Pregnancy Termination?
Did Glory have her pregnancy terminated when she moved to New York City with her mother?
shareMessage me if you would like a copy
share
MovieChat Forums > Chance at Heaven (1933) Discussion > Pregnancy Termination?
Here it is, three years after your message, but I just now finished watching "Chance At Heaven" for the first time.
Boy! that really jumped out at me, too! Without going quite so far as to say that her mother and her mother's highly paid doctors in New York did so, I think that it's pretty clear that Glory had her pregnancy aborted. That was awfully racy! Of course, The Code would have made that whole business impossible when it went into full swing the next year.
Interesting little tale. Fun to see McCrea and Ginger before they were bigger stars.
I guess this was also just before the repeal of Prohibition? I liked how Blacky poured drinks from his pint bottle at the High Tide Club and then slipped the bottle back under the table cloth. Not exactly hidden, but hidden from plain view. Was that accepted custom during Prohibition? or, at least near the end of Prohibition?
Well, Prohibition was drawing to a close in 1933, but the film may have been in production before the end, but prepared to be released after the end, or something like that. Chances are that the producers would have known all of that. Maybe Blacky behaves with the bottle that way because of force of habit, and it was inserted for comedy effect?
But, after not seeing "Chance at Heaven" for a long time, I sort of forgot about its baby on the edge plotline. On the surface, it appears as though Blacky and Marje may finally have their chance together after Glory would leave the cape with her mother and servants.
So, if they're going for a happy ending here, then why have a downbeat one with disposing the baby? Marje and Blacky are very nice and wouldn't stand for that no matter how nasty Glory and her mother can become. Maybe we're supposed to forget about the entire thing and to think what we would as the optimal outcome--i.e. Blacky could be reunited with his long-lost child many years later.
[deleted]
~~~~~The more pre-Code films I see the more you can see how much was lost artistically by the stringent Code restrictions.~~~~~
You can say that again! Films didn't recover until the late 60s.
Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.
The ending however was off putting. Blacky has just a few hours ago found out his baby was terminated, his marriage a sham and has been ended by a manipulative society mother influencing her weak daughter--and the next thing you know he's emoting to Ginger Rogers's: "that's the best chicken pie I ever ate..." as foreplay to the forthcoming second marriage.
Actually, you didn't notice what happened immediately after Blacky was informed "the doctor was wrong" about Glory being pregnant. After storming out the room disgusted, there's a shot of a newspaper headline announcing the Gormans have divorced and that Blacky can not be located, therefore some time has passed between this last scene, the divorce, and Blacky's subsequent return to the small town. It must have been another period of several months for after this last scene for the paper to be able to announce the divorce was finalized. Nobody knows Blacky's whereabouts, presuming he has gone off somewhere depressed about his life and uncertain of his future. Notice the key scene (very well done) right after the newspaper headline, his gas station assistant Andy Devine receives a telegram and is very reluctant to read it, holding his head away at a distance as if afraid of what he might read (Blacky being dead) and suddenly he realizes it's actually good news and a notice from Blacky that he will soon be returning home, Andy then informs Marge who is waiting for him at Blacky's house. So Blacky hasn't jumped immediately from one woman to another although would have much preferred an ending when he was more repentant toward Marge about the way he has taken her for granted. I certainly didn't like the way "good guy" Blacky was so inconsiderate of her thoroughout the film and even the ending didn't quite change that. share
These early movies commonly accepted that society folk are different from you and me and not just because they have more money. They are shallow, ruthless, immature, irresponsible, weak, and selfish. The sadder but wiser Blacky can now live happily ever after with Marje because he has seen the light. That was one way for movies to placate the forces of morality that immediately began gathering at their gates when they realized that movies were glamorizing what they considered negative human traits and behavior. In more modern terms, the poor sap married Paris Hilton rather than his high school sweetheart and lived to regret it! At least he only had to endure bad interior decorating, not a pampered Chihuahua. And while the audience wouldn't condone getting rid of a baby, they might think it's for the best if the kid was going to grow to be like his/her mother. You can be sure the father wasn't going to be allowed any part in his own child's upbringing!
Blacky behaved like that with the bottle because that's how people behaved in small town nightclubs when the movie was made. There is no evidence that the movie makers had inside knowledge of when Prohibition was going to end any more than they had inside knowledge of when the stock market crash would occur or when we would enter WWII. Those are the things that must have made them want to tear their hair out. I saw one movie with the intro that it took place in a fantasy world long, long ago, with no rationing, rather than scrap the whole thing to reflect the new reality.
So, if they're going for a happy ending here, then why have a downbeat one with disposing the baby? Marje and Blacky are very nice and wouldn't stand for that no matter how nasty Glory and her mother can become. Maybe we're supposed to forget about the entire thing and to think what we would as the optimal outcome--i.e. Blacky could be reunited with his long-lost child many years later.
Well, the abortion was a done deal by the time Blacky finally saw Glory again, there was nothing he could have done about it at that point (don't know how Marge fits in this picture as it's none of her business). Unless you're saying Glory might have secretly had the baby but she's not been away long enough for that, she's only been in New York about three months having gone just days after finding out she was expecting. The abortion is used I believe in part to make us know Blacky is now "all done" with Glory, after hearing Glory's mother cryptic comment "the doctor was wrong", Blacky realizes what has happened and walks out, now all through with these people. share
"The doctor was wrong"? Sure he was.
share