Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Slapworthy Characters

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have a really fun little post in the works involving Shirley Temple, but I've been having trouble figuring out how to work the scanner. I wish I were a bit more tech-savvy! Anyways, it will be several more days until I complete the whole thing so I thought I'd do a bit of a mini post.

A few days ago, I finally had the chance to watch the 1936 film "These Three" starring Merle Oberon, Joel McCrea, and Miriam Hopkins. All I can say about it is wow! It was such a fantastic film and I felt so completely immersed in the story. The performances by the three main stars were wonderful, but little Bonita Granville completely blew me away. Before watching the film, my only previous experiences with her work were the Nancy Drew movies. Her character Mary Tilford in "These Three" could not have been any further from the precocious amateur detective Nancy Drew. Throughout the movie, I couldn't help wanting to slap some sense into that little brat. Mary Tilford must be one of the most heartless and evil children ever to be on the big screen, except for Damien of course.

When little Mary finally gets slapped in the end (ironically, by the future wicked witch of the west), I couldn't help being happy. She deserved it. It got me thinking about characters in other films that have made me so mad I just wanted to slap them. What movie character would you most like to slap? It can be someone evil like Mary Tilford or someone so oblivious to what's going on that they need to have some sense slapped into them. Tell me what you think.

5 comments:

Nicole Newcomb said...

I haven't seen that version yet but I saw "The Children's Hour" and I know exactly how you feel. I wanted to slap Mary as well. She drove me nuts, she was so despicable and she was good at annoying me.

Anonymous said...

Ugh, I HATED Mary in The Children's Hour!

I really wanted to slap Cornelia in My Man Godfrey...I'm sure there are others!

BethRose said...

If youve ever seen the 1940 movie "Primrose Path" Theres a grandmother character played by Queenie Vassar who I would happily slap multiple times!And the child as well actually (Joan Carroll) Also on my slap list are Dodie (Teenage Rebel) amd also Cornelia in My Man Godfrey (High Fives to graciebird!)

Beth xx

Unknown said...

Definitely the grandmother in The Primrose Path (great one, sneakysnoo11!) Also the grandmother in My Reputation. Bonita Granville plays an annoying brat in It's Love I'm After, too, and that's a slap-worthy character also :)

Genevieve said...

Nicole: I haven't seen "The Children's Hour", but after watching "These Three", I want to see it and compare the different versions of Mary.

Graciebird: I forgot about how much I wanted to slap Cornelia! Thanks for reminding me.

sneakysnoo: Its been awhile since I saw "Primrose Path", but I do remember thoroughly disliking the grandma. I haven't seen "Teenage Rebel" yet though, but its on my list of movies to see (mainly because of Ginger Rogers)

Kate: I haven't seen the last 2 movies you mentioned, but I'll definitely check them out, especially It's Love I'm After. Bonita was great at playing brats.