MovieChat Forums > Popeye (1980) Discussion > Okay, can someone please explain somethi...

Okay, can someone please explain something to me?

posted 9 years ago by ejl-41750
6 replies | jump to latest

I have looked all over the IMDb message board of this very awesome and underrated movie and I have noticed that a lot of people are freaked out by the waitress in the cage during the restaurant scene. The question for me is why? I mean I would understand if she was stuck in there all the time and unable to get out. But we see that she obviously isn't. They clearly show her lowering the cage over herself when the fight was about to begin so that she herself wouldn't get caught in the fight and end up being hurt or even killed. So are people not paying close enough attention to this scene or am I missing something?

[–] indy_go_blue44 8 years ago

20-teens sensitivity I guess. I wonder how many people know that Goldie Hawn was discovered while dancing in a cage at the "Whiskey A-Go Go" in the '60s?

[–] ejl-41750 8 years ago

That makes sense, I guess.

[–] Cuthbert (732) 6 years ago

It wasn't at the Whiskey. It wasn't even in LA. It was at Billy's Topless on 23rd St. in NYC. She was a stripper. Big deal.

[–] moogie (205) 7 years ago

I've been a Popeye fan and followed his creator Max Fleischer since I was a girl in the 1950s. This movie's characters were based on the 1919 cartoon strip "Thimble Theater" so if you read a few of those you'll see so many crazy things that waitresses in cages will seem like the norm. Popeye's debut stemming off from Betty Boop in the 1930s cartoons where just a bazaar until they tamed down towards the end of the decade. The rule was things that don't make sense make plenty of sense and you just went with it. Somebody did their homework as I was pleased to discover so many characters and happenings that were taken directly from the comic strip and cartoons and the only thing I think was left out is a safe falling on Popeye where he effortlessly opens the door and walks out unharmed leaving the safe with a hole in it.

[–] moogie (205) 7 years ago

So to go a step further and try to answer your question as to why the waitress pulls the cage down; most likely she saw a fight about to happen and she wanted to keep safe. She didn't seem too worried chewing her gum, acted like this type of thing happened there often so she was prepared with the cage handy. Sounds crazy but seems right to me. I love this restaurant scene and the music.

[–] PaladinNJ (21772) 6 years ago

In other words, the cage served the same purpose as the chicken wire in Road House.