I watched this movie again today and was so surprised at how much I was moved at the end. The rest is enjoyable and sort of campy but the end scene was really emotional and rang surprisingly true. I nearly cried.
Does anyone agree?
Never, never, never, never, never
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TripleOphiuchus811:
What a marvelous post. I am so impressed!
You list some 1960's TV sitcoms that 'reflected' a kind of shifting cultural mood and attitude of the times, and you gave episode examples from 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' and 'The Andy Griffith Show'.
I think the 'Lost in Space' episode of 'The Magic Mirror' would fit in to that list rather nicely (although it first aired in 1966, 'Lost in Space' was still in black and white at the time of this Season 1 episode -- I believe they went to color in Season 2).
If you haven't seen it, it can be viewed for free via imdb / hulu. Although I was a very young child when I first saw it, 'The Magic Mirror' remains my favorite 'Lost in Space' episode (I think the poignant portrayal of the lonely boy who inhabits 'Mirrorland' by Michael J. Pollard makes this episode better than the others -- and, no pun intended here regarding the reflection you write about and the episode being about a 'magic mirror' :)
There are some oddly funny moments in the episode, such as when Dr. Smith thinks that he has dreamt up the dimension that he and Penny are in and he utters "I will not run from my nightmares" -- then, when Penny tries to tell him that the dimension is truly real, he says to her "You are nothing but my childhood fears carried over into adulthood" even as real danger is looming. Even the setting of 'Mirrorland' itself has a 'haunted house' feel to it.
Viewing it within the context of your exceptional thesis (and not just simply as the story of a pre-teen experiencing the angst of growing pains who is then befriended by an eternal, cosmic Peter Pan), I think that this episode is another fine example of what you write about in your post.
As an aside: Several years ago I had the pleasure of meeting June Lockhart in person. What a beautiful, classy lady and a real a spitfire of energy!
denise1234 :)
"I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than..a rude remark or a vulgar action" Blanche DuBois
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"As some who are old enough may recall, the JFK asssassination was the Ground Zero event of the mid-to-late twentieth century for defining real-life "creepy", and remained so for ages (though, sadly, the incident is now dismissed and laughed-off today as a "joke" due to over-discussion yet under-appreciation in the media). During the eighteen months or so after the assassination, this organic, macabre mood from the early-'60s continued and perhaps even intensified in what could be described as a kind of post-mortem "hush" . . ."
I agree with you that the JFK assassination was the beginning of the end of post-modern America. The decline which began in 1963 (or should I say, 1964 with the release of the Report of the Warren Commission) had an exclamation point afixed with the Watergate scandal. Since then, the American people have been leaderless. Political scandals which at one time would have ended the careers of even the most popular president or congressman are accepted as du jour occurances nowadays. People born after the mid-60s have no notion of what real liberty is. They have never experienced it. America is a zombified corpse just waiting to fall down.
"As some who are old enough may recall, the JFK asssassination was the Ground Zero event of the mid-to-late twentieth century for defining real-life "creepy", and remained so for ages (though, sadly, the incident is now dismissed and laughed-off today as a "joke" due to over-discussion yet under-appreciation in the media). During the eighteen months or so after the assassination, this organic, macabre mood from the early-'60s continued and perhaps even intensified in what could be described as a kind of post-mortem "hush" . . ."
I agree with you that the JFK assassination was the beginning of the end of post-modern America. The decline which began in 1963 (or should I say, 1964 with the release of the Report of the Warren Commission) had an exclamation point afixed with the Watergate scandal. Since then, the American people have been leaderless. Political scandals which at one time would have ended the careers of even the most popular president or congressman are accepted as du jour occurances nowadays. People born after the mid-60s have no notion of what real liberty is. They have never experienced it. America is a zombified corpse just waiting to fall down.
I felt it was moving due to the irony now surrounding Charlotte. After spending all those years in isolation dealing with the guilt to a crime she never committed. Yet now that she killed the people malipulating her, which the audience could sympathies with, her assumed identity will be left intacted without many people knowing the truth behind the original murder.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".
I'd call America more of a Phoenix. Thank You.
shareThis and the original THE STEPFORD WIVES have that distinction. They are horror films with incredibly sad poignant endings. I have cried at the end of Charlotte. It's incredibly moving, not just because the character learns the truth of her lovers murder, for which she has been taking the blame for all her life, but she's being force to leave the house she grew up in and loved.
Alan Jay Lerner said, "It isn't sadness that brings tears to my eyes, but a longing fulfilled". Charlotte has that scene of her learning the truth after all those years. It's incredibly moving. The ending to Charlotte is beautifully directed. That shot when she turns and looks at the house one last time always gets me.
http://cliffcarson.com
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That's interesting, but think about it. What is the hardest film to pull off? One that is frightening, but then moves you to tears? That's gotta be the hardest to pull off. Charlotte is the only one I can think of that successfully did that.
The ending to THE STEPFORD WIVES was haunting and sad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDsH7mYMcso
What is the hardest film to pull off? One that is frightening, but then moves you to tears? That's gotta be the hardest to pull off. Charlotte is the only one I can think of that successfully did that.
I thought she willingly was leaving the house and was willing to let it be torn down now. My reason is that she fought so strongly to keep the house due to her memories of her father and her guilt over John's murder. Now that she knows the truth, she is not that attached to the house. Her last look is thinking of the good memories there but saying goodbye to it.
"Do All Things For God's Glory"-1 Corinthians 10:31
I try doing this with my posts
Where was she going? That had to hurt, considering Miriam was her cousin, and Drew a lifelong friend.
shareBette Davis's final scenes in this film are as good as anything she ever did during her halcyon years at Warner Bros., and I like to point them out to people who are familiar only with Davis's excesses, to show that Davis could do 'less is more' with the best of them if she chose to. She hasn't a line of dialog - it's all in her eyes, face, and body-language. But from the moment on the terrace when she overhears Miriam and Drew, until that car drives her away in the final shot, we know and understand everything that Charlotte is feeling and thinking.
"'Nature,' Mr. Allnut, is what we are put here to rrrrrriiiiise above!"
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I watched this movie again last night and that ending always gets to me. Charlotte turning around and catching one last glimpse of the house she loved that she will never see again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKylTDWy1eg
I saw this when it came out in 1964. I was about 15. I remember the whole theater erupting in applause and cheers and yelling "Yay, Charlotte" after she dumped the huge flower pot on Miriam and Dr Drew. And the ending moves me each time I watch it to this day.
Also, for weeks after I first saw this, I had nightmares but i was also afraid to reach out for my night table when in bed for fear that a meat cleaver would come down and...chop.
Poor Charlotte. Her character was very sad and tragic.
Great movie, great cast, scary and intriguing.
The early-'60s horror movie vibe was the result of what was going on in the world at the time. The "psycho biddy" genre was just a subset of the horror genre of the era -- and there's a reason many people consider the '60s to be the best decade for horror.
So it's hard to remove CHARLOTTE from its place in time: the haunted, PSYCHO/TwilightZone-y, Cold War, end-of-the-world era of the early-1960s when we came our closest to nuclear obliteration (and knew it) and JFK had just been killed under highly-suspicious circumstances, and the culture was about to change (if not break down) markedly after we crossed that thick black line which bifurcated the decade and almost the century.
As Charlotte is whisked away and turns to gaze with tragic nostalgia out the back window of the vehicle at the home she has occupied all her life and is now leaving forever, the old world is going with her.
So you can see it as a metaphor (not that people viewed it that way at the time, but it totally works).
--
LBJ's mistress on JFK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXeutDmuRA
Well YOU see it as a metaphor. Misery may happen at any decade. Not just in the 60s.
shareI cried at both the beginning and the ending.
"Do All Things For God's Glory"-1 Corinthians 10:31
I try doing this with my posts
Yes. It tugs at the heartstrings, as the saying goes. It was beautiful in its melancholy; horribly sad, but not depressing. It was The End of the movie.
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