The outrecuidance of Verloc. **SPOILERS**

I also felt that the relationship between Oskar and Sylvia was cold and distant. She might as well have been one of his employees. Perhaps that the way things were in the 1920s and 30s… She also seemed much younger than him. Oskar was also from Europe while she was plainly American. Perhaps their marriage was one out of convenience so that he was able to become a US citizen and start a small theatre with what little money he brought with him.

There is a joke on vintage radio. Without Mary Livingston, Jack Benny would have been a bum. The same goes for George Burns and Gracy Allen.

Oskar was a conceited man, and Sylvia wasn’t a strong woman. At least, she wasn’t strong until she discovered she was married to terrorist who was to blame for the death of her kid brother and other innocent people on that bus.

I think Oskar was spouting those words out of some form of shock after realizing that his action resulted in the death of Stevie. The only one who was going to believe his words was himself.


Smoke me a kipper. I’ll be back for breakfast

I agree completely. I was quite irritated that within minutes of admitting to being the cause of her brother's death, he was tactlessly complaining about some mundane issue. "No cabbage for me tonight - why doesn't the housekeeper remember I don't like it?" or something to that effect.

I was amazed throughout the film that they were supposed to be married, I kept checking because they seemed like niece/uncle or daugther/father more than man/wife. I then decided it was a marriage of convenience (they probably both got something out of it). It's set post-war if I remember correctly so maybe she lost her parents (as her brother is living with them) and needed someone father like to support and look after her/them.

The cabbage comment to me just seemed to be a device to show you how detached he was from her and the boy, I mean, he effectively just killed him despite him whining only a few days before that he wanted no hand in killing innocent people when at the aquarium and also the pet shop.

I wondered maybe if he was autistic and had Asperger's - I know back then that diagnosis was a thing of the future but people would still have suffered from it and been perhaps viewed as odd and/or detached etc, they just didn't have a label for it.

Verloc thought that the money they would have would make up for it and that his explanation of Spencer being the cause would be a suitable excuse. He even added they could have a child together. As for his presumptive attitude and complaining about the cabbage soup, it's supposed to be "disturbing." It shows the man's true character and why Sylvia is led to eventually kill him.

Prior to that Sylvia thought he was a kind, older man. In the restaurant, Sylvia said she was an American who came to London with Stevie to escape the Depression, but then the economy crashed in England, too. They were down on their luck and in order to survive she married Verloc. Homolka doesn't play Verloc as a guy Sylvia would go for or even a father type to Stevie, but he does a good job in playing the nefarious side of Verloc. Comparing Verloc to tall, handsome and noble Spencer is supposed to be incongruous. Yet, at the end, Spencer ends up lying to protect Sylvia even though she committed a homicide. In the eyes of the law, he and Sylvia have done wrong, but morally we think she was justified in a moment of wrath.

I think that's simply the kind of sh-tty person he's meant to be: unable to experience any guilt for the devastating consequences of his actions, unable to express any sympathy or sadness for his grieving wife in the wake of the incomprehensible tragedy, and only very selfishly concerned about the menu for dinner.

Maybe Verloc was just deluded enough to believe that his wife would forgive him because he didn't "intentionally" try to murder her "brother" (and because she "needed" him for the money). Unfortunately for him, he was wrong.

Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

I would have to watch the film again to comment on the OP but thanks for teaching me a new word!

Away with the manners of withered virgins

All women are not smart or strong, He felt she would back him from her previous state of mind. She was a doormat and I feel she may have came off as easy or dumb to any man who came into contact with. This is not bad mouthing her but there are woman like this. Why did the the guy who was watching them try and hit on her so quickly, It is obviously because he knew he could get to her. So it must have been a vibe. The had lust not love in his conquest even though he would eventually fall for her.

Clearly a sociopath. Can have emotions and feelings but only on a very shallow level and directed to self.