up in Mrs Ramirez room, she sells her store to a man who tells her how much he is beholden to her. Then he says, "you know, my wife...". He is interrupted by a dirty look from Ramirez and he changes the subject. What was he going to say, and what was going on in the past that seems to lead to her dirty look.
"We're going to need a bigger boat..."
I took it to mean there was bad blood between Ms. Ramirez (who looks like Tori Spelling) and the wife, like the wife was prejudiced against Hispanics or something like that.
shareYeah, when they started talking he says something to the effect of "you've been right fair with me from the beginning" and the whole thing with his wife was probably going to go into preconcieved notions of why she wouldn't be fair to him. That, and he was talking too much.
shareagreed
shareI've been wondering about this too, but I always figured he was going to say something like "my wife thought you wanted me to help you open a brothel," and her face goes rigid because she feels offended that his wife would think something like that, as if any "Mexican woman" would automatically be a madam or a whore.
My impression is that women in mid-19th century America—particularly Hispanic women—were viewed with some suspicion when they were men's "business partners" while running a saloon. The fact that Mrs. Ramirez was known to have had relationships with at least three men (none of whom are Mr. Ramirez) probably also indicates that she is feared as a home-wrecker by white women of the community who mostly stayed home and raised families. Mrs. Ramirez probably endured a lot of prejudice from all directions. I thought the actress played her part beautifully.
shareHah! After all these years, that's the first time I ever thought about Mr. Ramirez! BTW, she and Sam seemed to have a very relaxed relationship; kinda like after you've been lovers, you can be tight friends.
shareBasically, it was the "I'm talking too much and need to shut up" mentality, but first and foremost it was the overall prejudice that most of the townspeople, particularly the women, had against her. To them, she seemed free and "loose", plus there's the added stigma of being an "exotic" Mexican woman. So all in all, the mention of his wife, especially since he seemed to indicate her negative sentiments, suddenly reminded him that he should shut up rather than casually dealing with his "silent" business partner.
shareMr. Weaver was a "silent partner" with Mrs Ramirez. Once he mentioned his wife also knew of this arrangement, her trust was betrayed. That's what made her upset.
shareThat went right over my head the first time I saw this, but I looked at the scene again and don't know how I missed it. I'm just guessing that it isn't implied that they actually had a relationship at one time. He didn't seem like her type...
shareHe was about to say "My wife thought we were having an affair and she thought making me a silent partner was just a cover-up excuse for that" and she just gave him that stare as if to say "Don't even think about saying that, thinking that or going there." She just shut him down with her eyes.
shareOf course. He's alluding to the fact he had slept with her. Why do you think he came up the back stairs? He didn't want anymore to know he'd been her John.
shareShe went from Will Kane and Harvey Pell (and even the bad boy Frank Miller) to that fat old guy? Not her style or taste. Not buying it.
shareI don't, either. I think your assessment was correct about what he was about to say. But I think his wife was just suspicious because Ramirez had a "reputation" (deserved or from prejudice...maybe a smidge of both). I don't think he actually had an affair with her.
share"you know, my wife....."
He was about to say
".....my wife and I have been talking about, I'm not sure how you pronounce it or anything, but I believe it's...ménage a trois"
"Enough of that technical talk, Foo!"
Not the most believable explanation on this thread but definitely a humorous one. And it's an explanation which would have caused Helen to give that same dirty look to Sam.