What does it mean??


I've always wondered what it meant when Bacall is talking about the $30 she has, and she says it's just enough to say no if I feel like it. Can anyone help me out with this?? (this is my second favorite movie btw)

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I think it means she has just enough money that she doesn't have to depend on strange men (like the unfortunate Mr. Johnson, whom she pick-pockets, or the guy in the bar from whom she gets the bottle of alcohol she brings up to Bogie's room) for her keep. It's money so she can pick and choose which guys she wants to say "yes" to.

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yeah i was thinking it was something like that, thanks!!

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[deleted]

Yeah, I got the impression that she was a working girl too - and thus the reason why Morgan wanted to "save" her by getting her off the island and home. How else could she have the hardened attitude she has.

Also, when Morgan talks about the getting slapped part, he's figured her out - and that means she knows that he knows. (Although how it couldn't have been obvious to him before, I don't know.)




I asked the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

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While its easy to see that Bacall's character lived a hard and sometimes compromised life,there is nothing in the story that shows she was a prostitute...casual or otherwise.What it did show was that she was a flirt and a thief.

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Disagree. Her saying 'no' if she wants to implies that she says 'yes' on occasion for money. It shows that she is a pragmatic survivor.

The thorn defends the rose, yet it is peaceful and does not seek conflict.

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Disagree. It means, like a previous poster said, that she can pick and choose who she wants to spend time with, and, IMHO the $30 is her little piece of independence from men in general. Her little anchor in the sea of insanity, if you will. I've known girls to pack enough $ for a phone call and/or cab fare so they don't get stranded by a date or can scoot if the date goes all octo on her.
There was nothing in the movie that said she was a prostitute in any way shape or form. Just a street tough girl who happens to be a world class flirt and a so-so pick pocket. (I mean, Morgan caught her didn't he? LOL)
(My #2 Bogey film and #4 on my top 10)

D. v~~v

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IMHO, your view of Slim's world in that time and place has just a few too many rainbows and unicorns. And to reiterate, I do not think she was a "working girl", I think she was pragmatic and if she found herself in a tight spot she would do what she had to do to survive.


The thorn defends the rose, yet it is peaceful and does not seek conflict.

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I think she ran away from home. I don't think she was street tough She was just a teenager and I think she had been physically abused by her parents and that's why she ran away and that's what Morgan sensed when she reacted to the slap.

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x2 what they said

A little bit more about the $30: In those days, there was a pretty wide margin for where a bad girl could be, between being an out and out prostitute, and being a "bad" girl who went around with men who would give them "money to tip the bathroom attendant" (even when the places gone to would, of course, have no bathroom attendant, and even if they did, a bit of change would have been an actual tip). A man out with a gal like that would give her, say a $1, or $5, or a $20 if he was really trying to impress her, which was more like $100 today, so those girls would go out with men, to bars, and have drinks, and face all kinds of risks, to get enough money to live on, week to week. To live like that a girl would have to be pretty quick, and tough, to avoid the inherent dangers, and would most likely have come from an abusive home (sexually, physically, or both). The cleverest ones could avoid needing to become out and out prostitutes.

In those days, a girl who "worked" like that was pretty much seen as just as bad as if she were a prostitute, even though the girl might not actually have sex with the men, at least, not as often as a prude would think they would.

$30 would buy her a whole lot of meals during a dry spell, if she were stuck and not able to find men who were safe enough to pursue for "tips".





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Inflation Calculator
$30 in 1944 to 2015
Calculate

Value: $404.84


So, quite a bit of money.

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