MovieChat Forums > This Man Is Mine (1934) Discussion > Love this movie! ***SPOILERS***

Love this movie! SPOILERS

posted 9 years ago by TvMovieMiss
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**SPOILERS***
I recently rewatched this movie with a friend I wanted to share it with, the witty dialogue among all characters is so enjoyable... but I just can't stand to think Dunne takes back Bellamy if he actually slept with Cummings... I have to tell myself it didn't actually go completely that far... my friend said I'm in dreamworld... but it's possible, isn't it? ☺

And it is weird seeing that slap & punch, but we watched Love, Honor & Behave (1938) too, another film billed as a dramance that also has comedy & great dialogue.. and when don't know it's coming the violent brawling is pretty shocking too! But we were all brought up knowing it's wrong to hit, and a man should never strike a woman... and it's really our generation that started stressing more that a woman can also not strike a man, when before a woman slapping a man for a rude comment or such was always accepted in films and in some instances real life. It's weird to see too in older films that they show the physical fighting between couples outright and just imply and have you guess what's going on when they are truly getting along :)

Bell bottom blues you made me cry... I don't want to loose that feeling.

[–] mdonln 8 years ago

TvMovieMiss says > I recently rewatched this movie with a friend I wanted to share it with, the witty dialogue among all characters is so enjoyable... but I just can't stand to think Dunne takes back Bellamy if he actually slept with Cummings... I have to tell myself it didn't actually go completely that far... my friend said I'm in dreamworld... but it's possible, isn't it? ☺

Given when the movie was made, you could hardly expect to see any blatant sex scenes in the movie. Even in the pre-code era, before sex became a taboo topic, it was usually handled in a very subtle way. To understand what happened, the viewer had to follow the dialogue. However, the movie worked just as well whether the viewer thought Jim was unfaithful or not.

That said, I could not believe Toni took, or would even want, Jim back. I assume the ending we saw was what the audiences at the time would have preferred; most probably considered it a happy ending.

The way I understood the movie, Jim and Fran did have sex. Even if Toni could get over that, I don't know how she could so easily get over the betrayal. He never considered his family and was more than willing to turn his back on them. Scandal or no scandal, had Fran been willing, there's no way he would have stayed with Toni or been with her in the end.

It's weird to see too in older films that they show the physical fighting between couples outright and just imply and have you guess what's going on when they are truly getting along :)

I don't think it's that weird. Couples fight in public all the time. It may make the people around them uncomfortable but it's not necessarily illegal. Having sex in public, on the other hand, is illegal though you'd never know it from watching modern movies.

Also, judging from what I've seen and heard in a lot of older movies, it was neither uncommon nor unacceptable for a man to hit a woman. People often suggested she 'needed' it or 'had it coming'. In this movie that could be said of Fran, for the variety of things she did; but it could also be said of Toni. In some people's opinion, she was making too much of her husband's 'mistake'.

Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]