September 7, 2016
In only a month mail-in voting will begin, one selection to endorse making
"America
Great Again" by electing a President to take us to this somewhat hazy
place. I got a glimpse of it last week watching the 1951 comedy,
"People Will Talk" played by a media star of that time, who
had the charisma to make the film a hit.
Dr. Noah Praetorius was not only played by, but was the
Cary Grant, in
all his self assured handsomeness, enhanced with the authority of being
a physician with the added panache of flaunting his use of
unproven alternative
treatments. In thinking about this films popularity, that exists to
this day, I realized that Dr. Praetorius and Donald J. Trump reflect the
same archetypes in the unconscious mythologies of our nation.
The theme of this film, before the social
revolutions of the 1960s where even imagined, still exist in our hopes
and fears today As an example, there was not a single black actor in
the entire film; not a student or professor or even sprinkled among the
audience of a concert. Cary Grant's hero doctor was lauded for his
stalwart independence, not only the right to deceive a pregnant college student
telling her "the test was in error," but then to have a private
conversation with the natural guardian of this adult, her father, about
how to proceed in her "management." It would be the men who would decide
her fate. An early abortion for this accidental pregnancy was never
even mentioned as an option, as the choice was her marrying the doctor
or suicide, attempted before, but treated as a joke in the film.
The movie world of 1950s depicted in "People Will Talk" is what Donald Turmp promises to bring back. While today's candidate boasts that he could kill a random person without any loss in his popularity, Grant's Dr. Praetorius presaged this by revealing that his close companion was a man who had murdered someone in public. Ah, but his friend was a stalwart, kind person, who loved dogs and had bonded with our hero; so his confession, under the laws of human nature that then, as well as now, prevail over rational evaluation. He was given instant amnesty; and in addition he was bestowed the authority to deliciously demolish the character who had been investigating our confident, iconoclastic hero-doctor.
The movie world of 1950s depicted in "People Will Talk" is what Donald Turmp promises to bring back. While today's candidate boasts that he could kill a random person without any loss in his popularity, Grant's Dr. Praetorius presaged this by revealing that his close companion was a man who had murdered someone in public. Ah, but his friend was a stalwart, kind person, who loved dogs and had bonded with our hero; so his confession, under the laws of human nature that then, as well as now, prevail over rational evaluation. He was given instant amnesty; and in addition he was bestowed the authority to deliciously demolish the character who had been investigating our confident, iconoclastic hero-doctor.
For
the audience of 1951 and those who have praised the film on the
internet over the years, the denouement fit the world around them. The
character who ended up being despised was not the charming
doctor or the kindly murderer; but the scold
who tried to call such people to account. The film's popularity was a celebration of the America of that time that one presidential candidate now offers to
restore.
A
short feature often shown with movies of that era documented the world
news of the day, ending with a stentorian ominous voice intoning , "Time Marches On." We knew it meant in one direction only, that if we failed to
rise to the emerging challenges there would be consequences
that were not reversible. We could enjoy the zany comedies, the happy
endings on the feature film without guilt; but fiction ended when we walked
out of the darkened theater into a world that we, as citizens of a democracy, were responsible
for shaping.
