MovieChat Forums > Mogambo (1953) Discussion > What made her change her mind?

What made her change her mind?

posted 16 years ago by RRozsa
7 replies | jump to latest

As many times as I have seen this movie, I still don't understand the last scene. After Marswell unsuccessfully tries to get Kelly to stay (and "visit Father Josephs") she refuses and leaves on the boat. Before they get very far from shore, Marswell yells out to one of the men "Take good care of her!" After a moment some realization seems to dawn on Kelly and she heads back for shore. Was "take good care of her" a veiled reference to something that just keeps going over my head?

[–] bullit2513 16 years ago

I wondered that too, RRozsa, but here's what I came up with. Kelly's concern is that she's a back-up of some sort, and that Vic doesn't really care one way or another whether she says yes or no. Then, when he yells to Brownie to "take care of her" it shows he does have genuine feelings for her. That's all I can come up with, but right from the start you kinda figured Clark and Ava would end up together.

Maybe just John Ford somewhat forcing the ending on the viewer? Really good movie though, and glad I watched it.

"Congratulations, Major. It appears that at last you have found yourself a real war." Ben Tyreen

[–] RRozsa 16 years ago

You would have thought that his proposal of marriage a couple of minutes prior to that would have been proof enough of his feelings! ;-)

Just because I'm distractable doesn't mean I

[–] marfrie56 16 years ago

Nothing to do with Marswell's yelling.
Her head told her to stay away from this heel, that he had rejected her and treated her like dirt for the whole time she was there, and he would never really love her.
But in her heart, she was hopelessly attracted to this incredibly magnetic man.
Her head got her on the boat to leave - her heart won out at the last moment.

[–] RRozsa 10 years ago

Okay, I'm watching it again right now, and now I'm sort of thinking that both Kelly and Marswell really, deep down, knew she was never going to actually leave. She was just going through the motions of getting on the boat, maybe out of pride, or maybe trying to force him into begging her to stay. And this idea is further supported by the fact that Marswell broke into a knowing grin when he yelled "Take care of her", as though he was letting her know he was calling her bluff and was sort of taunting her with the fact that she really wasn't going to leave. So when she dropped the pretense and waded back to shore it was her way of saying, "Okay, you got me, I really didn't want to go and we both knew it." That's the only way the final scene makes sense to me.

Life's a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!

[–] littlemann001 10 years ago

Ok I will have to go home and watch this, this is going off of memory.
But didn't Gable make a point earlier in the film of not asking anyone for help, not being in debt to anyone, maybe even to the extent of not caring enough about anything for the need to ask a favor or help from anyone? Something like that?
That is what I remember, so when he says "Take care of her" I took that as a request of his friend and she realized that was something he never did and he had to love her for her to matter enough to do that.
Like I said I will try to watch it in a day or so.

[–] RRozsa 10 years ago

Okay, now I am going to have to watch it again, too. I never noticed that he had said that earlier in the film, but for some reason I always seem to miss some parts here and there, especially towards the beginning, before Linda and Donald enter the picture. But that's a good catch, and could very well be the best explanation!

Life's a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!

[–] scarletto_hare 10 years ago

I just watched it and when he proposes she says(just paraphrasing) "so you're going to make an honest woman out of me" and he says something along the lines of 'it suits me.' She then goes off at him and his quick change moods and she doesn't want to be with him just because he feels 'the cold weather coming.'

So basically she thinks that he is only asking her to marry him because he doesn't want to be alone. She did mention in the movie a few times about his quick changing feelings/attitude so she believes he is just going to be with her until someone new comes along and then she will be on her own again. I think by Marswell telling Brownie to look after her, it finally sinks into her that he actually does love her and this is the real deal for him.

The only Abnormality is the incapacity to love