MovieChat Forums > Deception (1946) Discussion > Sympathy for Hollenius!

Sympathy for Hollenius!

posted 15 years ago by sodaevent
4 replies | jump to latest

Forget about the acting for a minute, I'm talking about the plot here (and of course this contains SPOILERS).

OK, let's think about what happens in this movie: Christine Radcliffe and Alexander Hollenius are lovers. Without any advance notice, while he's away, she decides to immediately marry her old boy friend, Karel Novak, and announces this to Hollenius on the phone. Novak's nerves are shot; in fact he is such a mental case that he comes close to strangling her the first time he visits her apartment (she still wants to marry him though).

Hollenius is an eccentric, egotistical, temperamental music genius. He's a bit disturbed that Christine, whom he has spent a fortune on in money, time and love, is suddenly leaving him (can you blame him?). But he still gives Karel the chance of a lifetime for his music career. He does this even after Karel demonstrates that he is on very thin mental ice -- able to be totally shaken by a dinner that takes too long before he plays the cello, or by some minor disturbances in a practice session.

Christine is paranoid that Hollenius will reveal the true nature of their relationship and/or do something terrible to Novak. So she murders him in cold blood (totally unnecessarily, it turns out), depriving the world of the greatest living composer. Christine and Karel waltz off at the end with the hope that a good lawyer will get her off easy, as if she deserves this because Hollenius was such a monster.

What's wrong with this picture? Who are supposed to be the good guys here? What kind of morals was this promoting back in 1946? If I wrote the ending, Christine would spend the rest of her life in prison at hard labor with no possibility of parole for this senseless, heartless murder.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mmitsos-1 11 years ago

A lot has been said about all three of the characters in this film...Karol's (Henreid's) mental state (well, he was suffering from at least a minor case of PTSD), Bette Davis' actions, and a few other things. No matter all this. Focusing exclusively on the tender love Karol and Christine have for each other, I think both Davis and Henreid play two people in love beautifully. Their tender moments are so natural and seemingly real. I just love watching them. They were great together in "Now Voyager" as well, of course. I wish they made five more films together.

[–] mmitsos-1 11 years ago

****SPOILERS*****

The biggest problems with the characters in this film are 1) Christine's unceasing paranoia that Hollenius is going to tell Karel about their past, and 2) Karel's persistent commentaries to Cristine about deception, the inability to keep a lie, etc. He tells her that "until she learns to tell the truth, she'll never believe anyone". Those were words of wisdom that she failed to heed. She refused to tell the truth on her own to Karel, which consequently keeps her perpetually paranoid about the possibility of Hollenius spilling the beans to Karel.

It's a great film noir...one of the best I've seen in ages, and this film has easily entered my top ten (probably five) for sheer entertainment.

[–] mdonln 7 years ago

mmitsos-1 says > It's a great film noir...one of the best I've seen in ages, and this film has easily entered my top ten (probably five) for sheer entertainment.

I would never put this film in the category of a film noir. I don't think it's sufficiently dark in mood and though she kills Hollenius I don't really think it fits the femme fatale bringing doom to the guy requirement.

Christine was her own worse enemy. She couldn't be honest with Karel while she revealed way too much to Hollenius. Had Karel stumbled into her, that would have been one thing but she figured out where to find him so she should have been better prepared to handle him coming back into her life. She should have thought about what she'd tell him and let Hollenius know that she had found her long lost love.

I agree with the OP that Hollenius deserved some sympathy. He seemed to have invested a lot into the 'relationship' with Christine. Other people even knew about them being together so for her to not even consider his feelings was wrong.

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