MovieChat Forums > Strange Interlude (1933) Discussion > How they aged

How they aged

posted 13 years ago by Echo_in_big_sky
5 replies | jump to latest

I love how by the time the kid was ten they all became geriatric.

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[–] TomInSanFrancisco 13 years ago

Yeah, that was odd! The adults aged 25 years or so during little Gordon's first 10 years, and then they aged another 20 as Gordon aged 10. I wonder why they did that? In most movies spanning long periods of time, the opposite happens: the actors don't seem to age as much as they should.

[–] godfreye 13 years ago

I totally agree! Norma Shearer and her husband and Clark Gable characters would have been in their twenties let's say when the baby was born; so when he was 10 they would have been about mid-thirties? They looked a little older than that at his tenth birthday party. But then, "Gordon" is graduating from Cornell so he is about 21 and they are about 45-ish? The movie makes them look like they're in their sixties. Then Norma's husband has a stroke and dies and they all suddenly look about 75 - unless he didn't die right after the stroke and lingered for 10 years?

[–] Zorione 13 years ago

Yeah, that was funny. When gray-headed Nina and Ned first showed up, I figured their accelerated aging was meant to illustrate The Toll Lying Takes on You. Then Sam walked in looking as old and I figured it was a case of bad makeup work. But then in the last part of the movie, Charlie started to age more realistically while the other three just aged faster and faster.

[–] Popcorngal (4349) 6 years ago

LOL, Gable ghost, too much face powder.

[–] mdonln 8 years ago

The age progression makeup was pretty bad and very strange but I think it's a combination of factors: unsophisticated makeup techniques, a desire for us to notice a lot of time had progressed, and to show an obvious difference in age between the older generation and the younger one.

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