MovieChat Forums > The Fastest Gun Alive (1956) Discussion > nagging woman

nagging woman

posted 19 years ago by parisel
16 replies | jump to latest

This film is on now and i am a big Glenn Ford fan, but that horrible nagging woman is making it unwatchable....From the first second she gloms onto him with her nagging... Tell me what's wrong George. I can see something is wrong George. I've seen that look before George. It's a miracle he doesn't blow his own brains out.

This is an otherwise good movie, with an age old theme.

The part of this mealy mouthed nagging woman is unnecessary... She doesn't drive the film forward or provide any information we couldn't have gotten another way.

Whew! Had to vent.

[–] yvan-adam1 18 years ago

You are right!

[–] yvan-adam1 18 years ago

but Vinnie harold is excellent and his two companions too!
Very good side characters, weel typed.

[–] leepenny2001 18 years ago

She might have been a nagging woman, but we didnt get to see what all she witnessed in previous years with George. It must of been something terrible going through what she had to, being married to an alcoholic fast gun, lol. Have you seen anyone faster? I havent and that includes clint eastwood, whom I would say is the second fastest.

[–] parisel 18 years ago

It doesn't matter what she went through. It's not her story. The character's only reason to exist is to give insight into him, to show how he had left the old life behind and was seeking to live a quiet life within the law... She should have been a "seen but not heard" character, just giving him support.

Instead she's a distraction, an annoyance that takes away from the story. If the role had gone to a lesser star, or an unknown, I'm sure that's how it would have been written.

[–] leepenny2001 18 years ago

In a way, you're right. But the thing is, he didnt leave the old life behind. He kept the gun remember? He also lied to his wife and told her he had thrown it away. She had every right to show her concern. Granted, she did carry her nagging to the extreme. But a "seen but not heard" character, I don't think so.

[–] parisel 18 years ago

Probably i'm a little hard on her, because i just didn;t like the character. She got on my last nerve. *L* I wouldn't have told her about the gun either.

George is a flawed man, no doubt about it. He was trying to put it behind him, but the gun was his validation of himself. I read in a book about western stars that Glenn Ford really was a fast draw, didn't fake it. I absolutely love him and that slow easy smile, not that you saw much of it in this picture.

I really like movies about flawed characters who try, whatever the genre. Really glad to have discovered this one. Any others you can think of that are not well known?

[–] leepenny2001 18 years ago

Try watching a movie called "High Noon" with Gary Cooper. Its not a bad movie and he plays a sort of timid sheriff. I wouldnt really say there is any fast gun action in this movie, but it is worth watching. Most of the fast gun action i've seen,are in most of Clint Eastwood movies.

[–] parisel 18 years ago

Yes i saw High Noon fairly recently and it was very good too..Thanks for replying

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mosash 18 years ago

So , let's call it nagging movie .

[–] The_Dying_Flutchman 18 years ago

But what happened to the singing sardines?

Nothing exists more beautifully than nothing.

[–] Bruce7 8 years ago

I had more a problem with her anxiety-filled husband. I don't think Crain was given much to work with. And I didn't mind stealing a glance or two at her
hour-glass figure as well. )

Can you fly this plane?
Surely u cant be serious
I am serious,and dont call me Shirley

[–] Axeyard 16 years ago

The Nagging Woman is a standard Hollywood cliche. Writers believe that it is good to work in as many different emotions as possible. The Nagging Woman appears most often in the hero detective genre:

Hero, back from another day of preventing heinous crimes, is greeted by his hissing wife: "You knew it was Suzie's birthday today, George, but you're just never home." Variations on this: "It's our anniversary . . . you promised to take me to dinner . . . it's Suzie's school play . . . it's Suzie's baseball game . . . " And so on.

It's important to understand that these horrific scenes do appeal to the mothers and wives, et al, and the briefest hissy fit may be enough of an excuse for females to feel included in the story line. Obnoxious they may be, but there are few ways to get women into Westerns, either on screen or in the seats.

Oddly enough, we never see documentaries on subjects such as the Nagging Woman.

[–] edestci 10 years ago

Jeanne Crain also annoys Kirk Douglas, in "Man Without a Star".

[–] karnevilelp 9 years ago

Sure, there are a lot of movies where the female characters exist just so that the audience doesn't think that the two best buds who would die for each other aren't gay lovers. However, I felt the wife was fully justified in this movie. George lied, he's lied in the past, he's been the cause of them having to move frequently and most of all, she's freaked out that their baby is going to be born without a father around.

[–] Bruce7 8 years ago

On the wife part of your comment. He made a commitment, he(character) needs to man up.

Can you fly this plane?
Surely u cant be serious
I am serious,and dont call me Shirley