I just saw the shooting scenes. Enough said. Is it really OK to use porters and waiters as skeet targets? Methinks not so.
If you'll pardon my saying so, this is a prime example of people seeing what they
want to see as opposed to what actually takes place on the screen.
I was fortunate enough to see TPBS on the Silver Screen earlier in the week (and twice in the same day). George (who, incidentally, was not a waiter, but a
bartender, and was credited as such) was
not shot at: the white rag on a stick he was waving with his right hand was. So the grey-haired fellow who you saw drawing a bead was, in fact, drawing a bead on an inanimate object rather than an actual human being (that's why you saw the rag go flying away and not George).
NOT ACCEPTABLE IN ANY TIME PERIOD. Certainly this is absolutely NOT FUNNY.
If you actually watch the film, you'll see that no waiters, porters, or human beings of any size or description were harmed.
And while I'm sorry that you were unable to find humor in the Ale and Quail Club scenes, it's only fair to point out that the two audiences I watched the film with found them
hilarious, which would seem to indicate that they
are, in fact, funny, even if you yourself did not find them so.
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wmousie
8 years ago
Regarding f3's correction, with which I totally concur, I should like to add that no porter, waiter or, indeed, bartender (Fred 'Snowflake' Toones) was used as a skeet target. The bartender was told to toss up some biscuits and THOSE were fired upon as skeet targets.
Racist, no -- insanely dangerous and an indication that The Quail and Ale Club members' brains were missing their firing pins, even if their shotguns were not -- YES!
Symbolically, The Quail and Ale Club represents the over-privileged rich who, being insulated by their wealth and power, recognize no authority other than that generated by their own self-indulgent brains. A cautionary vignette as viable today as it was in 1942.
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