What did you make of all the cat imagery? Cora is called a "hell-cat." The house cat shorts out the electricity, and there are the big cats at the end that play a part in sealing Frank's doom.
Oh, the girl with the cats was such a strange addition toward the end. I could see Frank trying to escape, but the chemistry was so lacking. No, I figured her whole bit about mad cats bred in captivity was starting to get to Frank in the same way -- that the longer he stayed with Cora at the tavern, the madder it was making them both.
I was sort of touched by Cora's self-description of a "hell-cat." I mean, for a murderess. She was so back and forth -- violent and needy and bloodthirsty, then just a scared and disillusioned girl from Iowa in a jam.
Cl, I agree that the cat lady at the end felt a bit forced. Would have been more plausible if she had at least been briefly introduced somewhere near the beginning. Then when she reappeared, we would have been like "oh yeah, that lady again," instead of "who the heck is this character five minutes before curtain?"
Great observation about Cora being so "back and forth." She was so frank in her self-assessment, too — like how she understood that it was ridiculous to think she could make it in the movies (especially the talkies!), that she wasn't anything special, but was just one of thousands of wannabe starlets. "A cheap Des Moines trollop," she says, "that had as much chance in pictures as a monkey has. Not as much. A monkey, anyway, can make you laugh ..."
And she was a girl "in a jam," as you say. After she gave up on the pictures, she worked as a waitress, enduring "two years of guys pinching your leg and leaving nickel tips and asking how about a little party tonight. I went on some of them parties, Frank." No wonder Nick looked good to her. What else was she supposed to do? Women in that era were trained to do nothing except find a husband to support them, and she went with her training. Then her new reality set in: working at a diner, living out in the country with someone she didn't love. Do you think she really loved Frank, or did she subconsciously just see him as yet another means of escape?
Oh, the girl with the cats was such a strange addition toward the end. I could see Frank trying to escape, but the chemistry was so lacking. No, I figured her whole bit about mad cats bred in captivity was starting to get to Frank in the same way -- that the longer he stayed with Cora at the tavern, the madder it was making them both.
ReplyDeleteI was sort of touched by Cora's self-description of a "hell-cat." I mean, for a murderess. She was so back and forth -- violent and needy and bloodthirsty, then just a scared and disillusioned girl from Iowa in a jam.
Cl, I agree that the cat lady at the end felt a bit forced. Would have been more plausible if she had at least been briefly introduced somewhere near the beginning. Then when she reappeared, we would have been like "oh yeah, that lady again," instead of "who the heck is this character five minutes before curtain?"
ReplyDeleteGreat observation about Cora being so "back and forth." She was so frank in her self-assessment, too — like how she understood that it was ridiculous to think she could make it in the movies (especially the talkies!), that she wasn't anything special, but was just one of thousands of wannabe starlets. "A cheap Des Moines trollop," she says, "that had as much chance in pictures as a monkey has. Not as much. A monkey, anyway, can make you laugh ..."
And she was a girl "in a jam," as you say. After she gave up on the pictures, she worked as a waitress, enduring "two years of guys pinching your leg and leaving nickel tips and asking how about a little party tonight. I went on some of them parties, Frank." No wonder Nick looked good to her. What else was she supposed to do? Women in that era were trained to do nothing except find a husband to support them, and she went with her training. Then her new reality set in: working at a diner, living out in the country with someone she didn't love. Do you think she really loved Frank, or did she subconsciously just see him as yet another means of escape?