The
Story (continued)
In
a cafe scene full of pathos and emotion, he guides her to a table
where he is bitterly remorseful at having even thought of taking
her life. They sit in mute silence together as she bends away
from him. He buys her a plate of cakes in an attempt at communion
- to restore her confidence in him and to gain absolution, forgiveness,
and atonement. He slowly pushes the plate toward her, but neither
of them wants or has the appetite to eat. Anguished, she reaches
for a piece and tries one bite, but then begins to sob uncontrollably.
They leave the cafe where he offers her a large bouquet of white
flowers from a street vendor, but she is inconsolable once again.
He leads her into a side opening off the busy street
where she sobs while clutching the flowers to her breast. He comforts
her by stroking her shoulder and her hand to calm her, and she begins
wiping her tears away. Slowly, she begins to yield to his entreaties,
and her faith is restored. Their tearful reconciliation is completed
by a view of a church across the street where a wedding is taking
place.
In the marvelous wedding sequence, they watch a bride-to-be
with a long veil enter a church. Exchanging glances with each other,
they decide to venture over to take a closer look. Inside the church
where shafts of light break through [the shafts of light are artificial
- they were painted onto the set's backdrop], they observe the ceremony,
step into the light, and sit in one of the pews. They overhear the
minister tell the bridegroom:
God is giving you, in the holy bonds of matrimony,
a trust. She is young...and inexperienced. Guide her and love
her...keep and protect her from all harm.
Overcome by emotion in a close-up, the husband silently,
then sobbingly in his wife's lap, re-recites the wedding vows, unseen
by the young couple who are themselves reciting the vows to the minister
who has asked: "Wilt thou LOVE her?" Perhaps the husband
understands for the first time how he has broken the sanctity of
the marriage vows with infidelity and thoughts of violence. After
renewing their vows by proxy and being 'remarried,' she lovingly
embraces, kisses and comforts her transformed husband after he asks:
Forgive me!
He collapses into her arms. Church bells ring - another
moment of catharsis in their own marriage ceremony. They emerge from
the church before the actual bride and groom - literally transported
by reconciled feelings of love. Spiritually reunited and re-sanctified
with his wife, his body is no longer hunched over.
After their exit from the church, in a scene utilizing
the technique of rear-projection and superimposition - and the concept
of subjective imagery, the husband and wife walk straight into the
city's busy thoroughfare outside the church. Reunited and without
fear and guilt, they are invulnerable to the dangerous traffic they
navigate through. Magically, they appear in a wooded country field
with beautiful blooming flowers (a dissolve of a rear-projected image)
- their internal perceptions, visions, and feelings take on an objective
reality. They walk into their fantasy world of the country and kiss
- their love triumphs over chaotic evil in a commonly-shared dream.
They suddenly reappear super-imposed back within the congested city,
and are startled to find themselves in the midst of honking city
traffic (another rear-projected image) - while still kissing. In
rapid succession, horns honk, a close-up of a foot slams a car's
brake pedal, a tram stops suddenly and jolts passengers, horses are
reigned back, and an out-of-control bicyclist falls off when he can't
brake in time. They find safety and refuge back on a sidewalk.
In love once again now that he is restored to his sanity,
they set out on a series of romantic adventures. First, they come
upon a Photographer's studio where they first view pictures of loving
married couples in the storefront window. Their reflected image of
their happy faces is superimposed on the glass above the portraits.
Noticing that he has stubbly growth on his face, they go to a deluxe
barbershop where the husband is ushered in and given a fancy haircut
and old-fashioned shave by the Barber (Ralph Sipperly). The wife
is also prepared for a trimming in a hairdresser's chair, but she
declines to have her locks trimmed. She is seated in the waiting
area where she at first watches jealously from afar, as her husband
ignores the attentive advances of the Manicure Girl (Jane Winton)
who asks and suggests: "Manicure? You'd look grand with a high
polish!" Once released from the barber chair, he defends his
wife from the attentions of a roguish, Obtrusive Gentleman admirer
(Arthur Housman) in the waiting area, threatening the fear-stricken
man with his pocket knife. As they leave the shop, they are asked
by the host to "Come again!"
They return the pleasantry: "Thank you! And you must come and
see us some time."
They return to the Photographer's (J. Farrell McDonald)
studio to have their portrait taken. The photographer positions them
in front of a faux woodsy background as he compliments him: "Congratulations!
She is the sweetest bride I've seen this year." In closeup,
the husband smiles broadly - clearly in love and full of pride in
his 'new wife.' The photographer privately watches them, in an inverted
view through his lens, while they steal a kiss from each other, oblivious
to their surroundings. He snaps the picture to capture the moment.
While waiting for the picture's development, they playfully tease
each other, accidently knocking over one of the studio's headless
statues. Naively believing they have knocked its head off, they search
frantically for it on the floor. To cover up for the mishap, the
husband places a fake head on the statue. They quickly pay for their
photograph and frantically rush from the studio, relieved. Outside,
they get their first look at their portrait - and they share a laugh
together realizing that the photographer caught them kissing.
Back in the country, the vamp plots to take the farmer's
money. While enveloped with cigarette smoke, she circles a newspaper
advertisement for the purchase of farm land:
FARMERS (If you want to sell your home and move
to the city, We Pay Cash), United Real Estate Company, Nat'l
Bank Bldg.
In the city's Luna Park amusement-park sequence, crowds
gather to queue up and stream into a tunnel under a gigantic twirling
centerpiece, their shadows silhouetted on the wall behind them. The
camera tracks into the park, where miniature planes circle above
a huge roller-coaster flashing with lights. Water fountains decorate
the grounds. A balloon-seller hawks his wares in the fancy restaurant.
The husband plays one of the park's games, hawked by the man in the
booth: "Hit the hole...make the little piggy roll!" The
game involves throwing a ball toward a target to release a pig (a
farm animal that the Man is quite familiar with) down a slide. Behind
him, grass-skirted dancers hula to entice the crowds. The romantically-inclined
wife is more interested in an area with live music where loving couples
dreamily dance cheek-to-cheek.
In scenes to provide a comic interlude, one of the
piglets escapes from the game booth, causing a panic and commotion
in the urban crowd. The husband eventually captures the drunken piglet
after it has consumed alcohol spilled on the floor in the park's
restaurant. As a reward for the return of the escaped pig to its
owner, the band is instructed to play 'Midsummer' (Peasant Dance).
The heroic farmer is coaxed into dancing with his wife and the rural
peasant couple reluctantly oblige the appreciative city crowd.
After their romantic evening, they enter the park's
restaurant and sit down to enjoy a bottle of wine. Enthralled by
each other, they imagine angels twirling around together (in a rear-projected
image above them) until the waiter approaches and delivers the bill.
With just enough coins to share in the expense of the wine, they
leave the table in a slightly euphoric state. He presents her with
the bouquet of flowers from the table. Fireworks explode above them
as they leave the park - the artificial light of the amusement-park
scene represents a state of ecstasy. The evil, dark city is transformed,
becoming warm, bright, submissive and friendly after their reconciliation.
Happy and more in love than ever before, their return
home resembles a joyous, honeymoon-like trip. He picks her up in
his arms to help her board the tram - and cross the threshold. Now
things are very different - their return trip by tram and boat is
joyous and full of laughter unlike before. She speaks of the honeymoon
they are experiencing in their peaceful sail back home: "We'll
sail home by moonlight...another honeymoon." They are idyllically
content - she lies peacefully in her husband's arms as they sail
across the moon-lit, mirror-surfaced lake. Eventually, she falls
asleep in his arms and he gently covers her with a scarf.
Midway across, a sudden storm blows up, lightning strikes
in the sky and thunder rolls (conveyed in the music and sound effects).
Residents in the city and amusement-park visitors scurry for shelter.
She continues to sleep while the storm blows up, rages about them,
and makes the little boat rock on the waves - a symbol of her total
trust in him. Frantically, he lowers the sail and begins rowing until
one of the oars in the tiny boat snaps, making rowing impossible.
She awakens and clings to him for refuge. He ties the bulrushes that
he had intended to use to save himself to his wife's body to save
her [a reversal of his original intentions]. The sail mast snaps,
and the boat capsizes in the turbulent water of the violent storm.
He is washed ashore to a rocky embankment, but apparently she is
tragically lost. The storm subsides and the moon appears. He drags
himself out of the water onto the rocks and calls for her - simulated
by the plaintive French horns on the soundtrack - but there is no
answer.
Roused from their beds at night, neighbors are called
to begin a search, and they rush to the water's edge. The city vamp
awakens and watches from a distance, believing that the murder plan
has successfully been carried out. She removes her thin negligee
and dresses into heavier clothes to watch the rescue effort from
a closer distance. A search party is assembled - they search in boats
with lamplights for the missing woman. From a fork in a tree, the
vamp watches what she believes is the convincing act of the Man distraught
with grief. The half-mad husband searches for his wife at the bow
of the first boat with a lantern extended out in his hand. In a stationary
frame, the wife is pictured floating unconscious in the water - she
floats into and then out of the picture (from the top left to bottom
right) on the bulrushes. Again, the French horns simulate the husband's
desperate calls for his wife.
Some of the bulrushes are found scattered on the water,
entangled with remnants of her scarf. She is presumed drowned when
there is no sign of her. The dazed husband collapses in the boat,
is comforted and then led back to his farmhouse by neighbors. When
he looks down at his wife's empty bed and falls weeping to his knees,
the room is streaked with somber shadows. Church bells ring just
before the seductive city woman approaches him in the night and signals
him with a whistle. She assumes that his emotional reaction is part
of the deception, but in a sudden fury, the husband rages at her
in frustration - appearing like a crazed Frankenstein monster. He
pursues her - attacking and strangling her over a fence in his despair.
Just as he is about to kill her, he hears a happy outcry
from his mother (signaled again by French horns) announcing that
his wife has been found - unconscious but alive. He releases his
strangling grip around the vamp's neck and rushes to his wife's bedside
and they are joyously reunited. She opens her eyes and smiles at
him with an angelic face. The fortunate searcher explains how he
found her:
...I couldn't give up hope, I know the tides...I
went around the Point...
The next morning, as the sun rises, the spurned city
mistress makes a hasty exit, returning back to the metropolis in
a horse-drawn carriage. In the farmhouse, the husband attentively
sits by his wife at her bedside, where she sleeps with their infant
until the dawn's light appears. Now with long-flowing hair after
releasing her tight bun, she opens her eyes and turns her head on
the pillow toward her husband. Their lips slowly draw together for
a kiss, dissolving into the bright rays of an art-deco sun filling
the screen.
The word "Finis"
floats upward to take the place of the sun as the music dramatically
swells. |