in reality...

My thought was....since Lily was promoted/transferred to different departments several times really fast, I was wondering what the Human Resource people were thinking about this? LOL

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BigWhispers: the whole point of the film's narrative was that she achieved her goals via Nietzsche but found no happiness until she began to think less of herself and more of the man she married -- a man who, mind you, had no illusions about her past character but loved her enough to marry her anyway.

Nietzche himself died a miserable and bitter man. This would have been her fate if she hadn't come to her senses when she saw where Nietzschean philosophy had brought her and this is the moral the filmmakers were driving home to the audience.

If you like bleak endings, might I suggest La Strada (1954)? And, from there, most any Ingmar Bergman picture?

Okay folks, show's over, nothing to see here!

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Perhaps, but this isn't reality.

~~
JimHutton as ElleryQueen: talented hot sexy

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1. In reality, anything is possible. Women using men to get ahead or get rich is nothing new. It happened then as it happens now.

2. The guys didn’t realize Lily was using them. She gave them what they wanted, sex, and, until she was ready to toss them aside, made them feel wanted and special.

3. The guy who killed himself became obsessed. He started out above board and incorruptible and ended up ready to do anything to hang on to Lily. Finding out the very guy who had forced him to end things with her had taken his place was more than he could bear. Jilted people tend to take their anger out on their rival but if he wasn’t around perhaps Lily would have been shot instead.

4. The happy ending may have been an afterthought but I think it works better than the alternative. Lily had never experienced love so she may have seemed like a lost cause but anyone can change. In her case the potential was there. Throughout the movie, we saw signs of her humanity.

- She put herself at risk to stand up for Chico, someone who would not have been well-regarded at that time. This shows her ability to care for others selflessly. She also works to support herself and her friend.

- When Trenholm offers her the job in Paris, she could have easily gone to the press and made a lot of money. Instead she takes the job and does it well. This shows money wasn’t as important to her as it would seem. She knew she was smart and was able to support herself.

- All the men in her life, starting with her father, had objectified and used her. She never embraced that lifestyle. She only went willingly in that direction when she was convinced by yet another man that it was the only way she could escape her miserable life.

- Trenholm was different. He treated her with respect; perhaps because he recognized as a woman her options were limited. In a lot of ways, Lily did the only thing she could do to get ahead. In those days, without a man, a woman had few opportunities to excel. She got caught up in it but eventually remembered all she really wanted was a better life; wealth is not the only way to achieve that.

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She would have been had and discarded. and probably raped or shot.
i find it hard to believe that any guy would be so desperate for a woman who
was not all that hot and so obviously a using lying whore..the guy who kills himself over her
should have shot her too.

There have been women like this since time began. Some got ahead; some didn't. It doesn't matter that most women were unable to get ahead that way. Even in this film, Lily is the only one who's able to pull it off and that's after a whole childhood of being used and abused. It's not as though these guys are interested in her mind or character. She even says that outright to Ned when she dumps him for good. These guys are liars and users. They're just more entitled about it than she is.

the reworked happy ending is a copout too. no way could a woman like that settle down.
no money would ever be enough for her so shed have moved on once that ceo lost his job

Depends on her goals. She's not doing it because she's a psychopath or a nymphomaniac. Look at how she stands by Chico, and makes sure *she* has a job and a place to live all the way through--being a token "maid" who gets to go out on her day off in diamonds and furs isn't half as degrading as what her "boss" is willing to do to keep them in clover. When the film starts, Lily's as straight a shooter as she can be in her situation, but it's not getting her anywhere. After her father dies (immediately on the heels of trying to pimp her out), an old man whom she respects tells her she can either be exploited by men or learn how to exploit them. This is all just a job to her--a gross and disgusting job but the only way she can get to where she wants to go. So, it makes sense that at some point, she'd stop and move on to something less degrading to her.

Innsmouth Free Press http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com

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