more I see this film, the more I'm enraptured by it.
Doll knew Dix well enough to know he loved horses. When he told her that Coalcracker (the name he repeated during his sleep) was a colt his family once owned, Doll said, affectionately, "I knew it would be."
shareCorn Cracker.
Watta ya lookn here for?
Doll knew Dix well enough to know he loved horses. When he told her that Corncracker (the name he repeated during his sleep) was a colt his family once owned, Doll said, affectionately, "I knew it would be."
"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne