MovieChat Forums > Trapeze (1956) Discussion > Seriously confused about Lola

Seriously confused about Lola

posted 14 years ago by laozamor
13 replies | jump to latest

Were we supposed to like her? Sympathize with her? Were we supposed to actually be rooting for she and Mike to get together? Cause all I wanted was for her to fall and break her neck.

I'm not just hating here, I am genuinely confused. The beginning of the movie set her up like a villain, an antagonist, the evil little seductress who was gonna split the boys up. For the whole first half of the movie, that's exactly how they played her. Then suddenly, out of the BLUE, Mike is in love with her.

.....what? When did that happen? I was completely thrown for a loop and left very emotionally confused for the rest of the movie. "Okay, she's just got him under her wiles, he'll see the light." I was sure I was supposed to still be hating her. But then the way dialogue was going and scenes were shot, I could tell that the movie was presenting Lola as sympathetic now, and that I was supposed to WANT Mike and she to be together.

Why? In all the seven hells why?

She was a manipulative little con-artist, and I thought Mike saw that. For that whole middle third of the movie, I thought he was playing her, just to show Tino that she went wherever the money and opportunity took her, and that he was gonna drop her as soon as Tino got that. Then all of a sudden he says that he really IS in love with her. What? I did not understand that turn about at all. Why in the world would he want the woman who was single mindedly out to maximize her profit and split up his act?

I simply could not get emotionally engaged in the love triangle at all. Mike and Tino were great together, Mike could teach Tino to be all he could be, and Tino got Mike out in the air again. They were perfect for each other. Lola was more than just a third wheel, she was a triple fanged wedge that blew the perfect chemistry between the two leads. I simply do not understand how we were supposed to feel about her. Because if her situation was supposed to garner pity and her personality make me like her, that failed miserably. And if I WAS supposed to hate her as much as I did, then the ending with Mike leaving Tino and walking arm and arm down the street with Lola was nothing short of infuriating.

Please, someone explain Lola to me, and give me one reason not to want her to get run over by one of the elephants and Mike and Tino go to New York together.

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"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

[–] mspatera 14 years ago

First, that was not Lola he was walking with at the end; it was the horseback rider. So Mike ended up as he began, a drunken rigger chasing married women. EXCEPT - he had his great redeeming moment as a mentor.

As for Lola, I don't think we were supposed to like her, but to understand her. She was a woman who wanted to get ahead in her profession and used what she had to get it. Along the way she fell for Mike, and that's why she was hurt when she found out he had been using her (apperently she did not believe that turnabout is fair play).

Mike had always been attracted to her (God, who wouldn't be?), and was truly touched when he saw that she really cared about him when he got injured by the lion. He decided he cared about her after all and they spent the night together. It must have been some night, because he really fell for her. This was way too fast, but not unusual in films even today.

I think we have to remember that Lola was a device to create conflict in the basic plot, which was the bromance (hate that word) between Mike and Tino. Or the movie would have been half an hour long.

Nice movie, not great.

[–] tehck 13 years ago

What are you talking about? Mike leaves with Rosa because they should have been together all along; that's the happy ending. Rosa's sick of being tormented by her domineering husband (who has left her) and has always loved Mike. Mike's final sacrifice is being rewarded by getting the good woman he really deserves. Lola is a piece of crap, and the OP is correct that her inexplicable redemption halfway through the movie basically ruins it. We can only content ourselves that stupid Tino WILL soon break his neck, and she will be stranded in America and have to become the actual prostitute she always has been at heart.

[–] mspatera 13 years ago

I agree about Rosa, but I guess I'm just too cynical to believe that Mike will be happy for long.

Love your idea for Lola's future! Of course, she'd probably end up married to some rich guy and spend the rest of her life trying to preserve her looks.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] Mrs_Mills 13 years ago

Lola was an acrobat and she could do tricks: she was probably double-jointed too.

In Kidman's case, it's nice to see her lately immovable forehead participating in her performance - Rabbit Hole Review, Variety.

[–] picardy-third 11 years ago

I have seen this movie a gazillion times, one of my favorites. If you watch the last scene, Rosa the horseback rider and her husband are brushing down their horses at the end. She's wearing a robe, and then she looks up watching someone walk by who is clicking high heels, has a sad look on her face, but then her husband pats her hand, she gives him a little smile and goes back to her horse chores with him. The person you hear walking out of the stable in the high heels is Lola, who follows Mike out into the street, they pause, look at each other, then join arms and slowly walk down the street together.

[–] nice_girl85 13 years ago

Mee too. To me she seemed to be this egotistical, manipulative bitch. She lied to the guys she worked with in the beginning, she tried to get a career-boost through Mike and when he turned her down she went to Tino. She pinned Mike and Tino against each other. Just look at the scene where she and Tino kiss for the first time. She says something like "you're the flyer, you make the decisions." She knows she can get him on her side by manipulating him with claiming she's in love with him. I wonder if she actually loved either one of them. For most of the time I kept thinking if she doesn't get her dirty hands of Tino, I'm gonna leap through the screen and kick her ass.

[–] GoodSOVeryVeryGood 12 years ago

She is a product of the 50s - men who wrote these stories and who were misogynists one and all - she is written as men perceived women at the time and yes she is horrid - manipulative, heartless, the list could go on and on.

As another poster said you hope at the end of the film that she ends up in the US of A practising the profession she is clearly destined to .... yes .. a total tramp !!!!

The Greatest Show on Earth is a better film I think to this one (I used to get them confused because Cornell Wilde and Tony Curtis look so much alike).

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] Kaiala 12 years ago

Laozamor, I've just watched the DVD, and thought exactly the same! I couldn't have said it better. Then I read Mspatera's reply that it wasn't Lola walking off with Mike, it was Rosa! All the way through the movie I was confused with these two women. They just looked too much alike. Now I don't know what to think.

Regardless of which woman Mike ended up with, I thought the movie was extremely irritating. I couldn't stand Lola, and the way Mike suddenly fell for her was ridiculous. I did enjoy the trapeze work, though. I think Mike should've ended up walking off arm in arm with Tino, to be honest.

[–] jimmywhale 12 years ago

I couldn't stand Lola, and the way Mike suddenly fell for her was ridiculous. I did enjoy the trapeze work, though. I think Mike should've ended up walking off arm in arm with Tino, to be honest.

I couldn't have stated it better myself. In the final scenes when Lola was standing between Mike and Tino, I was feeling that she spoiled the shot. The two guys going off together, who after all, were the real talents in the act, would have been very appropriate.

To a new world of gods and monsters!

[–] rashomon-8 10 years ago

It's pretty obvious the woman Mike walks off with is Lola. Note that in the final scene when we see Rosa standing near her horse in the stable she hears [high heel?] footsteps walk by her the same direction as Mike. So clearly Rosa would not be looking at herself walk by. Then Lola walks up to Mike and they leave together in the end. Rosa herself told Mike that Lola loved him so the ending makes sense.